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Sony Denies PS3 Delay
Eurogamer reports that Sony is flatly denying the delay of the PlayStation 3. From the article: "Sakaguchi was responding to allegations made by Merrill Lynch analyst Joe Osha in a report published late last week, in which Osha claimed that the PS3 could launch in autumn in Japan, with a US launch possibly being delayed to early 2007. 'There is no change in our original plan to release the console in spring 2006," Sakaguchi told the press in Tokyo, referring to the company's only stated goal for the launch so far - namely that the console will appear in at least one territory, most likely Japan, this spring.' They have lots of opportunities at GDC and E3 to change the public perception that their next console is still very much a work in progress.
They've been running around yelling "Spring" for months now. Why not expect them to say it again?
If it means having a better system with fewer bugs and more launch titles, I can't see how a delay would be bad from an end-user perspective. I realize that any delay will harm them as a corporation, and possibly drive up the system price, but these are relatively minor concerns. Then again, most manufacturers already sell the system itself at a loss.
The only thing Sony really needs to worry about time-wise is beating the Revolution out of the gates. Given that details on the Nintendo system are still sketchy at best, this probably isn't a concern either.
That report seemed kind of hard to believe. I mean, if they delayed it till 2007 and then priced it ridiculously high, that would give M$ a significant opportunity to cut into their marketshare. I didn't figure Sony to be that stupid.
Sakaguchi told the press in Tokyo, referring to the company's only stated goal for the launch so far - namely that the console will appear in at least one territory, most likely Japan, this spring.'
So in other words... Japan is lucky enough to get to pay to be in Sony's beta test and the US is, indeed, not going to get the thing until 2007?
Rob
A Spring launch of the PS3, even if it's in a completely different market, would be good news for those of us considering the X-Box 360, but have been waiting to see how Sony's new console stacks up against it.
I'm especially interested in what the next console iteration of GTA looks like. Here's hoping Rockstar does away with pedalling little bikes through the "hood", and "playing" weight training simulators, and gets back to making games that are actually... you know... fun.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Wow, only like 4 days to respond... They must have Dick Cheney's public relations team or something...
BluRay, Cell, ... it's going to add up.
Ideally the best time to launch a next generation console is when the media format is established. DVD was established when the PS2 came out and popularised it.
I feel the PS3 is trying to establish the format itself, but that means the format is brand new at console launch, expensive, with first generation issues, speed, etc.
Cell too is very ambitious. In the long term I think it will be a good decision though.
In the end the PS3 will be marginally better than the XBox360, and is that worth being a year later? In addition, the PS3 looks fugly in its mockups, whereas the 360 appears to be quite nice.
ObRevolution: And let's not forget about Nintendo's new console either, that could beat them both on price and gameplay features.
I would like to see Sony launch the console in the spring, but with Blue-Ray not being finalized. It will be the big hold up. It is going to be tough, but might just do it.
One thing nobody is asking Sony is where they will ship in Spring. Might be Japan only. Even so, with the tepid response to the 360 in North America (made worse by the shortages), and the complete rejection of the 360 in Japan, Sony stands to make a killing... if they can do this right.
Are there not some developers who can say how (in)complete the development systems are? If people don't have dev kits, there won't be games, so who cares when the console launches.
The PS3, while potentially more powerful than the 360, seems almost certain to require substantially more effort to extract that power -- making a good dev environment even more critical.
Sound about right, launch in mid June in Japan and then be ready to launch in November in the U.S. Launching a console in the first quarter of a calendar year in the U.S. just sounds like suicide to me.
In this article, a "spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment" says that the launch could be pushed back if industry specifications on some of the PS3 were not decided soon...
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Screw the delay, what about the price? Are they denying the damn thing is going to cost 900 bucks? If they are not they might as well delay the thing to judgement day. I don't know anyone that is going to reach up their ass and pull out 900 bucks for a video game.
For that kind of scratch I could buy a xbox360, a few games, and still have enough left over for a night with a couple of high priced call girls.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
This is just like how they denied claims their rootkit was harmful. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27416
"if it means more launch titles"
If the hardware was finished, why the hell would you wait for launch titles? Isn't it better to have the system now with the games available and buy them as they are released? This way you have more time to play the best games.
