This Is Dying

BUT DON'T PANIC.

At least, not if you live in Japan or the United States, because Sony will have plenty of PS3's for you to stick under your Christmas trees and bonsai bushes. Or at least they would if it weren't for Sony's second bombshell of the day, that they're launching with only 500,000 units total! To put that in perspective, Microsoft sold 500,000 Xbox 360s in Europe alone during its first month in stores. Then again, Microsoft only wound up selling 1.5 million units in 2005, and Sony promises to ship 2 million (recently down from 4 million) PS3's by the end of 2006, so in spite of the global meltdown, Sony could still outlaunch Microsoft.

But that's the point! The PS3 is supposed to beat the pants off the Xbox 360. With an install base of 100 million satisfied customers, how can you go wrong? How indeed. Sony's tactic has been to eviscerate themselves with the laser sharp edge of a Blu-Ray disc, one terrible P.R. announcement at a time. You see, Sony thinks they can use their leverage in the video game market to introduce a new media format, thus cornering two industries at once and making enough money to, well, buy a PS3. The fact that such a gamble was driving the cost of their system above the $600 mark used to seem ironic, used to before a shortage of Blu-Ray diodes cost the company a holiday launch in Europe. Suddenly, $600 doesn't seem so expensive.