Playstation 3 Launch Delayed

SONY will delay the launch of its PlayStation 3 game console in Japan to November because of concerns that technology to prevent copying will not be ready, a report said today.

Sony decided to delay the launch from early 2006 because the copy protection technology for the Blu-ray Disc had not been finalised, the Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without citing sources.
PlayStation 3 uses the next generation Blu-ray Disc, which is expected to have a greater storage capacity than its rival format, HD DVD.

The PlayStation 3 is one of electronics giant Sony's core products and its success against Microsoft's rival Xbox 360 console, which has already been launched, is considered vital to the Japanese icon's future.

A Sony spokeswoman refused to comment on the report but said a press conference was scheduled for later in the day on the PlayStation.

Sony shares fell 90 yen or 1.62 per cent to 5,480 in morning trade in Japan.

Sony has long dominated the Japanese video-game market and in November the group said its shipments of the PlayStation 2 console had topped 100 million since March 2000, including 22.2 million in Asia alone.
When Microsoft launched the first Xbox game console in Japan in 2002 it was nearly two years behind Sony's PlayStation 2 and it has trailed ever since.

Microsoft made sure it had a jump on its arch-rival with its Xbox 360 by putting it on shelves in the United States in November 2005 and the following month in Japan.

Even so, Japan's notoriously finicky video game players appear unconvinced by the latest Xbox, the first version of which failed to win over many Japanese consumers in part due to a lack of games that appealed to local tastes.

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