Sony: PS3 released worldwide in November 06

At Tokyo's 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing Sony Computer Entertainment have announced that they are delaying the release of their long-awaited PlayStation 3 console till November due to technical difficulties.

Despite not providing a more detailed release date, the company have said they will ship one million units per month after the launch and plan to have produced six million PS3s before the end of 2006. Not only will the unit be completely backwards compatible, but will rely on a 60GB Linux-based hard drive unit which Sony is now reporting may or may not be included in the box.

Ken Kuturagi, Sony's PlayStation guru, said:
"The hardware was developed with the hard disk in mind."

Sony also let slip their plans for the online element of their new console, which will be free to play via the "basic" package and include community tools such as a lobby matching, voice chat and commerce features incorporating software bootable directly from the PS3's hard drive.

Games will come in the form of Blu-ray in the hope to minimise piracy,
though the machine will of course play movie DVDs and PS2 DVDs.

SCE also said that developers will get their hands on the console's software development kit (SDK) not in June as first announced, but July.

The news marks the first time Sony plan a global release for their PlayStation hardware.

View: IGN's PS3 Portal