I've never understood why someone would want to wait 6 more months to have 6 more games to play, when they could have been playing the first 10 already.
Why do people actually listen to market analysts?
For the most part, the ones that actually get any mention in the media are the ones that make the most outrageous and (typically) false claims. At this point in time the PS3 may be delayed but it would likely be a short delay of a couple of months (possibly a november launch rather than a september launch) and may cost more than people would expect ($450 rather than $350-$400) but there is no way that it is going to be delayed into 2007 and cost $900.
The truth is that most analysts have worse connections to people "in the know" than many slashdotters and have less understanding of the market than most slashdotters, so why do we even read articles that mention them; I'm certain that many people are in the same boat as me, and know people who work for large developers like EA and UBI soft, and have heard small bits of information which discredit all of these analysts estimates.
It is depressing that companies have to produce press conferences in order to deal with these wild claims.
Is Sony's definition of Spring 2006 different than mine?
It's late February NOW. "Spring" probably means sometime between now and the end of June.
That's 19 weeks. So, sometime in the next 19 weeks, we would expect to see:
1. A complete list of launch titles.
2. Most, if not all launch titles not just in final version but manufactured and shipped.
3. Retailers to have full, detailed pricing information. Best Buy needs WEEKS of advance notice to print those Sunday Newspaper flyers.
4. Retailers to have PS3 sales spaces and media ready to go.
5. Complete PS3 specs and instruction manuals beyond some flack saying "uh, blue ray".
6. Teaser advertising beyond some Sony flack saying "any day now".
7. A full marketing and advertising press, including print, television, and web advertising. This needs to happen MONTHS before launch so that people will know this important product is coming soon.
8. Accessories not just announced but manufactured and shipped to retailers.
9. Preorders offered at major game retailers.
Any of this happening yet? Anyone think you'll be buying one of these in 8 weeks? 8 weeks from now is late April. Most people won't get the XBox 360s they ordered in DECEMBER until then.
Sony will keep leading on consumers with the PS3 like a carrot dangled in front of an ass. The only reason they keep insisting that the PS3 will be released in Spring is to prevent people from buying a 360.
The pulled the same shenanigans with the PS2, effectively killing the Dreamcast. They are trying it again.
Don't be a tool. Don't listen to Sony.
"Any of this happening yet?"
Of course not. Sony has said 2 things recently in press released:
1) They will launch in Japan first and
2) They will not sell the console "at a loss."
This will push back a US release date till at LEAST late 3rd quarter, and push the release price most likely at about double the price of a $300 Xbox360.
Sony *needs* to pony up and strip out the Blu-Ray drive. They are trying to push their own media technology and its costing the average gamer hundreds of dollars. A 10gig dual layer DVD is enough for any game in this generation since Sony is not doing 1080p.
We have almost always had video game boxes months or even a year after they get them in Japan. The story is the same with the games, of which we only seem to get 1/10th or less. Maybe Microsoft is forcing Japanese companies to reevaluate their release policies. It might be nice if Japan started putting the USA (their best customers!) a bit higher on the pegboard. This is the one good thing Microsoft has ever done, even if they didn't mean to.
Everything they've said indicates that Spring is only for Japan. The US could see a summer or autumn launch. However, if there continues to be BluRay delays, that could delay the PS3 launch as well.
The fact that we're all still speculating over the price point of the console should immediately be three strikes against the possibility of a spring release anywhere. I haven't even seen a price in Yen anywhere to even extrapolate a U.S. price from.
No media buzz, no word of production, no finalized list of system specs... no console anytime soon.
On topic, you fuckwit.
