These days, life is not good if you’re a European fan of Sony’s PlayStation 3…and it’s even worse if you’re a PS3 fan on a budget. Sony Computer Entertainment has set a European launch date for its PlayStation 3 video gaming console: March 23, 2007. And that’s the good news: the bad news is that the console will be priced at €599, and only the 60 GB version will initially be available, with the less-expensive 20 GB edition scheduled to follow at an unspecified date.
The PlayStation 3 has already launched in Japan and the United States, where, despite strong initial interest and claims by Sony to have moved more than 1 million units to North American retailers by the end of 2006, sales appear to be flagging in the wake of the system’s introduction. Although Sony’s original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 dominated the video game console market, analysts and industry-watchers have cited the PlayStation 3’s high price ($499 and $599 in the U.S.), initial availability constraints, backward compatibility issues with some older PlayStation games, and lack of a platform-specific blockbuster title (like Gears of War has become for the Xbox 360) as constraints on the console’s adoption.
Supply constraints with the blue laser diode used in the PlayStation 3’s integrated Blu-ray DVD drive already forced Sony to delay introduction of the PlayStation 3 in Europe. The system was initially set to hit European markets on the heels of Japanese and North American releases in November, 2006; Sony was forced to push that date back to March of 2007, and, now, it appears Sony will initially offer only the high-end 60 GB edition of the PlayStation 3, holding off on the somewhat more-affordable 20 GB edition.
