An increasingly ebullient Microsoft is privately confident that PlayStation 3 will slip from its vaguely mooted "spring 2006" launch, with some suggestions that, at least in Europe, Sony's machine may not arrive until 2007.
Sony has been tight-lipped about its plans for PlayStation 3, confirming no launch schedule apart from "spring 2006". Many pundits believe the company's best case scenario is for a spring launch in Japan followed by North America later in the year, as well as Europe at around the same time.
However, Xbox's UK boss Neil Thompson told Brit trade paper MCV, "I'd be happy to compete whenever they turn up, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's not until spring '07. If they hit Christmas '06 (in Europe) then maybe it'll be a very thin launch; a launch in name only".
Friday's edition of MCV also quotes a "senior European publisher boss" as saying he "wouldn't be surprised" if PS3 did not arrive in Europe until spring '07, giving Microsoft two Holiday seasons in Europe. If such a date were true, it's difficult to see a PS3 U.S launch any time before Fall 2006.
Microsoft has evidently decided to make hay, at Sony's expense, while the media is focused on Xbox 360. J.Allard said, "There's a big gap between what Sony claims and what they've shown. They'll need an eight hour press conference pretty soon just to give people confidence in that spring '06 date they've mentioned."
He scoffed at a lack of playable demos of PS3 games, "
There's a lot of stuff they just don't have in place yet. They make nice movies though." Xbox's global chief Robbie Bach said, "Whatever they do, they're going to be chasing us for a long, long time."
Sony has been quiet in the last few weeks, evidently resigned to allowing Xbox 360 its high profile pre-launch window, before rolling out details of its own plans.
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