Playstation 3 will change the very definition of "spring". The rebirth of each year's springtime will become a shallow metaphore for the huge sweeping cultural and artistic changes which PS3 will bring to humanity as a whole.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
From the summary:
Sony is flatly denying the delay
Then, quoting the article:
the company's only stated goal for the launch so far - namely that the console will appear in at least one territory, most likely Japan, this spring
Hmm... the PDF I read from Merrill Lynch's Joe Osha does NOT say Sony won't launch the PS3 in 2006. In fact it doesn't say when they will launch anything anywhere. He only speculates (and he is quite clear of this by using terms like "if" and "might" throughout the document) about how a possible delay might affect the industry, and how such a delay could both help and hinder Sony. Furthermore, his comments about a possible delay refer specifically to North America and Europe, which actually falls neatly in line with Sony's half-assed denial of a delay.
Funny how they can "flatly deny" his "allegations", and at the same time say nothing at all that clearly contradicts his speculative statements.
Hmmm...
Must... think up... something... clever!
Of course they're denying the delay. Sony, if you'll remember, lies. They'll do anything to blunt momentum of the 360. If they keep people thinking that the PS3 is just around the corner, they'll hold out just a little longer. And as long as they don't release specs, people can fantasize.
They are NOT shipping in Spring. No way. Not happening. Blu-Ray isn't even finished yet. There's no specs, no launch titles, nothing but empty shells and promises. They need time to work out their manufacturing process and build up stock for the retailers, and you can't exactly go into full-scale production when you don't even have finalized hardware.
They could take a page from the NVidia and ATI playbooks and paper-launch it, I suppose, but that would be the worst of all possible outcomes.... people will finally be able to make an intelligent choice whether the 360 or the PS3 is better, and by then, the 360 is likely to actually be available.
If Microsoft can execute and get some really good, next-gen games out, they could build up some momentum. The games that are out now are, to my perception, competent but not very exciting. They have good graphics, but there's not much new, gameplay-wise. Kameo has some good moments, but it's too short, and Perfect Dark feels very unpolished and unfinished. Project Gotham Racing is probably the best game so far, and it's just not that much different from the old games... the graphics are great, sure, but that's about all there is to it. (I've heard CoD2 is very good on the 360, but I already have it on the PC and it seemed dumb to buy it again.)
The Fight Night demo looks promising, I love how there's no on-screen gauges, just two fighters in a ring. And Oblivion may be truly next-gen content... we'll have to see.
So far, the best game I've played on the 360 is the $5 Geometry Wars. A $400 console to play a $5 game... and it's the best game on the system. Nintendo may be on to something.....
Oh, and to the AC who called me a 'good liddle fanboy' for saying that Sony wouldn't ship in Spring the last time we had this conversation.... here's a big middle finger just for you.
So, which fanboys / experts / developers want to tackle the following discouraging issues that I have with the Sony Playstation 3? (And, no, I'm not a plant for Microsoft -- just trying to make sense of the whole Next Gen console thing.)
Drive Speed
A Blu-ray 1x drive transfer rate is 4.5 megabytes per second. A DVD 12x drive transfer rate is about 12 - 16 megabytes per second. Sony will have to release at least a 3x drive to compete with DVD 12x speeds. Will they? Or will they release a 2x drive and have a drive that is significantly slower than the XBOX 360? (The Blu-ray specification has indicated that a 1x blu-ray drive is too slow for HD video, so I'm assuming that this isn't an option...)
HDTV 1080p
A screen at 720p has (720 x 1280 =) 921, 600 pixels.
A screen at 1080p has (1080 x 1920 =) 2,073,600 pixels.
That is, 1080p requires 2.25x the general bandwidth of 720p. Does the Playstation 3 really have 2.25 the general bandwidth of an XBOX 360? Is anyone going to develop games for 1080p at the cost of 2.25 x "other things"?
Anti-Aliasing
XBOX 360 gets AA practically for free thanks to 10 MB embedded DRAM. Apparently, the Playstation 3 must do this in software with a performance hit. Does it matter?
Unified Memory
The Playstation 3 has 256 MB system RAM and 256 MB video RAM. The XBOX 360 has 512 MB unified memory. This means that a developer could use 128 MB system RAM and 384 MB of video RAM, which is 50% more video RAM than a Playstation 3 for holding textures, etc. Isn't that fairly substantial? Won't that allow for the possibility of better looking / higher detail games on the XBOX 360 if the system RAM isn't needed?
