PS3 Assembly Starts End of September, Most High-End

GameDailyBiz is reporting that Sony has announced further details on the PS3 assembly process. Final assembly will apparently begin at the end of this month, with some 400K units planned for the November 17th launch. They're promising another 800,000 units by the end of the year. From that article: "Although Sony will have shipped only 2.4 million units worldwide in 2006 (as opposed to their initial forecast of 4 million), the company still believes it will hit its goal of 6 million shipped through next March. Sony said that monthly PS3 production will be ramped up to 1.2 million units in January when the Blu-ray laser supplies are expected to improve." Gamespot has further analysis, stating that the split will be about 80/20, favoring the higher-end model over the lower-end model. That is, most of the units at launch should be the $600 model with the HDMI port.

Comments

Re:So...

[beckerist]

Actually, the dev kits currently out don't even have full hardware support. There's minimal networking support, the controllers are nowhere near final (no tilt, no final design...) It's been rumored that the GPU on the most recent dev kits are at only 80% the speed the final PS3 (which has been dropped again)...
I want to see EVERY console do well, for the greater good (in innovation, consumer costs, FUN!) that competition brings, so the fact that SONY is bunging this up as badly as they are is only depressing.......I mean come on, who wouldn't want to play Madden with 6 of your buds by your side?!?!?

Re:Wait a minute

[Aerokii]

well, lets pause a moment and consider things. They plan on starting assembly near the end of september. For all intensive purposes, we'll say September 25th. Now, from then to the release date, assuming they will need one day to ship, they hope to have 400,000 units produced and shipped. That takes a total of 53 days to produce all those units. Now, after that, they hope to make another 800,00 units. This is, once more, assuming they continue, without stop, while the other launch continues. Starting once more on the 16th of November, and ending by the end of the year. Starting from November, they've got... 15 days left including the sixteenth, plus December, which gives them 31 days. 31+15 = 46 days, as basic math would tell us. What I want to know is, how do they plan to double the units in less time, and if they would speed it up, why DON'T they just speed up now, so launch demands can be met. Once more assuming that people are actually able to buy them.

It'll sell.

[Endo13]

I distinctly remember a system that launched with about three games available, at a suggested retail price of $300 (or was it $400? something like that...). Supply was so scarce they sold on ebay for anywhere from $500-$2000. It's amazing what a launch right before christmas will do for you.