Europe's PS3 delay in quotes

by Kyle Orland { Sep 7th 2006 at 4:45PM }

Sure, it's easy for us here in the States to throw in our two cents on Sony's recently announced PS3 delay, but it's mainly an academic pursuit -- a quick chance to feign some empathy for our brethren across the ocean. For a more meaningful reaction to the delay, you have to go to the people that are directly affected -- the foreigners that will have to do without the system for an extra few months.

With that in mind, here's a quick round-up of some of the more noteworthy and memorable quotes from foreign press, bloggers and retailers in reaction to the delay announcement..

"All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put this disastrous mess of broken egg back together again" -Rob Fahey, EuroGamer
"In a few years' time, this might look like the beginning of the end ... unless they can come up with something remarkable to stop the rot." -Bobbie Johnson, Guardian Unlimited
"This is pretty disappointing news for PlayStation fans as well as for retailers, who have been gearing up for this launch for some time now." -British retailer HMV, quoted in a Scotsman.com article
"We were never anticipating a substantial amount of PS3 in 2006. We expect to see some mitigation of profit impact with a strong line-up of other products now in free supply." -Sources close to British retailer Game, quoted in a Times Online article
"Sony Europe said when they first announced the PS3 simultaneous world wide launch 'This is an exciting first for Europe, and is a huge endorsement and vote of confidence in the strength of the European market and its importance globally,' so with them now going back on this promise we can assume that they assume Europe to be 3rd rate, behind Japan & USA" -UK Technology blog Tech's Message
"Sony have got a lot to lose from having the PS3 delayed: not just poor figures for 2006, but also a loss in market share as parents buy their kids XBoxes for Christmas, and a boost for HD-DVD which looks set to get to market far quicker than its arch-rival." -UK blogger Chris Doidge
"The previously announced PlayStation 3 shipment forecast of 6 million units globally within the fiscal year ending 2007 is not changed, suggesting that Sony wasn't expecting to sell any units in the PAL territories." -UK tech site Pocket Lint
"Can anyone else hear a lone church bell clanging mournfully in the background...?" -Yahoo Video Games UK

Tags: delay, Europe, PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

nootau @ Sep 7th 2006 4:55PM

Looks like the Europeans are not very happy. Not that i am surprised. Sony promised to elevate them to a first consideration, instead of an afterthought. Now it seems they are an afterthought once again.

As long as the the six million figure doesnt change for 2007 Sony will do fine.

a Master Ninja @ Sep 7th 2006 4:56PM

Uh-oh.

SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity @ Sep 7th 2006 5:03PM

LOL Joystiq just keeps bashing away, I wonder how silly you will all feel when Sony ROCKS this gen AGAIN by a huge margin JUST LIKE LAST TIME! Its all about games and no one wants to play generic shooters 1, 2, and 3, generic racers 1, 2 and 3 on xbox1.5, or kiddy RPG, kiddy sports, and kiddy racing on wii.

They want to play that real shit, the GTAs, the Devil may cry's, the Metal Gear Solid, the Final Fantasies, the Gran Turismo, the Guitar Hero, etc. All the badass games that made gaming cool, and took it out of the realm of nerds, fanboys and other dorks. Gaming has gone mainstream, and the opinions of nerds who will play anything with mario or princess toadstool in it don't mean much anymore.

Daniel Snachedos @ Sep 7th 2006 5:00PM

Sony Should have be attempting to ship 300k units in the USA, 100k In Japan and 100k in Europe.

Marty @ Sep 7th 2006 5:00PM

Hey, where are all the P$3 fanboys?

Shouldn't they be here by now, yelling and screaming about how Joystiq has always been anti-Sony, this is all part of Sony's plan, things are really going okay, it's still going to be worth $600, etc?

Or have they finally been subdued by all the idiotic decisions and mistakes Sony has made since E3?

reebo @ Sep 7th 2006 5:00PM

"I am a king in crisis
counting minutes
there is an ending to my reign
my sins have come to face me
I can feel it
that I have lived my life in vain
and now I know I'll reap
the seeds I've sewn." - Karma, Kamelot

Marty @ Sep 7th 2006 5:02PM

@SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity

The only thing kiddy going on here is your pathetic attempts at logic.

It's over man, game over. The P$3 boat is sinking. Get out, or go down with the ship.

MosquitoControl @ Sep 7th 2006 5:06PM

" took it out of the realm of nerds, fanboys and other dorks."

