In an unexpected announcement this morning Sony has revealed that the Playstation 3 has been delayed till March 2007 in Europe, leaving the Wii as the second next generation console to hit the games market.
The reasoning behind the delay is due to shortages of key components for the console, which include the Blu-ray drive. This move has not affected the launch of the PlayStation 3 in either Japan, or America as their launch dates remain unchanged.
This news will come as a relief to Nintendo-Europe who were looking to go head to head with Sony’s next generation console this Christmas. Instead the Wii will now compete directly against Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in winning over consumers wallets come this winter.
This is quite drastic actually, they’ve missed the best time to sell anything, and everyones favourite time of the year… Christmas time! I have no doupt that most mothers would have bought the Wii over the PS3 as a present as what kind of kids get £400 from one person, especially when there’s a £1?? priced option out there but still…
Good news for the Wii commercially, it means that it doesn’t matter if the Wii releases after November 17th (which over the weeks I have had a horrible feeling that it would, despite Nintendo saying it would launch before the PS3). Although obviously I want it ASAP so I can enjoy it. And spend all my money on it leaving me skint.
That is potentially quite a serious blow to Sony. This thing has been constantly delayed/pushed back and Nintendo (and to a smaller extent, Microsoft) gets to reap the benefits. I guess you snooze, you lose!
I have to admit it has come as a shock. I was adamant that the launch would take place November, not least because Sony are late to the market as it is. It’s certainly going to have a huge implications on the consoles success in this territory, that’s for sure. Great news for Nintendo Europe though. :)