Uh-oh, Sony’s Game is in Trouble Now

If you thought things could not get any worse for Sony’s next-generation videogame plans, think again: they just did.

Or at least, that’s primarily if you live in Europe. But it’s worse just the same.

Because Sony, as far as I am concerned, has just hammered another nail into what may become the Playstation 3 console’s untimely-crafted casket. And they did it by allowing production delays to mount so high that London, Paris, Berlin and other major cities in Europe – as well as countless other locations in the region – will not see the PS3 hit store shelves until March 2007, America and Japan notwithstanding.

Now we have been through bad news before from Sony regarding the PS3, the first bad apple being the unfortunately high price of $500-$600 in the United States alone – and that was announced, of all places, at the now-defunct E3 expo! From there, it was pretty much all downhill as rumors mounted of later-confirmed production snags, constantly-denied use of rights management software to lock games to one specific system, and frequent dissing of the PS3’s chances by market analysts. Not to mention the lawsuit that led to the removal of rumble features in the console’s controllers.

But forcing a delay in at least some parts of the world while keeping the American and Japanese launches on track? I call that Asinine with a capital A! This is the last thing Sony needs at a time when corporate execs are counting on a rebound of sorts from image-tarnishing issues such as those that they have borne witness to, such as bad luck in the financial department and the nasty battery recalls that have plagued partners such as Dell and Apple. And yet, that’s exactly what they got. How despicable!

So what will happen to Playstation fans in Europe following this? My best guess is that a select few will go to the Xbox 360 if they prefer high-definition, while the majority go to the Nintendo Wii to take advantage of the motion control they would have got with the PS3 as well as for the lower price points. The result of this will be that Sony will eventually lose the throne where videogame hardware is concerned, while giving the house of Mario the opportunity it needs to get back on top.

And that will be a shame.