Hey, how are you still around, then?

Your wishful thinking, daryl, is almost as bad as the wishful thinking from the Euros claiming death already.

By the way, of the games you listed, I'll bet you only GT stays PS3 exclusive. All the others are third party. Guess where all those third parties have been heading. We already know GTA isn't exclusive. MGS has never been exclusive. Guitar Hero has been heavily hinted to the 360. Devil May Cry is beginning to get hinted there, too.
It's pretty much down to Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo. And with Forza having gotten better reviews than Gran Turismo... meh.

potato @ Sep 7th 2006 5:06PM

#4 Marty,

try here
http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation

joystiq is not a good place to look.

Marty @ Sep 7th 2006 5:07PM

Why do you idiots get mad at Joystiq for this? All they are doing is reporting the stupid things $ony is doing. $ony is messing up your precious P$3, not Joystiq! LOL

cringer8 @ Sep 7th 2006 5:09PM

@ SnakeDanteCloud...blahblahblah

It's been said before, but needs repeating:

Playing video games is not "cool" or "mainstream." If your immediate thought is, “Speak for yourself,” you are in denial. Look at yourself; you’re on a blog site chatting about gaming. Dork. It’s not a bad thing. You could still be the *least* dorky of your even dorkier friends…making you “cool” to them.

Neoxkc @ Sep 7th 2006 5:12PM

@ SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity

I don't even know where to begin.
First, PS3 possitive news can only exist, if there was any possitive news coming from the PS3 camp.

Second, GTA4 will be on 360 and PS3 at the same time. Guitar Hero is rumored to go to 360 now that Activision has a stake in it.

Point being, take a look around, PS# is in trouble, and SONY along with it. No matter what company you plan to back in the next-gen "battle"(unless you get them all), facts are facts. End of story.

Blake @ Sep 7th 2006 5:14PM

SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity do some research fool even the most optimistic analyst would not predict that Sony is going to comfortably win the console battle this generation, and as for all your 'exclusives' they will likely all come to 360 with the exceptions of Gran turismo and possibly final fantasy and devil may cry which has sucked since the first one anyway.I want to like Sony but I live in Australia and they make it very difficult, even some of my fan boy friends have turned anti Sony after this latest knife in the back.

socrates @ Sep 7th 2006 5:16PM

Pssh, silly Europeans. Don't they have more important things to worry about? The Black Plague? Spanish Inquisition? The only games you like anyways are those made by Lord British.

(I'm sorry, the 400-post rumor frenzy has gotten me all worked up, like drinking a 2liter of coke through a twizzler right before bed)

Evil Inside @ Sep 7th 2006 5:17PM

If Sony was at all concerned about gaming, they would not used the PS3 as the trojan horse for Blu-Ray and none of this would be happening.

It's their own fault for forcing yet another unwanted media format on consumers and doing so with their top selling product line proves this.

mr.blonde @ Sep 7th 2006 5:22PM

"Sony have got a lot to lose from having the PS3 delayed: not just poor figures for 2006, but also a loss in market share as parents buy their kids XBoxes for Christmas, and a boost for HD-DVD which looks set to get to market far quicker than its arch-rival." -UK blogger Chris Doidge

warwick university blog? scraping the bottom of the barrel there.

SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity @ Sep 7th 2006 5:37PM

Yeah I hear alll the whining and so forth, fact is when you see all the badass games that come out for PS3, you will be lining up to buy them just like last time. Even if you already bought xbox1.5 or wii, you will be trading it in towards a ps3. Thinks about it, are you really gonna be ok with playing generic FPS #3 on xbox 1.5, or waving your arms around like a pansy in a sports game where you cant even control the player on wii, when your all your boyz are all playing Madden and Metal Gear Solid 4 in 1080p with crazy bluray textures and insane animation + ai? I don't think so.

Ashley Bennett @ Sep 7th 2006 5:25PM

"The previously announced PlayStation 3 shipment forecast of 6 million units globally within the fiscal year ending 2007 is not changed, suggesting that Sony wasn't expecting to sell any units in the PAL territories." -UK tech site Pocket Lint

Did I get this wrong, or were Sony predicting 6 million shipped in the fiscal year BEGINNING March 2007, in which case, anything that happens before then is inconsequential. And it is shipments, not retail sales, (which should in theory go up in 07 since Europe cannot buy before then now so the early sales move into 07 from 06.)

