"We were all expecting CES to be a metaphorical explosion of PlayStation 3 information. Hands-on demos, finalized hardware specs, a big fat price tag, and the unveiling of a non-Spider-Man font and a non-comes-back-when-you-throw-it controller. Since the PS3 is supposed to be available this Spring (March estimated), this would be the last chance to prepare retailers and insiders for the next generation of PlayStation.

Whoops, none of that happened. If you'll remember, a few weeks ago some analysts predicted that the PlayStation 3 wouldn't come out this Spring; it wouldn't come out this Spring at all! The number-crunchers say that a 2007 release is more likely; and now, it's almost confirmed.

At this point, it would be impossible to release the PS3 before May. Something like that needs to be hyped, and retailers need to know what they're dealing with. The brief peak we got at E3 2005 just wasn't enough; it's just not commercially or economically viable. Now, the next chance Sony has to show off the final version of their new wonder-system will be this year's E3. That means that the PS3 probably won't be releasing until this Christmas, if this year at all.

Honestly, I'm not that disappointed. There's nothing worse than rushing a system just to beat or match the competition. Microsoft had to do a bit of it to get the Xbox 360 out before the PlayStation 3 comes out in Spri... oh wait.

Maybe Sony duped Microsoft. By insinuating that the PlayStation 3 would be out this March, they had to put Xbox 360 development on overdrive to beat it. But now, with the Xbox 360 being perhaps a year or more ahead of the PlayStation 3, it may have made a Dreamcast of itself on accident." [more]