Sony: 1.2m PS3s for US by year-end

Sony reckons it can air-freight a further 800K consoles to the US before the year is out

Sony has told US analysts that, following the launch-date shipment of 400,000 PlayStation 3s to the US, it should be able to airlift another 800,000 units Stateside before the end of the year, according to Next Generation.

Apparently, the split between 60Gb and 20Gb consoles will be roughly 80:20, and Sony is confident it can build 1.2 million PS3s per month from January onwards, which will equate to an impressive, shortage-busting first-year production of 14 million units.

The analyst briefing also touched on the PS3's Online Network, confirming that it will sport features such as video, audio and text chat and gamer rankings, and will support downloads such as casual games and updates.

The news that Sony is confident about swiftly overcoming its PS3 production problems bodes well, suggesting that a significant amount of PS3s will be available for the delayed March 2007 European launch. But it also raises the spectre of a healthy grey market springing up in the intervening period, a phenomenon on which Sony has attempted to crack down heavily in the past.