Reason why ps3 was delayed and other questions anwered by sony boss.

ElRazur · 24 Sep 2006 at 11:42

Q: A question I would like to ask Sony is...."Why did they only push back the release date for Europe, but still go ahead with the original release date for the USA and Asia? Why not put the release date back for the whole world?"
Rob Garcia, Malaga, Spain

A: Phil Harrison, head of worldwide studios at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe says that Sony decided to delay in Europe as it is the most complex market for them to distribute consoles.

The European region is made of 104 countries that have different safety standards and different languages. The large number of countries makes it logistically difficult to distribute the consoles, he said.

In contrast, Mr Harrison said, North America consists of three countries with 2 main languages. In addition 80% of all sales come from 20 chains of shops making it easier to distribute the consoles.

Geographically it is also loser closer to China where the consoles are assembled. Japan, the other region that will see PS3s on shelves in November, is also a more homogenous market, he said.

Like America it is geographically closer to the factory.

"Sony felt it was better to delay in one market rather than risk failure in three markets and ending up disappointing everybody," Mr Harrison told the BBC News website.

Mr Harrison said that he also personally regrets the decision, as he will no longer be able to have a PS3 in time for Christmas as Sony is sending all production models out to their customers.

I think the explanation makes sense to me unless there is something am missing.

More info HERE

Psypher5 · 24 Sep 2006 at 11:51

I thought it was to do with bluray diodes and shiz? :/ Now its a strategic market practice? :/

ElRazur · 24 Sep 2006 at 11:54

Psypher5 said:
I thought it was to do with bluray diodes and shiz? :/ Now its a strategic market practice? :/

The European region is made of 104 countries that have different safety standards and different languages. The large number of countries makes it logistically difficult to distribute the consoles, he said.

Think about that, It kinda makes more sense to me.....

DaveyD · 24 Sep 2006 at 11:55

Sony have already said it was the Blu-Ray diode issues, but I guess if they want to come up with other excuses, it can also sound as if they had planned to do it all along anyway, and used the diode excuse to hide their true plans, but that's all looking into it a bit too far probably

.

If MS can do it, Sony should easily do it, as if Sony were to do exactly what MS did, I'd say the PS3 would sell out even faster than the 360.

gord · 24 Sep 2006 at 12:10

ElRazur said:
Think about that, It kinda makes more sense to me.....

Theres a bit of a discrepency between the thread title and the actual content of the thread though.

The PS3 has been delayed a few times globally due to hardware. This interview addresses the reasoning behind the european delay only, which i can see as they have said and the fact they probably cant supply enough PS3s.

KennyBhoy · 24 Sep 2006 at 12:20

Mr Harrison said that he also personally regrets the decision, as he will no longer be able to have a PS3 in time for Christmas as Sony is sending all production models out to their customers.

Lets all feel sorry for Mr Harrison......Head of Sony Europe.....Who won't have a PS3 this Xmas.....Y'know, because he's in Europe......What absolute BS!

Harrison, his family and friends will all be sorted out with imports!

Arsey · 24 Sep 2006 at 12:25

"Geographically it is also loser closer to China where the consoles are assembled"

Loser closer???

Dark_Angel · 24 Sep 2006 at 12:35

DaveyD said:
Sony have already said it was the Blu-Ray diode issues, but I guess if they want to come up with other excuses, it can also sound as if they had planned to do it all along anyway, and used the diode excuse to hide their true plans, but that's all looking into it a bit too far probably .

If MS can do it, Sony should easily do it, as if Sony were to do exactly what MS did, I'd say the PS3 would sell out even faster than the 360.

Agreed.

If 360 done a basically world wide launch, and Wii's is pretty much released at the same date, they are saying what??

If thats true, it makes the bosses their sound worthless "oh look, Nintendo a company tiny compared to ours can organize something, but we can't release a console in europe at the same time, cause its too complex".

ElRazur · 24 Sep 2006 at 12:39

gord said:
Theres a bit of a discrepency between the thread title and the actual content of the thread though..

Yeah i agree - just saw it when i came to re-read the whole thing again. Will make better effort next time.

barnettgs · 24 Sep 2006 at 12:39

It's a rubbish statement. It is more to do with lack of Blu-Ray diode and so on.