Yay for you.
You understand that the companies function independently of each other, yet you refuse to purchase a product remotely associated with a situation they had no control over.
Your buck, your right - but it doesn't make you look like an intelligent consumer who votes with their dollar. It makes you look like a pathetic loser whose only sense of commercial activism is too jump on a bandwagon with a broken wheel.
I hope you enjoy working for someone else, cause its obvious you can't think for yourself deeply enough to lead.
YAY!
...you know, for kids..
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
I guess you've never worked for a company where management made bad decisions. Get over it man. Sony BMG is a record label with its own CEO and management team. It would 'hurt' the people involved more if you had a more targeted boycott, after all, the good people at all the other parts of Sony were probably more pissed then you were.
I'd be very surprised if Sony didn't have the PS3 out in the US in time for Christmas, even if it means rushing the product. Giving Microsoft a year head start is one thing. Giving them *two* Christmas seasons, the second presumably with their supply problem fixed, is too dangerous.
Sony Spokesman: There is no truth to the rumors that the PS3 didn't ship in the spring when we said it would. Look behind me here!
Camera moves to stacks and stacks of boxes. Plain cardboard boxes, and someone has scrawled "Playstation 3" on each one with a magic marker.
Sony Spokesperson: See? There's lots of PS3's, so many we have to keep some of them here in the pressroom. If your local store doesn't have any, that's because they sold out already. And just because none of your friends have one doesn't mean anything, it's a big world. Do you know everyone in New York? No, I didn't think so. Just keep going to the store and looking, you will be lucky some day.
I would have thought AACS support was something they could patch the final hardware to do, and thus not prevent them actually going into production. Finished machines could be stockpiled and patched before being boxed.
But even assuming this isn't the case, missing AACS still wouldn't stop them giving otherwise-complete hardware to developers (who require it ASAP for finishing their launch titles), or showing it at tradeshows etc. If your statement is true, everything else is complete, so why not show how awesomely great it all is?
Instead, we've heard no releases from Sony about completing any milestones whatsoever. Perhaps they're just keeping mum. We've heard nothing, no comments or leaks or anything, from any PS3 developer. Perhaps they're just showing unusual respect for their NDAs.
But most tellingly, we're seeing nothing new whatsoever in the tradeshows. At the Tapei Game Show that was just on, there were no new "live" demos, no playable games, just the same old pre-rendered trailers and empty cases under glass. They even had the same old boomerang controller concept - are they actually going to launch with that, after the reception it got? Wouldn't they want to show a newer concept at least, to gauge the reaction to it? Why aren't they saying anything, except "We will launch in spring. Somewhere" ??
What happened to the infamous Sony hype machine? Don't they realise that the greater the market's uncertainty about PS3, the more sales will go to the Xbox 360? Oh that's right, they don't care, "it's not a competitor".
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
That leaves Sony at most two months, May and June, to get the PS3 into production & still release it in "spring". Assuming there are no (further) unforseen delays. How many do they hope to have on shelves? Where are they going to release it, Mauritius?
I dunno, maybe Sony are trying to fool people into thinking they're going to be late so they can suprise us all, but how will that do anything except drive more people to Xbox 360 in the meantime? It's as silly as claiming MS deliberately restricted supply of the 360 - it'll only cost them sales.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Perhaps if SONY were an Australian company the claim that the PS3 would be available in Spring would be easier to swallow. However, by the traditional definition of Spring in the northern hemisphere, SONY has a little over three months to finalize the system specs, establish a price point, advertise and compile a list of launch titles. To SONY's credit, however, advertising is not as cut-throat in Japan as it is in the United States - Japanese consumers tend not to care about fancy / clever advertising and flashy packaging or window displays.
It will still be a miracle as far as I am concerned if the PS3 goes on sale before Summer. Hopefully SONY learned something with the US launch of the PSP, 3 months AFTER Christmas is not the ideal time to launch a new platform, particularly with such an abysmal collection of launch titles (Lumines excluded).
