Monday, October 23, 2006

The PS3 will not be available to North American consumers until Nov. 17, but last week’s brief demonstration made clear that Sony has produced a powerful entertainment machine. As Japan’s digital champion, Sony has created an elegant paragon of domestic technology that seems set to hold its own against Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the Wii console due next month from Nintendo.

It’s about time. The PS3 was originally scheduled to be released in the spring, but problems with Sony’s fancy new Blu-Ray disc system forced a delay. The machine was also originally supposed to be released in the world’s major markets at the same time, but the production problems have forced Sony to delay the European launch until next year.

And then there’s the fact that it will be all but impossible for normal, everyday consumers to actually find a PlayStation 3 for sale this holiday season. Sony will be able to deliver only 400,000 copies of the machine to North America at first, and those will almost certainly sell out within hours, even though the top version of the PS3 will cost a mighty $600 before you even buy any games. (There are going to be a lot of angst-ridden parents and frustrated kids out there this year.)

But for all of those caveats, just a few hours actually playing the thing last week made clear that for most gamers the wait will be worth it.

Out of the gate, the PS3 graphics and the Xbox 360 graphics will be almost indistinguishable.