BPM? @ Sep 7th 2006 5:29PM

#7 SnakeDante...whatever (think of a shorter name, seriously. Better yet: think of an name you'd ACTUALLY call yourself):
First off, you lose points for calling Xbox 360 "xbox1.5". 360 is "Xbox 1.5" as much as PS3 is really "PS2.5". Both of them offer pretty much the same thing: prettier graphics than before.

The differences are that Microsoft already has a well-established online service up and going, while Sony "promises" (and we all know how true they keep their word...) an XBL equivalent for free. Which, frankly, smells of BS. With the kind of money and power needed to run Xbox Live, there's a very slim chance of Sony doing the same thing for free.

And the other difference is Sony's tilt function in the controller (which they sacrificed rumble for. Remember?). Which seems rather tacked on compared to Wii's motion sensing capabilities.

Yes, games will win the console war (or will it? Dreamcast had a lot of great games, and still died...), but what's to say PS3 will really be any different from 360 or Wii? Let's face it. It's a cold hard fact that every system has an equal ratio of crap games to good games. If you think PS3 will have nothing but AAA titles, you're living in a dream land (and not the one with Kirby, either).

SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity @ Sep 7th 2006 5:32PM

oh yeah and cringer8 , keep cringing son, because I speak the truth, the days when gaming was for nerds are over, sony pretty much singlehandedly ended them with the playstation brand and cool games, now jocks, goths, rappers, metalheads, emos, indy kids, preps and all sorts play games. Maybe not the lameo kiddy ones with princess toadstool and wario, but they are playing games.

darryl @ Sep 7th 2006 5:47PM

It's funny how many of these quotes are predicting that this is will cause the demise of the PS3. There is no way this will make any difference. Yes, it's trendy to hate Sony, but the PS3 will once again finish in the number one spot.

mikey @ Sep 7th 2006 5:34PM

snakedante, i have a 24 inch large tube tv, i dont even know what 1080p means...i cant wait to wave my arms around with the wii

kite @ Sep 7th 2006 5:35PM

@ snake-something
...when your all your boyz are all playing Madden and Metal Gear Solid 4 in 1080p with crazy bluray textures and insane animation + ai? I don't think so.

Crazy bluray textures?
Insane animation?
Insane ai?

Ai for one, is more something that can be encoded.
Crazy bluray textures...Okay, that one made me laugh. Textures and bluray don't seem to be connected. Unless you mean the size of the textures :). This can be helped with compression techniques and re-use of textures.
Sadly, about mgs in 1080p I can't say a thing. Because I am not sure about my sources on that case.

Either way, you made me chuckle.
I would like to call you an ignorant fool. But then again, it would be better to just see you as another person with another opinion. Which I will do.
Still, have fun sinking with the ship you stubbornly see as indestructible (is it insinkable? wasn't too sure about that...)

Jammie @ Sep 7th 2006 5:36PM

Why are us Europeans always last to get everything :(

funkonaut @ Sep 7th 2006 5:36PM

I don't see what the big deal is. Europe has always been third-rate behind the US and Japan. Europe's economy is nowhere near ours, and Europeans don't seem to mind that they're far from being a superpower. To top it all off, they tax out the a$$, so companies are hesitant to make huge investments in the EU market.

Mr. Khan @ Sep 7th 2006 5:37PM

@ SnakeDanteCloud Holy Trinity

I agree with you on most of your points except:
1. using the word kiddy or gimmick when referring to Nintendo, anyone who says that has obviously never owned a Ninty system
2. Madden is just as viable on 360 and Wii
3. Despite your perception, you CAN make this sort of argument without coming off like a complete asshole
tone it down, dude

btw, can we make Darryl's name into a piece of Joystiq Jargon, or has that happened already?

Jeff @ Sep 7th 2006 5:38PM

"In a few years' time, this might look like the beginning of the end ..."

And Dewey defeats Truman.

SnakeDanteCloud_HolyTrinity @ Sep 7th 2006 5:42PM

BPMomega, you should talk about having a wierd name! But I guess it is long, I'll try to think of a new name later, for now I gotta go get me some ;)

BTW how come all the posts are out of order, peoples replies are above my original posts, etc?

H-QB @ Sep 7th 2006 5:50PM

Sheesh all those Americans who are rolling their eyes and going "Who cares, its no big deal" seem to forget that gaping fact that Sony themselves said "HAY GUYS, WE R GONNA DO A WURLDWIDE LAUNCH! Y'ALL BE READY Y'HERE! ;D!!"