Interestingly, SONY didn't deny the claim that the PS3 would sell for or cost $900 to manufacture. The hardware will certainly cost more to manufacture than previous generation hardware, but I think the Merryl Lynch figure is nothing less than absurd.
"but how will that do anything except drive more people to Xbox 360 in the meantime?"
Can people really be this stupid?
Yes, console owners are going to rush out and waste 500+ dollars on a shitty console they don't want that is the laughing stock of the gaming world right now.
Or, gee, perhaps they will go right on playing the enormous backlog of PS2 and GameCube titles they have right now...
The only problem with this idea, and with many other of the comments here, is that the PS3 is 100% guaranteed to be successful in Japan. Game over, do not pass go, do not collect $200 M$. The Revolution has more interest in Japan than the Xbox360. This is largely because the Japanese consumers are quite nationalistic with their wallets compared to Americans.
When my brother went to Japan and stayed with a family there for two weeks he recounted a conversation in which the father wondered why it was that Americans bought so many foreign goods when there were American alternative goods available. He continued that even if the price was a little bit higher than alternatives that the Japanese would still rather buy a Japanese made good. You know, keep it in the family. Whereas Americans are much more cut-throat with our dollars and it can be made in Aberzjidan and we don't care. Which is fine actually, I prefer the American sensibility on this. But it also goes to show that the PS3 will in fact be incredibly successful in Japan, it is the default console. M$ cannot effectively compete in Japan.
So, the real question becomes: will the Xbox360 get a foothold or a large marketshare in America? If it does, we could end up splitting the game market. But, since the Japanese are heavily PS3, many great games will be made for it, so the PS3 cannot be a total failure here, either.
Either way, Nintendo defaults as 2nd place and I predict will be more profitable than either consoles this time around yet again. Go Nintendo!
I personally think its in Sony's best interest to launch the PS3 later. The 360 met with a very cold opening, and many enlightened gamers who have played thier share of the newer XBOX can agree that it really isn't next gen, to a PC gamer its nothing special at all. Launching down the line will seperate Sony and Nintendo as being a new generation of gaming consoles even if they arent actually. I already look at the XBOX1.5 as being just an upgrade of its predecessor. The real next generation begins with a REVOLUTION!!
"Say you love us like i know you will and that our deaths won't be in vain or in the name of gasoline"
Yep. I don't really know where people are getting this "work in progress" thing. The system is not out yet, it's not in production yet, so why does everyone expect there to be playable units running final game copy on them floating around every time there's a press conference or convention anywhere? You'll get playable units once production has started.
No, you don't need final hardware in order to see playable units. You may recall that many Xbox 360 games were being demoed on dev hardware (G4 boxes). Now, you could argue that maybe that wasn't the best idea, since the dev kits were considerably slower than the final hardware and that the games weren't looking their best at the time.
And yes, there ARE dev kits for the PS3, as several folks have already reported (for example, the Sony guy that got fired). But apparently the games don't look as solid as Sony would like, otherwise you'd be seeing a lot more demos. Currently, it looks like they're showing the same clips at the Taipei Game Show, from other conferences. That's not a good sign.
Arguably, what Sony does best is marketing. I would have to imagine that IF they had something to show or announce, they'd absolutely blast the world with it. The fact that there's been so much damage control isn't a good sign (and I imagine they're not happy at all with their stock price drops).
Frankly, I'm also surprised they backed up the Spring launch date. I don't see at all how they can do that at all (read TFA and many of the other posts here). I think most gamers expect a Summer or Fall launch, and that's fine by them (myself included). But by backing up a Spring launch and then missing it, that just makes them look bad. Better to just announce and shoot for the later launch window.
-- jchenx
The grass has riz. I wonder where the PS3s is?
Sony about to destroy of one the two still profitable arms of it's company with continued lies, false promises and overpricing.
Sure, Windows PCs dominate the market. But so do cheap toupees.
