Sony says PlayStation 3 shipments on target

By Hiroko Tabuchi

updated 11:07 a.m. ET Dec. 14, 2006

TOKYO - Sony is sticking to its target of shipping 2 million PlayStation 3 consoles by the end of the calendar year, its president said Thursday, addressing concerns the company wouldn't be able to meet even the relatively low goal it set ahead of the year-end shopping season.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Sony Corp. President Ryoji Chubachi also said there were no expected changes in the cost of an embarrassing global recall of Sony laptop batteries, which has affected almost every major laptop maker in the world.

"It's true that availability has been a bottleneck," Chubachi said of the PlayStation 3. "But the targets are achievable. We do not need to revise our shipment targets."

Tokyo-based Sony also expects to meet its shipment target of 6 million PS3 ready by the end of the fiscal year ending March and will launch its next generation system in Europe as soon as possible, Chubachi said.

PlayStation 3 made its highly anticipated world debut in Japan in November to long lines, with local stores selling out their supplies of the video game console in a pattern that was followed days later at the U.S. opening.

The console, which is powered by the new "Cell" computer chip and supported by the next-generation Blu-ray video disc format, delivers nearly movie-like graphics.

But the launch has been anything but smooth. Plagued with production problems, Sony pushed back its release date and managed to ready only 100,000 PlayStation 3 machines each in time for its Japan and U.S. debuts. It also postponed its Europe launch until next year.

That has helped rival Nintendo Co.'s Wii, which also hit U.S. stores last month, outsell the PS3 there by more than two to one, according to industry figures. Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 got a head start with a launch last year.

The competition has meant it will be difficult for Sony to maintain the dominance its previous generation consoles commanded on the global market, with more than 200 million PlayStation series machines sold worldwide over the years.

Selling machines in high volumes is crucial in the gaming business because hot-selling formats attract software companies to make more games, which in turn boost console sales.

The company is also relying on royalties from game makers to reap returns on the massive investment in its PS3 console. Sony will be losing money for a some time on each PS3 sold because of the high costs for research and production that went into the highly sophisticated machine, as well as high costs of parts.

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