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PS3 - today's article

credit elixe

http://www.digitimes.com/print/a20060217A8039.html

Sony to definitely launch the PS3 this year, says company official
Kelvin Hsu and Kaddy Chung, Taipei; Steve Shen, DigiTimes.com [Friday 17 February 2006]

Sony will definitely launch its new PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console this year, though the company still has not decided on a launch date nor pricing for the console, said Tetsuhiko Yasuda, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Asia, on February 16 at the Taipei Game Show.

While stressing that the earlier launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 did not add pressure on Sony, Yasuda told reporters that the company wants to be completely prepared when it begins marketing the PS3.

Accumulated global shipments for the PS3 are expected to exceed 100 million units, a record that was set by Sony’s earlier games consoles, the PS and PS2, despite the fact that the PS3 will be priced higher than the PS2, Yasuda said.

To the disappointment of attendees at the show, Sony only displayed three mock-up versions of the PS3 and demonstrated some functions of the new console through a video. This raised doubts if Sony can really bring the PS3 to the market in the spring of this year as expected, according to market sources.

The PS3 will lag the Xbox 360 more in market share if Sony delays launch of the PS3 to the end of 2006, the sources said, noting that Microsoft predicted global shipments of its Xbox 360 will reach 4.5-5.5 million units by the end of June.

Yasuda also told reporters that Sony is expected to follow its previous experience in the production of the PS and PS2 by outsourcing production of the PS3 to contract makers a few months after its launch, according to a February report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times.

Taiwan makers are expected to benefit from Sony’s outsourcing policy and win orders for the PS3 in 2007 since local makers have been producing the PS2 and PSP (PlayStation Portable) for the Japanese vendor, the paper said.