PS3 European Launch Date Slip Denied

Sony has finally scotched rumours flying around the internet that the company may not make the March European launch due to ‘component shortages.’ These rumours were generated from a month-old interview given by the company's Phil Harrison.

Sony’s David Wilson told SPOnG today, “For the Nth time, we are on track for March 2007. All other speculation is without foundation.”

Not to take the company line, SPOnG also spoke to a number of Sony’s key development partners this morning who told us the same thing: that even if the stock shortage situation for Europe is dire, SCEE will still pull out all the stops to launch the PS3 in March. Clearly, the PR fallout should it not make that date would be disastrous for all concerned.

Mr Katashima - Senior Vice President KOEI UK - went on the record with his expectations,"With our two PS3 titles Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War and Fatal Inertia aimed for release at the launch of the PS3 we are still working towards a March launch for the console".

Bear in mind, of course, that it is highly unlikely for any developers to announce to retail or shareholders that they would be slipping on their own releases.

The Harrison quote in November was, “Given that all of our previous statements about launching in Europe simultaneously with the US and Japan turned out not to be the case, I would not like to make any definitive statements on that. It's not my job to comment on hardware supply issues other than to say some very smart people are working very hard to catch up."

This quote made its way onto the Internet early in November. Today, however, a month after, media outlets have been reporting September 2007 as the “far more likely” launch date. And this is according to “a source”…

Still, the fact that stock shortages for the next-gen monster are being mooted by developers is unlikely to fill European gamers with joy.