PlayStation 3 to Launch in March 2007 in Europe

SPOnG can reveal that Sony currently plans to launch the PlayStation 3 into Europe in March of 2007, some 12 months or so behind what some optimistic gamers had hoped for.

Let us be clear, we have no lead as to when the new machine will be launched in Japan or the US (recent reports suggest September), though the date of March next year for Europe seems to be official Sony policy at time of press, disseminated to third-party developers, publishers and retail in the past week.

It would appear that Sony Computer Entertainment has briefed partners in all territories as to its launch plans in the last week, resulting no doubt in the series of leaks cropping up on-line. Our information comes from SCEE documentation leaked last week and independently corroborated by two publishing sources, a handful of developers and a leading pan-European retailer. The brief issued by Sony was, seemingly, too tempting a news piece not to leak, almost as soon as it was released.

As to how the European gaming community will react to the PlayStation 3 launching so late remains to be seen. A territory traditionally enduring the shitty end of the stick had its expectations lifted by Microsoft with the launch of the Xbox 360. The Revolution is also expected to ship across the globe with little delay between the expected Japanese debut and final European release. It looks certain that Sony will again ship its new machine a whopping six months after gamers in Japan have queued overnight in eager anticipation for day one gaming.

It is currently unknown when Sony plans on making public the briefs handed out over the past week, though it is expected that Japanese and US launch plans will be disclosed at E3, with the European date pushed back, as seen during the recent release of the PSP. The point to remember is that late launches have not hampered any SCEE release to date, so it makes perfect sense to establish a healthy userbase in Japan and The States while letting European expectation (desperation) build to ensure another massively successful launch.

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