PS3 Still Not in Production, Gets Winning Forecast Anyway

One of the problems with prophecies and forecasts is that if you look too far ahead, you miss what’s right in front of you.

Game industry analysts have had different sorts of opinions on who will come out on top at the end of the next-gen console race. While some have predicted Sony‘s downfall as a result of their current pricing strategy, the Yankee Group predicts Sony’s dominance with the arrival of the PS3.

There’s just one hitch, of course: the PS3 still isn’t being manufactured, let alone sold.

A recent Gamespot interview with Sony Computer Entertainment’s American President Kaz Hirai outlined the overall projection Sony has for the future, while at the same time keeping mum about certain topics. In addition to discussing the result of Yankee’s prediction, Hirai also mentioned that point about the PS3 still not being in the manufacturing stage. Hirai says,

We haven’t started manufacturing yet. Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the [production] lines and everything else. But they are, again, preparing as we speak to get the manufacturing going. We’ve not announced and we haven’t set really a specific date to say, “As of this day we’re going to start manufacturing.”

Hirai was also somewhat evasive with launch titles, but also mentioned that the real fireworks display for new consoles happens a lot later. He said that everyone was still hedging their bets on one console or another and on what launch titles there will actually be. The same problem happens with the bold, yet reserved, predictions by market analysts on the future of the console wars. While it might seem like troubling news, as it’s hard to imagine building out 2 million units or so two to three months before launch time, but there’s still time, so it’s not as bad as it looks.

In the end, despite the current worries of gamers and analysts alike about the future of the PS3 and the overall health of Sony’s gaming market, all of this is still relative. As Hirai mentions, “it won’t get locked down until about a month before launch,” so we still have time to keep the optimism for Sony’s prized handheld and new console out and about.

Via Gamespot

One of the problems with prophecies and forecasts is that if you look too far ahead, you miss what’s right in front of you.

Game industry analysts have had different sorts of opinions on who will come out on top at the end of the next-gen console race. While some have predicted Sony‘s downfall as a result of their current pricing strategy, the Yankee Group predicts Sony’s dominance with the arrival of the PS3.

There’s just one hitch, of course: the PS3 still isn’t being manufactured, let alone sold.

A recent Gamespot interview with Sony Computer Entertainment’s American President Kaz Hirai outlined the overall projection Sony has for the future, while at the same time keeping mum about certain topics. In addition to discussing the result of Yankee’s prediction, Hirai also mentioned that point about the PS3 still not being in the manufacturing stage. Hirai says,

We haven’t started manufacturing yet. Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the [production] lines and everything else. But they are, again, preparing as we speak to get the manufacturing going. We’ve not announced and we haven’t set really a specific date to say, “As of this day we’re going to start manufacturing.”

Hirai was also somewhat evasive with launch titles, but also mentioned that the real fireworks display for new consoles happens a lot later. He said that everyone was still hedging their bets on one console or another and on what launch titles there will actually be. The same problem happens with the bold, yet reserved, predictions by market analysts on the future of the console wars. While it might seem like troubling news, as it’s hard to imagine building out 2 million units or so two to three months before launch time, but there’s still time, so it’s not as bad as it looks.

In the end, despite the current worries of gamers and analysts alike about the future of the PS3 and the overall health of Sony’s gaming market, all of this is still relative. As Hirai mentions, “it won’t get locked down until about a month before launch,” so we still have time to keep the optimism for Sony’s prized handheld and new console out and about.

Via Gamespot