I GOT PWNED!!!!!11one
That would be a huge waste of time and resources; going back and patching hundreds of thousands of units after the fact. Remember that these things are turned out on an assemebly line. The most efficient way of running an assembly line (thus the most ecconomical) will always be to have the final product, in it's final packaging, at the other end. What you're suggesting would require storing thousands of units, having to reopen their packaging, and possibly their casing, patch the unit, and repackage it. This may not sound like much for one unit, but for the hundreds of thousands that will be churnned out, we're talking about a substantial operation. Why not just wait 2 weeks until the AACS patch can be applied to the chips before assembly, thus completely illiminating the need for a complex "re-patching"? The greatest amount of time in production is setting up the assembly system, but once that happens, actual production goes quite quickly. I'm sure they're busting their asses putting the assembly system together (if they haven't already finished). The moment the chips are finalized (AACS included), they can be shipped even faster than the final production line will churn units out, so production can virtually start the moment the first shipment arrives, and continue without stopping.
The second most successfull technology company this year (losing only to Google) was Apple, who have been making miricals, financially, for quite a few years now. iPod marketting has been even more successfull in Japan than in the states, which is really saying something. Their marketting strategy? Wait until the release date (go ahead, say what you will about the actual delivery date, but some do get released on the release date, I got my video iPod only about a week after its release, btw), then launch a huge ad campaign, creating a huge amount of buzz to jumpstart the sales of the new product. Seeing the fairly unsuccessfull overhyped launch of the 360 (compared to other new generation systems), they're going to wait it out.
From our perspective, it may look like a bad idea, and yes, they may lose a few fence sitters to the 360. But on launch day, and the surge of advertising, everyone will completely forget about the lack of hype before-hand, go out and buy it. What we think of the PS3 TODAY means very little if the actual launch is successfull. I'm going to guess they'll start up a huge add campaign within a week of it's release, so that people will at least know it exists on the launch day. These are just speculations, but it's probably a very smart thing to do. Being good at marketting (which, as you commented, Sony is) isn't simply about how much hype stir up, it's about when you do it, and how. Letting out a slow release of moderate press may just reach the same people for a long period of time, while putting all you're energy into one huge add campaign has the likelyhood of penetrating into more diverse audiences. After all, in a crowd, noone but the closest people are going to turn their heads if you slowly let air out of a balloon, but if you pop it...
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Sony sees this, and might be thinking that they're in no hurry here:
Where exactly is the pressure to launch quickly? The first 360 price cut will probably be for Xmas, but launch the PS3 in Japan in June, then US in October or so, and do it at $450 (better yet, $399), and they'll be fine, assuming the 360 goes to $350 snazzy, $250 core. If MS goes to $300/$200, it might get interesting, but historically, that's one DEEP cut on a year old console.
I'm just not seeing why the delay is such big news. I think it could easily work in Sony's favor.
ceci n'est pas un sig.
I've seen in various local news broadcasts the news that PS3 is to be delayed. The news have already travelled across the globe. Now the average consumer already knows PS3 is about to be delayed.
"There is no change in our original plan to release the console in spring 2006"
So you've just not updated your plan. That is not the same as saying it will ship in Spring. Looks like they've got 4 months to get the hardware design complete, design a case, manufacture enough to launch and ship.
Not going to happen - wonder where I can put money on that..
*does a doubletake*
:-O
Wait a minute guys! Did anyone else notice that Sony went out of its way to refute the release date rumor and not the initial price of the unit?
$800-$900 OMG, what the hell are they thinking?
So when Sony releases it, everyone will go "OMG Sony is teh awesome111". Once again, perfect marketing.
PS2 is Sony's cash cow, and Microsoft is trying to cut off Sony's source of cash. Do you guys understand that PS2 costs $70 to manufacture, and they are selling it for $150? That means they are making about $80 in profit per unit.
Which makes sense from MS's perspective to be doing, since Microsoft is known for their hardball tactics.
It also makes sense for Sony to drag their feet on next gen so as not to kill their golden goose before it's absolutely necessary.
Microsoft's miscalculation with Xbox 1 is still reverberating throughout the industry 4.5 years later. I wouldn't be surprised if publishers are pissed off at MS for killing Xmas '05 sales. On the other hand, this may be what it takes to weed out inefficienct publishers like Atari, Midway, etc.