500,000 Units Total For The PS3 Launch – Sigh…

Sometimes you just have to roll with the hits. It’s inevitable we’ll be branded for PS3 hatin’ with all the not so savory news coming in today about the console, but rest assured it pains me just as much to report this news as it does for you to hear it. Well, most of you, some of you might be X-bots. Still, it helps to talk about it.

Anyway, hot on the heels of news that Sony will be delaying the launch of the PS3 in PAL territories till March of 2007 comes another bombshell, according to the International Herald Tribune (and with a fancy schmancy name like that who can doubt them) the PS3 launch will be limited to 400,000 units in the U.S and 100,000 in Japan. No, that’s not a typo.

At this point there’s not much left to do but feel sorry for the hordes of fans who wanted a PS3 this Christmas and won’t be able to get one, we won’t be walking to Walmart come launch to pick one off the shelves anymore. These new numbers pretty much guarantee lines, long lines with smelly people, and rain and tents and waking up early and all that crap some of us are far too old to participate in.

But let’s put this in perspective for a moment, 500,000 units is the exact same number of units the PS2 launched with, remember how easy that was get at launch? What, no? That’s because it wasn’t easy to get a PS2 at launch, in fact, the first ones to appear on Ebay went for as much as $1,500. A more recent and direct comparison can be drawn to the Xbox 360, which launched with 1.5 million units, 3 times as many as we’re now expecting from Sony. Even so, people still weren’t able to easily get their hands on a 360 till March of the next calendar year. Put simply, this does not bode well for gamers.

So what can Sony do at this point? They can’t magically create more blue laser diodes (a shortage of which is the reason for the delay). Frankly I think Sony’s best bet to win back some gamer goodwill is the Tokyo Game Show. They absolutely need to completely floor gamers and the press with their showing, no more tip toeing around the subject, no CGI, no saving stuff for later,  just big badass games running on real PS3’s. They need to pull out all the stops and their biggest guns to give gamers a reason to wait for the PS3, especially since it now looks like titles such as Gears of War and possibly Lost Planet and Mass Effect will be available on the easily procured 360, making it a very attractive proposition. Missing Christmas in one of the world’s biggest markets is a pretty big deal, especially since it’s a market where Microsoft will be looking gain significant ground in (let’s just forget Japan, that’s a lost cause).

The PlayStation brand has always been extremely strong in PAL territories and especially in the UK, so it’s a surprise (and yet the same old song) that Sony’s willing to give them the shaft yet again. It’s hard for this not to come off as a PS3 hatin’ article, I really am a Sony fan at heart but I really think what they’ve put their fans through in the run up to the PS3 launch, from the first delayed launch, to a lackluster E3, to the CG rendered videos to numerous product downgrades, and now this… well, it’s all a bit much really.

For what it’s worth, I’m still getting a PS3, it’s just unlikely to happen this year. Seems to be the resounding sentiment around the net right now. Surely after all this bad news there’s nowhere else for Sony to go but up?

As always I’d love to know what you guys think of the delay and the lowered launch numbers. Will you line up for a PS3? Will you still get one this year? Will you get one at all now?

Sometimes you just have to roll with the hits. It’s inevitable we’ll be branded for PS3 hatin’ with all the not so savory news coming in today about the console, but rest assured it pains me just as much to report this news as it does for you to hear it. Well, most of you, some of you might be X-bots. Still, it helps to talk about it.

Anyway, hot on the heels of news that Sony will be delaying the launch of the PS3 in PAL territories till March of 2007 comes another bombshell, according to the International Herald Tribune (and with a fancy schmancy name like that who can doubt them) the PS3 launch will be limited to 400,000 units in the U.S and 100,000 in Japan. No, that’s not a typo.

At this point there’s not much left to do but feel sorry for the hordes of fans who wanted a PS3 this Christmas and won’t be able to get one, we won’t be walking to Walmart come launch to pick one off the shelves anymore. These new numbers pretty much guarantee lines, long lines with smelly people, and rain and tents and waking up early and all that crap some of us are far too old to participate in.

But let’s put this in perspective for a moment, 500,000 units is the exact same number of units the PS2 launched with, remember how easy that was get at launch? What, no? That’s because it wasn’t easy to get a PS2 at launch, in fact, the first ones to appear on Ebay went for as much as $1,500. A more recent and direct comparison can be drawn to the Xbox 360, which launched with 1.5 million units, 3 times as many as we’re now expecting from Sony. Even so, people still weren’t able to easily get their hands on a 360 till March of the next calendar year. Put simply, this does not bode well for gamers.

So what can Sony do at this point? They can’t magically create more blue laser diodes (a shortage of which is the reason for the delay). Frankly I think Sony’s best bet to win back some gamer goodwill is the Tokyo Game Show. They absolutely need to completely floor gamers and the press with their showing, no more tip toeing around the subject, no CGI, no saving stuff for later,  just big badass games running on real PS3’s. They need to pull out all the stops and their biggest guns to give gamers a reason to wait for the PS3, especially since it now looks like titles such as Gears of War and possibly Lost Planet and Mass Effect will be available on the easily procured 360, making it a very attractive proposition. Missing Christmas in one of the world’s biggest markets is a pretty big deal, especially since it’s a market where Microsoft will be looking gain significant ground in (let’s just forget Japan, that’s a lost cause).

The PlayStation brand has always been extremely strong in PAL territories and especially in the UK, so it’s a surprise (and yet the same old song) that Sony’s willing to give them the shaft yet again. It’s hard for this not to come off as a PS3 hatin’ article, I really am a Sony fan at heart but I really think what they’ve put their fans through in the run up to the PS3 launch, from the first delayed launch, to a lackluster E3, to the CG rendered videos to numerous product downgrades, and now this… well, it’s all a bit much really.

For what it’s worth, I’m still getting a PS3, it’s just unlikely to happen this year. Seems to be the resounding sentiment around the net right now. Surely after all this bad news there’s nowhere else for Sony to go but up?

As always I’d love to know what you guys think of the delay and the lowered launch numbers. Will you line up for a PS3? Will you still get one this year? Will you get one at all now?