When someone says worldwide launch...you'd expect a worldwide launch wouldnt you? Lol @ extreme ignorance. Seriously, you cant be THAT stupid.

Michael May @ Sep 7th 2006 5:53PM

@ funkonaut:
"I don't see what the big deal is. Europe has always been third-rate behind the US and Japan. Europe's economy is nowhere near ours, and Europeans don't seem to mind that they're far from being a superpower. To top it all off, they tax out the a$$, so companies are hesitant to make huge investments in the EU market."

wtf?!?!? seriously, do you know anything? at all? thought not. this is my daily dose of ignorance, i'd better leave before I get an overdose...

captain_duck @ Sep 7th 2006 6:12PM

@ funkonaut

Dont talk about things you have no idea of. You make it sound like europe is a third world country, which were obviously not. Hell, if you add up the GDP of all countries in europe it actually is higher then that of the US.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

The problem with europe is all the different languages. They have to translate the instruction manuals & such to a ton of languages, and distribute it over a lot of countries. That brings a lot of extra cost, but its no reason for console manufacturers to keep screwing us over like this.

Well atleast the wii will have a near-global launch, atleast nintendo is starting to value us a bit.

Finolino @ Sep 8th 2006 10:51AM

"I don't see what the big deal is. Europe has always been third-rate behind the US and Japan. Europe's economy is nowhere near ours, and Europeans don't seem to mind that they're far from being a superpower. To top it all off, they tax out the a$$, so companies are hesitant to make huge investments in the EU market."
Haha, wtf?
You're talking about Europe as if it was a poor, anonymous, freakin' country... xD
And btw, it the EU actually was a country, it's GDP would be 13,446,050,000,000 USD, compared to USA's 12,485,725,000,000 USD. That's like a trillion dollars more.

AoE @ Sep 7th 2006 6:25PM

@ funkonaut - Wow. I really hope that was sarcasm that just didn't translate well into text. Europe's hardly third-rate. Perhaps you'll note that the Euro's worth more than the dollar and has been for some time? Also in certain areas of the electronics market, such as cell phones, they're far ahead of the US. A dissmissive attitude is not the correct route to head down; just ask Sony in a few months if it was a good decision or not ;)

@Snakeblahblahblah

It's funny to hear you talk about how generic Xbox titles are, when generic rehashes of popular games is what the PS1/PS2 game libraries are built on. Just count the number of J-Rpgs to come out on the PS2, or the number of 3rd person shooters. For every FF/DMC there are a dozen knock-offs; it's easier to find a generic game on PS2 than it is on Xbox/360, if nothing else because the sheer number of them is staggering.

"when your all your boyz are all playing Madden and Metal Gear Solid 4 in 1080p with crazy bluray textures and insane animation + ai? I don't think so."

Where to start? Do you have a 1080p TV? I don't, I've got a rather large 1080i Tv, and it was quite an investment, so I doubt I'll be upgrading again until they can come up with something a little more impressive than progressive scan mode of the resolution my TV currently reaches. Also, I should note that I know a number of people with HDTVs and none of them are 1080p. And... don't forget Sony's going to make you buy that HDMI cable separately, so no 1080p for you without extra hardware ;)

Now, as for "crazy bluray textures" it may shock you to find out, textures aren't directly related to the media they're stored on. The primary advantage of bluray's storage space for next-gen games aren't for textures, but rather for audio, and pre-rendered cutscenes, which are becoming increasingly rare as the quality of animation/graphical prowress of game engines has improved to the point that story-telling in-engine is the way to go.

Animation & AI? again much the same thing; we're talking about the quality of the code here, not the storage media. And while you could *attempt* to argue that the cell processor would still tip things in the ps3's favor, the difficulty of programming for it (hint, taking advantage of the SPEs, which is the only way to squeeze enough power from the ps3 to potentially outpace the 360, requires quite a bit more coding, some of it rather complex BECAUSE the SPEs are so specialized. By comparison, taking advantage of the 360's cpu, which uses 3 general cores, is as simple as adding just a few extra lines of code. The cell is powerful, but it's also difficult to program for if you want to take advantage of the power it has. Read what developers have to say dude, most of them don't have many kind words to describe programming for the PS3.

i_hate_mtv @ Sep 7th 2006 9:12PM

to joystiq:

can you guys please replace the stars on fanboy comments with the logos of the companies they favor (for example: snakedante whatever would get a nice shiny sony label, since he's clearly a sony fanboy.;) )? that way we can skip all the fanboy posts when we want to hear/read OBJECTIVE and LOGICAL comments from people who's opinions are worth something.