Sony has originally said that they would release PS3 worldwide and then in the end, they decided to delay european launch to March simply because the lack of consoles and a poor preparation/planning.

Nintendo is even going to release Wii in UK less than a month after US/Japan release and they have prepared themselves for 'complex' european market. The same is done by Microsoft with Xbox 360 already.

XPE · 24 Sep 2006 at 12:56

It simply comes down to the fact that they couldn’t make enough ps3's so there for some one had to get the shaft and guess what it was Europe.

You can tell from the launch numbers that sony just can not mass produce the ps3.

DaveyD · 24 Sep 2006 at 13:16

XPE said:
It simply comes down to the fact that they couldn’t make enough ps3's so there for some one had to get the shaft and guess what it was Europe.

You can tell from the launch numbers that sony just can not mass produce the ps3.

Well, they can mass produce fine, just not enough, as 400,000 is still, quite a large number of PS3s.

JUMPURS · 24 Sep 2006 at 13:26

what does strike me as odd is a month or so again, someone from Sony, might even have been the guy above, said the first PS3's rolling off the production line, where PAL ones :confused:

Also MS managed to release them world wide, but maybe Sony are more concerned about sending out ones which will break after a few days. (I still dont believe the less than 5% figure from MS, especially now they have had to extend the warranty)
Everyone knows the PS3 is a costly piece of kit, and Sony lose a barrel load of Money on each machine they sell, so maybe they are just more concerned about Quality Control than MS where? MS knew they could handle the returns and who cares how much its costs, but get product to market, but Sony on the other hand need to actually worry about the profit and loss of their Console division as they dont have one of the biggest companies in the world bankrolling it, and it needs to make profit, if iot doesn't then it wont exist, simple as that.

james.miller · 24 Sep 2006 at 13:31

MS did manage to release worldwide, your quite correct, but look at the supply problems they had...world wide. Every console release before the 360 has always had a later european release for exactly the reasons outline above - that is nothing new. What he didnt address as already mentioned was why the console has been delayed so much. Does anybody remember when sony said it was going to be released last year? i do.

thats down manufacturing dificulties, licencing problems ect.

regulus · 24 Sep 2006 at 13:38

I don't like the part where Moore says that the 360 will never have a kb/m for playing games since it's for "fun and not work". Did the idiot understand the question AT ALL??? For "GAMES", not work!! I hate it when the "suits" interfere with the technical aspects of the console. If they bother to read any forums whatsoever then they would realise that at 80% want the option for KB/M.

XPE · 24 Sep 2006 at 13:49

DaveyD said:
Well, they can mass produce fine, just not enough, as 400,000 is still, quite a large number of PS3s.

A bit short of the 2 million they forecasted.

Chaos · 24 Sep 2006 at 14:04

I read a while back on another forum that a manager for Game was at a conference about nextgen consoles to get them trained up on the new hardware coming out and a Sony rep at this event said they were aiming for March for the PS3, but was not confident that the EU would be allocated any consoles until June !

~J~ · 24 Sep 2006 at 14:33

IS this a picture of Phil thinking up what excuse to say at the TGS then?

That is a man with a lot on his mind!!

GuruJockStrap · 24 Sep 2006 at 14:36

regulus said:
I don't like the part where Moore says that the 360 will never have a kb/m for playing games since it's for "fun and not work". Did the idiot understand the question AT ALL??? For "GAMES", not work!! I hate it when the "suits" interfere with the technical aspects of the console. If they bother to read any forums whatsoever then they would realise that at 80% want the option for KB/M.

The only ones who want an option for a keyboard and mouse are PC gamers.

pinkacidbootson · 24 Sep 2006 at 15:17

Am i the only one who sees how this makes perfect sense? They could only secure 500,000 consoles for November launch due to the laser diode problem, so a couple of territories had to be delayed if they were still going to go for November. Given what Phil Harisson says in the OP, its clear why they chose to delay in Europe rather than Japan or North America.
On the plus side, they will have more consoles for Europe in March (supposedly 1 million), and they have more time to make sure the launch in Europe happens without too many problems.

Some of you are confusing 'excuse' with 'reason'.