Sony Halves U.S. PlayStation 3 Shipments; European Launch Delayed

Ensuring that the hotly-anticipated Blu-ray enabled PlayStation 3 will be even more in demand this holiday season, Sony has announced it is cutting launch shipments of the console in half due to blue laser shortages.

Sony will now ship an expected 2 million units total in the U.S. and Japan when the player launches on November 17, down from 4 million the company promised back in May. The reduced shipments will affect both the $499 and more feature-laden $599 models of the next-gen console.

Apparently confirming the rumors of fourth-quarter delays in Blu-ray-driven products that had begun swirling last week, Sony said the limited supply of the PS3 is due to shortages of the blue lasers for the device's internal Blu-ray drive.

Plans have also been scrapped for the planned simultaneous European debut of the next-gen game console, which has now been postponed to March 2007. However, Sony says it still expects to ship 6 million players worldwide by March despite the delay.

The head of Sony’s game unit, Ken Kutaragi, made the announcement in Tokyo after the close of the Tokyo stock market.