LaughingTarget @ Sep 7th 2006 6:35PM

The biggest problem with Europe is that large, $13 tillion economy isn't a unified whole. True, it is under the European Union classification, but between them, nothing is really standardized. Languages are a particular issue.

The reason the USA is so prioritized is because that $12 trillion economy is so homogonized. Companies basically only have to make one product and they just reached a massive audience. Companies don't have to build German versions, UK versions (I know the UK isn't really part of the EU, but bear with me for a bit), French versions, etc. Furthermore, Americans have a lot more disposable income due to far lower taxes and costs of living, so even though the EU economy is larger than the US economy, the consumers are not in the same position to make a purchase. The EU has double the US population, but only an 8% larger economy. This translates into a relatively poorer population.

Despite the significantly larger population of Europe, the United States still had a larger market for games. Americans simply spend more on game software, and Sony prioritized around that.

Eggman @ Sep 7th 2006 6:34PM

@ snakedantecloud... u seem to be having an identity crisis. Seek help. As far as ur claims of "kiddie games" and their incompatibility with "cool people"... yea again, not much to say there but identity crisis.

People play games cause their fun, not because "all the cool kids are doing it." For example, in my algebra II class (someone put a lot of emulators and roms in a folder on the student network) whenever we got a free day or time off, there would be a mad rush to the 4 computers on the side of the class. Almost everyone would be huddled around the pcs playing what consisted of mainly snes games (starfox, super mario, etc). In my advisory (half an hour of nothing) class, we used to take turns playing ut2k4. Again most people around the pcs... girls/guys/jocks/dorks/etc.

Anyway, the point is nintendo games aren't just for "kiddies", their for people who enjoy playing games. Not sure where ur getting all these misconceptions, but i think u need to get out more and maybe ACTUALLY find out what people like to play.

BPM? @ Sep 7th 2006 6:35PM

Even though I'm an American, I still sympathize for you Euro gamers. Sony said there'd be a worldwide launch for PS3, and then backed out of it (mostly due to the low Blu-ray laser yields).

And even even for us North Americans, we're getting less at launch than what we were promised (remember they'd said there would be 2mil PS3s worldwide for launch? Yeah, now it's just 1/4 of that!).

What Sony's PR needs to stop doing is promising too much and then underdeliver. Instead, they should promise less and then overdeliver. If they said they'd only have 300,000 units for the NA launch, and then revealed there would be 400,000, it would be some POSITIVE news for Sony.

@SnakeDante(etc.), yes, I admit to having a odd sounding username. But, you know what? It's something I identify with. I've been called BPM for YEARS. Only recently have I tacked on the Ω/Omega (because some places won't let you register three-letter names, or names with Greek letters. And in rare cases, someone else already registered it).

@darryl, it's not because it's "trendy" to hate Sony, but because they're screwing up big time. They're giving us a console that costs a hundred bucks or more than the competiton (depending on which SKUs you compare), then push it back (I thought they said it'd have launched Spring '06!), then push it back more (for PAL territories), and then underdeliver on their launch amount.
360 has a huge time lead over PS3 and Wii, giving it a good head start (and the head start for PS2 was what made it a bigger household name than GameCube and Xbox combined). And then Wii will be far cheaper than PS3 and has Virtual Console, giving it a huge price and game library advantage over PS3.
It will be nothing short of a miracle if PS3 leads the other two systems by the same margin PS2 did.

Yeah, "PlayStation" is a strong brand. But, you know what? So was "Nintendo." After the huge successes that were NES and Super NES, noone thought Nintendo could be toppled! But then came the no-name PlayStation. From a company not even dedicated to gaming, no less!
The public opinion is fickle. The ignorant masses will constantly jump ship, and there's no real way to predict the future.

But, when you stop to think about it... it's all just a bunch of damn video games. Play them. Have fun. Fighting over the "winner" is boring.

