Just in case you missed it, the Guardian newspaper ran this story yesterday, following up on a Reuters report regarding the launch of PS3. "Sony's quest to reaffirm its domination of the game console market could be hampered by delays in finalising the specifications for technology in its eagerly awaited PlayStation 3 console," says reporter Justin McCurry from Tokyo.
"The company is reportedly waiting for the final specifications, decided by industry consortiums, for the PS3's Blu-Ray DVD drive and input and output technology for video and sound. "We're waiting for them until the last possible minute, but the launch could be pushed back if they're not decided soon," the spokeswoman said, adding that the firm was not thinking about an alternative launch date."
This follows a research note from Merrill Lynch (a financial management and advisory company and not, as I had momentarily imagined, a character from Coronation Street), that not only speculates over a delay for the machine, but also suggests that each unit will cost $800 to produce.
So is this really going to be a problem for Sony?
Obviously there are immediate consequences - as the newspaper report mentioned, "yesterday Tokyo stock exchange reacted badly to speculation about the launch. Sony shares fell 3.6% at 5,300 yen (£25.82)". But will a delay of several months give Microsoft an unassailable lead in the next-gen war?
It's difficult to imagine that this would be the case. Xbox has yet to make a truly significant impact in the heartland of the videogame industry - Japan - and although this is not as important as it used to be (the west is producing its own console-shifting mega games now, the likes of GTA and EA's sports titles just as strong as Japanese brands like Resi Evil, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo), it's a key battleground.
It could also be argued that the PlayStation brand is now just too strong to lose significant market share - after all, the word itself has become a mainstream synonym for games console. It's worth remembering though that the same thing happened to the name 'Nintendo' in the late-eighties - but look what happened when the more powerful N64 arrived onto the market a year after the upstart PSone...
'Nobody knows anything' said famed screenwriter William Goldman, referring to Hollywood's inability to predict a box office success. The same applies here. The same applies everywhere.
