According to SCEA head honcho Kaz Hirai, Sony will launch its PlayStation 3 with about 15 titles. While no titles were explicitly mentioned, Activision, EA, and Ubisoft all backed Hirai's estimation. However, big-time publishers Sega of America and THQ have openly disagreed with Hirai's assessment. Sega of America's Simon Jeffrey told Bloomberg that many developers have not received development kit hardware from Sony. THQ's Brian Farrell noted that their upcoming Sopranos title would not be shipped on the PS3 because the lack of hardware specifications makes the title's release "too risky."Regardless of who is right (we won't find out for sure until late October), the initial launch is not indicative of the console's longevity. In a feature from Xbox 360's launch, 1up observed that the PlayStation 2's launch "had more bark than bite ... mediocre PS1 games converted to the new hardware in mid-development, iffy arcade conversions, and lackluster RPGs." Yet, that console has sold over 100 million units since its launch in 2000.
For sake of comparison, the Xbox 360 launched with 18 titles and just over 12 XBLA games.