Kevin @ Sep 7th 2006 6:38PM

wow that map of euorope is solid. nice

John @ Sep 7th 2006 6:42PM

I'm pretty sure at this point the only reason anybody would be a PS3 fanboy would be the Stockholm syndrome clouding thier judgement

Bruce Wayne III @ Sep 7th 2006 6:46PM

NA = you'll still get around 1 - 1.2 million PS3 for the holiday season. That's twice the amount that Microsoft pulled off. Be happy :-)

Japan = will get 100k Nov 11 and about 800-900k extra before years end (shorter shipping distance). That's still great.

Europe (my home) = 1 million early March. Long wait, but the only reasonable decision to make.

At the end of the day, when both Sony and Nintendo have launched their consoles during the holidays (December 31, 2006), Microsoft's holiday launch last year will come in third place. No bashing, but that's the most likely scenario.

SonyFanBoyforever @ Sep 7th 2006 7:31PM

Sony... It was nice knowing you but you have over stayed your welcome. Good bye forever

Robert @ Sep 7th 2006 6:50PM

All this fussing reminds me of something...
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=142
It's old, but it still applies.

joe smith @ Sep 7th 2006 7:10PM

Train wreck. The whole thing is a slow motion train wreck. I bet they were popping corks in Redmond (both MS and Nintendo). There is no good way to spin this other than that Sony is either an arrogant lying pile of crap or so stupid they couldn't predict a shortage of parts THEY MAKE. They are a perfect example of a company which has forgotten its customers. THey seem to forget that when they entered the business Sega and Nintendo owned it and they were nothing. Now they are on top and they act like nothing anyone can do will unseat them.

If they think they can win the next round by ignoring Europe they are even dumber than I thought. Japan is the only shrinking market. US is pretty stable and Europe is growing fast. Which one do you want to bet on for the long run?

parakratos @ Sep 8th 2006 7:08PM

Look past comments of Mr Ken and comments from the aythor of a site.I TOTALY AGREE.

“The Xbox 360 is Going After the PlayStation 2.”

Well Ken, at this pace, you will go after the Xbox 360…just make sure you launch the PS3 before the next round of next-gen consoles.

“The Xbox 360 won't change the type of entertainment.”

Neither will the PlayStation 3 with these constant delays, so hurry up before a cell phone can pull off PS3 graphics.

"Xbox 360 is 1.5, the PS3 is more than what I was expecting, so it's 3.5."

Yeah, you should probably name the PS3 the PS3.5 because it will launch so close to the PlayStation 4 that a 3.5 makes more sense than 3.

“The Xbox 360 is more of an Xbox 1.5 than a next generation console.”

Well Ken, the truth is that by the time you launch the PlayStation 3.5 in Europe, both AMD and Intel will be offering quad-core processors and some motherboards will support two of those processors, allowing people to have 8 cores inside their computers. Plus, both ATI and nVIDIA will be offering DirectX 10-class GPU early next year, meaning you will be the only one with an older shader architecture instead of the new unified model implemented in both Windows Vista and the Xbox 360.

That's the end of playstation in europe so much expensive for something that someone can see to an xbox360 we can afford this because is not only the 600 euros there is another thing if you want to see the great 1080p quality you have to spend another 4000 at least for a hdtv. But with an xbox360 you can buy a hdtv ready for 1500 much less so sony do something else cause this will be your fall at least here in europe.

Marty @ Sep 7th 2006 7:17PM

"It's funny how many of these quotes are predicting that this is will cause the demise of the PS3. There is no way this will make any difference. Yes, it's trendy to hate Sony, but the PS3 will once again finish in the number one spot."

People said the same thinig about Sega right before theypulled out of the video games market, and they had a pretty firm grip on the market during the 16-bit days.

If you keep telling yourself that it'll be the best, it's not going to make it so. Sony's fumbling - why is that so hard to understand? Big companies make big mistakes now and then.

I do not think the P$3 is finishing #1 this time around... it's entereing the ball game too late, and at too great a price. Not enough people will get them, and 3rd party devs won't utilize it as much. It's hard to admit it, I know... but the truth hurts sometimes.

I hope that's the way it turns out anyway, because I'd rather not be stuck buying Blue-Ray discs for $30 - $40 a pop just to watch all the crappy movies Hollywood releases.

