Playstation 3 Delayed!!! (News)

GamePro staff, GamePro Australia

07/09/2006 15:50:54

The official Sony Playstation 3 UK website has announced today that the Playstation 3 won't be released here in Australia until as late as March 2007.

All PAL regions are affected, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa. However, the system will launch as planned in November in North America and Japan.

Sony claims the reason is a delay in the production of blue laser diodes, part of the PS3's Blu-ray disk drive.

The announcement reiterates Sony Computer's American president, Kaz Hirai's slip last month that the manufacturing of the Playstation 3 hasn't started yet.

Hirai commented, "We haven't started manufacturing yet. Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the production lines and everything else"

By the time the Playstation 3 launches, the Xbox 360 will already have between 4.5 and 5.5 million sales under its belt, creating a worrying advantage for the Microsoft console.

There is no official release date for Pal regions.