Yeah I just read an article in the Economist about Sony delaying the PS3 launch by several months. "Ken Kutaragi, the head of Sonys game division, blamed the delay on the late finalisation of technology standards associated with Blu-ray, a next-generation DVD format in which PS3 games will be delivered."
And here is some more of the article:
"But while the confirmation of a delay will have disappointed gamers in Japan, where the console was expected to launch first, there was good news for those in America and Europe. Mr Kutaragi said that Sony intends to launch the PS3 almost simultaneously around the world, which means the American launch will happen in November, as most observers had expected; and the European launch, widely anticipated for spring 2007, will actually happen earlier than predicted. (That said, Sony originally planned a simultaneous worldwide launch for its PlayStation Portable in 2004, but was so overwhelmed by demand in Japan that the American and European launches were delayed by several months. The same could easily happen with the PS3.)
Sonys announcement ended months of silence from the company regarding the PS3, but it will not entirely quell the rumours about its status. Not everyone believes the company when it says delays with Blu-rays copy-protection standards are the reason for the hold-up. The standards have taken longer than expected to finalise, but Sony says it will launch Blu-ray-equipped laptop computers and stand-alone Blu-ray video players during the summer, months before the PS3 goes on the market. As a result, some analysts think Sony is using a small delay to Blu-ray to justify a longer delay to the PS3. The extra months will give it time to ramp up manufacturing, and will give software developers longer to finish their launch titles for the PS3, thus ensuring a reasonable selection of games by November. Blu-ray, in short, may be only part of the problem.
The timing of the PS3 launch is critical to Sonys broader corporate strategy. The company is betting on the technologically ambitious new console to do more than just continue its profitable dominance of the games industry. (The PlayStation 2, the clear winner among the current generation of games consoles with sales of over 100m units and a market share of around 70%, has sustained the company in recent years.) That is because Blu-ray is currently locked in a standards war with a rival high-definition disc format, HD-DVD, backed by Toshiba. Billions of dollars in future licence fees are at stake as the two formats fight to establish themselves as the high-definition successor to the DVD format."