Anonymouse Rep @ Sep 7th 2006 7:32PM

A couple of comments:

Let's do the WHOLE quote from TechGamer: "Sony Europe said when they first announced the PS3 simultaneous world wide launch “This is an exciting first for Europe, and is a huge endorsement and vote of confidence in the strength of the European market and its importance globally”, so with them now going back on this promise we can assume that they assume Europe to be 3rd rate, behind Japan & USA, if you want my advise get a Wii, it’ll be out this year, cost about 1/3 of the price of a PS3 and introduce real control innovation, not just rip off other peoples ideas, and if you want a high def console you will have done the sensible thing already and have got yourself a Xbox 360 which will be accompanied by an add-on drive to support the superior HD-DVD standard later this year."

That's pretty good from a nice blog - although his other comment is quite hilarious. "Also, just to kick fans while thier down, Sony confirmed that they won’t be shipping the console with a HDMI cable, which is required to view content at 1080p resolution, so this leaves consumers paying out another £50+ to actually use the console as it was intended, am I alone in thinking that Sony are starting to take the piss on this one? A £425 console which doesnt even come with the leads you need to run it at it’s stated headline resolution!" - I love that, 'take the piss'...

Oh, and does anyone remember the comments from a certain group of fanboys last year about how Microsoft was screwing people by not having enough consoles at launch? This is from the Playstation board: "Four hundred thousand consoles is not the end of the world (if that's in fact the words from Sony themselves). Here's why; stores will get MORE shipments. If you don't own a PS3 on November 17th you will still be able to buy one later. It's not like it's a limited run of 400,000 and then they are going to shut down production.

So sit back, relax and fire up God of War one more time. If you have to wait it's not the end of the world."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these the SAME gamers who were screaming that Microsoft had screwed all of the consumers by not having enough at launch? Oh - that's right, you can't correct me - because I'm right.

@Laughing Target - I realize that your comments on the priority of Sony are correct. However, I think that the main problem is that this is just one more piece of bad publicity for Sony, and the only one that they have to blame for this is themselves. I realize that they are two different products - but now you've got this on top of the exploding battery issue, on top of the we'll launch in November worldwide issue, on top of the we'll launch in Spring of 2006 issue. At some point there simply won't be any corporate credibility left in the marketplace for their products.

Anthony @ Sep 7th 2006 9:49PM

Sonys really dumb, its obvious they should have delayed the entire launch and started out with a strong one then starting weak in 2 of the 3 main locations, excluding one completely. Thats terrible marketing, and gets Sony a bad rep. Honestly I've never been a sony fan because of the number of PS2's I've been though, but then again I've never been a fan boy.

I have always enjoyed my Xbox and Xbox 360 more then the other consoles solely because of the Xbox Live and the shooting games released. Not only the games but there functionality with Xbox Live. Tom Clancy's Games have always been favorites of mine(Rainbow Six's, Ghost Recon's) All of them. Numbers mean nothing really to me, and I was hoping to see a successful launch for sony, This now is looking slim to me because of the many prelaunch mistakes there making, not to mention the mistakes to come at launch(aka power problems, Overheating problems, console bugs, The "live service flop).

I'm happy with my 360 for now, Maybe in a year when/if sony establishes there console with good games and a good online service, Ill buy one. When it all comes down to it, people forget and say well 600 is a lot for a game system, they forget its a BlueRay player also which cost a lot of money.

So for you that say "$600 is a lot for a game system" remember that it is not only a game system, but also a blueray player, and it does pay off to buy one "if" blueray succeeds. Then again, maybe in the future it will be possible to buy a cheap add-on to the 360 that is a blueray drive, I don't know much about its exclusivity to say so thats just a maybe.

So, What I'm saying is, This is not good for sony, they should delay the whole launch and make it a strong one, around Marches time. I'm not a fanboy of either console, since I may purchase both, but Sony isn't doing the right thing lately...

ger @ Sep 7th 2006 7:36PM

i dunno what's worse here snake dante's madness or everybody actually arguing with a fanboy.....fanboys are fanboys....we can't stop his bad assness or ps3's it's gonna get us all! run for your lives!

LostToys @ Sep 7th 2006 7:42PM

Marty,

"Hey, where are all the P$3 fanboys?"

I normally ignore people who use dollar signs instead of proper characters when they are talking about something they obviously despise. That is something only M$ people do.

And I don't think anyone is really subdued, they are now given facts, which can't be disputed. One of the problems with "fanboys" is that rumor and speculation makes their day, hard coded facts do not.

"I'd rather not be stuck buying Blue-Ray discs for $30 - $40 a pop"

Too bad no one is using the MSRP. The average Blu-ray disc costs less than their HD-DVD counterpart (insert sny comment about how they must sell it less because it is inferior).