Will the PS3 come out on time?

[dawgfan]

Not according to this reporter who was at CES and talked to some people in the know...

http://theinquirer.net/?article=28879

[albionmoonlight]

Since it is after the Christmas buying season, is there any reason that the delay may hurt them in any real way?

I don't really know much about product market cycles--other than the obvious "get on the shelves for the Christmas shopping season."

[dervack]

I never, ever believed it would launch in March like the speculated. October is my guess here in NA, June in Japan.

[dawgfan]

Since it is after the Christmas buying season, is there any reason that the delay may hurt them in any real way?

I don't really know much about product market cycles--other than the obvious "get on the shelves for the Christmas shopping season."
The longer the Xbox360 is the lone "next-gen" system on the market, the more opportunity MS has to build market share and gain on Sony's dominance of the video game business.

You can also bet that MS is timing the release of Halo3 for the 360 to coincide with the launch of the PS3.

[ChiMatt]

I have no idea about when the PS3 will be out but I have read that Sony doesn't put too much stock in product cycles or holiday seasons for a big launch like this. Their rationale is that their product should last for about 10 years worth of sales and they would much rather have the right product out for that amount of time than something rushed for one holiday.

[stevew]

So basically, what to read into this, is to reserve about 4-5 of these bad boys at different places, and gouge on Ebay? I bet there is all manner of shortage for next christmas.

[dawgfan]

So basically, what to read into this, is to reserve about 4-5 of these bad boys at different places, and gouge on Ebay? I bet there is all manner of shortage for next christmas.
I think that's been established with the last few consoles. If you can manage it, get multiple pre-orders setup and then once you get them, sell any extras on eBay to finance the one you keep.

[Airhog]

I have no idea about when the PS3 will be out but I have read that Sony doesn't put too much stock in product cycles or holiday seasons for a big launch like this. Their rationale is that their product should last for about 10 years worth of sales and they would much rather have the right product out for that amount of time than something rushed for one holiday.


While that is true, the product will not be improved much until the factories start building them is mass quantities. Now I mean this from a production standpoint. Obviously, the engineers can improve the design. But, the real improvement won't be seen until they build 200-300k of them, and get the kinks worked out of the manufacturing process. I would imagine that if sony does plan to release the console in 3 months, the design is completed, and the factories are probably doing their trial runs right now. I imagine that you would need a lead time of about 2-3 months to complete enough units for the launch.

[Kodos]

The longer the Xbox360 is the lone "next-gen" system on the market, the more opportunity MS has to build market share and gain on Sony's dominance of the video game business.

You can also bet that MS is timing the release of Halo3 for the 360 to coincide with the launch of the PS3.

I actually read an interview today (in EGM, page 26) with Bill Gates where he said they would not try to rush out Halo 3 to coincide with the launch of PS3. He said the developer gets to set their own timetable for the game, and that his previous comment about it coming out on PS3's launch day was "just overebullient".

[dawgfan]

Maybe Bungie has run into some delays, but I can almost guarantee you that MS is sure hoping that Halo 3 will be ready around the time of the PS3 launch - it would be a great way to offset some of the hype for Sony.

[SackAttack]

Maybe Bungie has run into some delays, but I can almost guarantee you that MS is sure hoping that Halo 3 will be ready around the time of the PS3 launch - it would be a great way to offset some of the hype for Sony.

About the only way that happens is if the Xbox 360 struggles enough this year that Sony thinks they can safely delay the PS3 until 2007. They'd certainly like to, because the PS2 is an incredibly profitable platform for them right now.

But yeah, unless the Xbox 360 struggles to get its feet under it this year, we'll see PS3 well before we do Halo 3.

[ISiddiqui]

I wonder what the cost of this thing will be. If they are still sticking to the "We'll have Blu-Ray DVD in the machine", it's going to be uber-expensive! Blu-Ray isn't cheap... not by a long shot.

[Kodos]

Sony will eat a lot of costs on it initially. They want the life-cycle of PS3 to be longer than PS1, PS2. They're aiming for 10 years.