PS3 Preparations in Disarray?
Last week we reported that opaque Sony plans are making Japanese brokers nervous. There are more rumours this morning suggesting that PS3 production is going less than smoothly. Sony has set itself the target of rolling out four million PS3s this year, planning to make two million a month in November and December. Kaz Hirai recently asserted that Sony was still on course to meet the targets.
Production of the home supercomputer has yet to begin however, and those at the ready with soldering irons and screwdrivers in China and Japan are murmuring about shortages of laser diodes for the Blu-Ray drives. The vaunted Cell processors are also in short supply, it seems. It is said that these logistical problems have the potential to halve production.
Using such 'fresh-out-the-box' technology was always going to cause problems, but it's not only the hardware people suggesting Sony have been rushing things a bit. Frustrated sources in third-party development are grumbling too. While they have dev kits for the PS3, the operating system for the machine has yet to be finalised; something of a stumbling block when trying to build front end and menu systems for games. Technical requirements guidelines, which run to pages and pages for PS2 and both Xboxes, are non-existent. Tools, or any guidance at all, for programming online protocol and the recently added controller motion sensors have yet to be supplied too.
Sony will still have to push very hard to meet their hardware deadlines. But the mad rush is leaving big question marks over the functionality and quality of release titles too. Will it be alright on the night? Or is Sony going to reap a whirlwind? Feel free to post your musings in the forum.
