Sony Press Conference
Sony's hastily arranged business briefing and press conference was today. Here are excerpts from a summary article over at gamesindustry.biz(http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=15355):
The PlayStation 3 is set to launch in North America, Asia and Europe in early November this year, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has announced, with the firm committed to shipping six million units by the end of March 2007.
...From launch onwards, Sony plans to ship a million units a month of the PlayStation 3 - with six million units to be on the market by the end of its financial year in March 2007, indicating that the company plans to have up to two million units ready for day one.
Here's more from GameDaily.biz
(http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=12124):
Kutaragi cited copy protection issues with the new Blu-ray format as a major reason for the delay, but he also insisted that Sony could have launched the PS3 sooner. "We were [internally] discussing selling it in September, and some even said put it out in July," he said. Speaking of copy protection issues, every PS3 game will be made on Blu-ray in an effort to combat piracy.
[Um, I call "bullshit," but please continue.]
...Sony also made it clear the PS3 will require a 60GB hard drive (pre-installed with Linux OS); it won't be optional as previously thought, but it's not clear if it's included for free either.
...Last, but certainly not least, is the issue of price. Sony confirmed that it would not sell the PS3 for less than 50,000 yen (about $425).
Again, this is interesting not for what it explicitly tells us, but for what it reveals about Sony's corporate mentality, which is tremendously arrogant.
First off, given that final dev kits (according to Kutaragi's speech) will be in developer's hands "by June" (that means May 31, I bet), who exactly thought they could ship the console in July? Well, no one, and that's what drives me crazy about Sony. They lie so flagrantly and transparently that I wonder if there's some kind of cultural gap at work here.
Here's the other thing about the simultaneous worldwide launch: no. Forget it. These guys are in total disarray right now--does anyone seriously think that hardware and games for all regions will be available in November? If they manage a half-ass launch in Japan in November with a few games, count that as a win, because I think that's the high end of their possibilities right now. And if they do manage to launch worldwide on the same day, we'll all be wishing for the "good old days" of the 360 launch inventory shortages, because that will be nothing compared to the PS3.
Finally, on price. I'm starting to believe that in the U.S. we're probably looking at a $499 launch price. Arguing in favor of the simultaneous launch would be a higher price point, because Sony could still sell out and argue that demand has gone wild and consumers "will pay a higher price for higher quality" or some marketing b.s. like that. But a $499 launch price in this country will wind up kicking Sony in the face.
Remember what I said about the difference between the cutting edge and the bleeding edge? Sony's still bleeding. They've got eight months, though, and lots of good things can happen in eight months.
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