All Things News

Straight from Joystiq: “Today’s dual nuclear strikes by Sony have apparently tipped some loyalists over the edge, causing them to finally sever that umbilical game cord that’s been tattered and barely hanging on since last May. Fanboys have weathered some rough storms as Sony dropped PR bomb after PR bomb, but today may have been the last straw as one such disgruntled man, Angry Gamer, has certainly had all he can take.

In a violently written Dear John letter, Mr. Angry lays down the law in his impassioned break-up note with Mr. Sony. Whether or not he’s just burning through the day on pure emotion, his words certainly embody the anger many fans may be feeling at this moment: “Today was the breaking point. Delaying the PlayStation 3 to March 2007 because you couldn’t make enough machines in time is the ultimate betrayal.”"

Straight from Joystiq: “Apparently the blue laser diode shortage that has delayed the PAL launch of the PS3 will also be affecting the North American and Japanese launches of the console. Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Ken Kutaragi told reporters that far fewer units will be available for the U.S. and Japanese launches, with the U.S. to be allocated 400,000 units, and Japan getting 100,000. As a result, Sony has now lowered its estimate of 4 million PS3s shipped by the end of 2006 to a more realistic 2 million.

Kaz mentioned this exact estimate reduction a couple of weeks ago in a Gamespot intervew (which was quickly retracted), so it appears as if the company has known about the production issues for a while. Thanks to these production issues, trying to bag a PS3 at the suggested retail price before Christmas is going to be game in and of itself.”

Straight from Ars Technica: “The simultaneous worldwide launch of the PlayStation 3 has been scrapped. Sony has announced that Europe, Russia, and the rest of the PAL territories have been eliminated from the November launch plans, leaving only Japan and North America to launch on schedule. The Japanese launch is scheduled for November 11, with the North American launch coming a week later on November 17. The delay pushes the European/PAL territory launch back to March 2007.According to a statement, “The revision of the launch date in the SCEE territories is caused by the delay in the mass production schedule of the blue laser diode within the Sony Group, thus affecting the timely procurement of key components to be utilised in PLAYSTATION 3.” This jibes with earlier reports that Sony was indeed experiencing blue laser shortages. It remains speculative whether or not Cell yields are also lower than the company had hoped for. In a press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi said that the blue laser diode shortage has put them behind “by around one month.”"

Straight from Joystiq: “From the “PS3 can’t get a publicity break” file comes news that the system’s Blu-ray load times will be slower than the DVD speeds of the Xbox 360.

Following our post regarding Resistance: Fall of Man’s beefy 22GBs of data, Microsoft’s Andre Vrignaud (aka Ozymandias) wrote about why storage capacity isn’t as important as drive speed and — wouldn’tcha know it? — Blu-ray has bunches of the former and not so much of the latter.

Former Sony employee Mark DeLoura responded with a long, thoughtful response sticking up for the format that fanboys love to hate, talking textures, audio, and even read speed. Naturally, there’s some guffawing from the other side of the aisle as Ozymandias takes umbrage with some of DeLoura’s claims, notably that textures and other media will take up a sizable chunk of that Blu-ray disc. One area they are in agreement on is that Blu-ray’s read speed isn’t as fast as the Xbox 360’s.”