The high cost to make the PlayStation 3 games console - around $900 per unit, initially, for parts alone - could force Sony to delay the US launch until components become more affordable, something that could take three month or even six, according to a report by financial analyst Merrill Lynch.
And that could mean the PS3 missing its expected Q3, 2006 US launch and not even being in US stores for Christmas 2006. Where such a delay would leave the UK launch date is anyone's guess.
Merrill Lynch reckons that four new and novel components are having an especially big impact on the high build-cost, with the PS3's Blu-ray optical drive ($350) and IBM Cell processor ($230) the biggest factors. The others are the Nvidia RSX graphics processor ($70); and XDR RAM ($50), use of which, ML says, is unique to PS3. Three years down the line, it's estimated, the cost for that quartet will have fallen to $240, with the total components bill being just $320.
In its own report on the report CNET says,
But is this all scare-mongering or a realistic appraisal of Sony's situation? Have your say in the HEXUS.community.
Update - February 20, 2006
Responding to the Merrill Lynch report, Sony is denying that the launch of the PlayStation 3 will be delayed, according to The Seattle Times, though the Sony spokesman mentions only the Japanese launch, not the launch in the USA. See this HEXUS.headline.
Thanks to our eagle-eyed gaming guys for alerting us to the piece in The Seattle Times. Check out their headline which points out something that we should have noticed yesterday - that Merrill Lynch's bill-of-materials analysis for the PS3 actually totals $800, not $900 as the report states!
Mind you, $800 still seems a scary amount and Sony isn't commenting at all about build costs.