Sony's launch plans stipulated that there would be a world-wide release of 2 million Playstation 3 consoles. Following on from the news that the PS3 has been delayed in Europe, Russia, Middle East, Africa and Australasia until March 2007, we can now reveal that the US and Japan will have a significantly smaller amount of units on the shelves than originally planned.

The news comes from the International Herald Tribune who state that ' In the U.S., about 400,000 PlayStation 3 machines will be available when they go on sale Nov. 17. About 100,000 will be available on the Nov. 11 Japan launch date.', meaning that the console will be as rare as rocking horse sh*t.

Where have the extra 1.5 million units disappeared to and how are Sony going to be able to stick to their estimation of 6 miilion units shipped by March 2007?

We're looking forward to the response from Microsoft and Nintendo and can't wait to hear Sony's official word on the problematic launch.

Source : International Herald tribune

Update : Ray Maguire, Sony Computer Entertainment UK MD, has spoken to Games Industry.biz regarding the news. "We are extremely disappointed at news of this delay. We can truly empathise with everyone who was looking forward to PS3's imminent release," said Maguire. "We will however be working tirelessly to ensure that the March 2007 launch is the biggest and best in the company's history."