Playstation 3 delayed in Europe

In a press release today, Sony informs that the Playstation 3 will be delayed in Europe, Russia, Middle-East, Africa and Australia. The release was November 17th this year, but is now delayed to March 2007. The reason for this, says Sony, is because of shortage of the blue laser diod which is a key part in the PS3s Blue-ray drive. This will not effect Japan or US, they will get their PS3’s in November.

The delay will, in my opinion, hurt Sony in two way. The first is that Xbox 360 will get another 5 month headstart. The 360 will have its second generation games and the developer will know this machine very well since it’s been on the market for near 1,5 year before the PS3 hits Europe (and other terretories). Nintendo’s Wii will have launched with a lot of good games.

The second is that PS3 is also a Blue-Ray player, and I think Sony was counting on that PS3 will be a backdoor in to the next-generation-DVD-players. Both HD DVD and Blue-Ray players will get to Europe this fall, and Sony will loose some on not beeing able to supply a player.

On the eother hand, when PS3 is launched next March, there will be a lot of games avaible right in the beginning. But again, the 360 and Wii will also have strong games.

I won’t buy a PS3, not at the moment because it’s way to expencive, but I look forward to see the battle. I allready own a Xbox 360 and will buy a Wii when that’s released.