Will UK delay bring a better package?
With Sony's apparently dismissive explanations for the high price drawing accusations of arrogance, it's fair to say that the marketing build up for the PS3 has not gone to plan.
For once the mass media actually began running negative stories about a PlayStation console, with the Japanese launch on the 11th November being accompanied by less than 100,000 actual consoles and filled with complaints of Chinese businessmen buying the console up on mass to sell on eBay (and then getting upset when no one bought them).
The U.S. launch a few days later was no less controversial, with no more than 200,000 consoles to go around, reports of fights in the waiting lines outside shops and even a drive-by shooting.
As a final calamity none of the launch games, with the possible exception of first person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man, got very good reviews and there were even reports of consoles lingering on shelves while the Wii remained stubbornly sold out all Christmas.
With so much bad press and such a high price you may be wondering whether the PlayStation juggernaut has finally jumped the tracks.
"If the PS3 is delayed later than March, it only increases the chances of it exceeding expectations when it does arrive."
All it really means in the end though is that the delayed launch in the UK is actually a good thing, giving Sony time to (hopefully) manufacture enough to go round and, most importantly, prepare a much better line-up of launch games.
Sony Europe have not announced what those launch games will be yet, but alongside the American titles such as Resistance and Ridge Racer 7, more impressive games like Virtua Fighter 5, Lair, Heavenly Sword, WarHawk and Strangehold should be available on or around the launch date.
The list of classic launch titles for any consoles is never a long one and all suffer supply problems and a drought of new games for anything up to a year after release.
In this respect the Japanese and U.S. launch of the PS3 sets no new trends. Indeed, if the console is delayed in Europe even later than March it only increases the chances of it exceeding expectations when it does arrive.
Published 21st January 2007
