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Thinking of getting a PS3 for the Holidays? I'll pass ...

Three months to go. 2,000,000 consoles to manufacture - that works out at 15 a minute!
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

There's less than three months to go until Sony launch the Sony is going to have to squeeze nearly 670,000 units a month off the production line, which works out at 15 a minutelong awaited PlayStation 3 games console, yet according to SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) president Kaz Hirai, manufacture hasn't even started.

Sony are hoping that the PS3 will help to turn around the run of bad luck and negative publicity that the company has experienced over the past few months, so I'm staggered to find out that not a single PS3 has rolled off the assembly line yet.  What this means is that over the next three months Sony is going to have to squeeze nearly 670,000 units a month off the production line, which works out at 925 an hour or 15 a minute, 24/7. 

That's a lot of consoles. 

Looking at these numbers, I see one of three things happening:

  • That Sony is going to push these consoles out of the door with minimal attention to quality control and they're going to be seeing a lot of them back for repair later on
  • Sony aren't going to hit anywhere near these kinds of numbers and there are going to be shortages
  • A combination of the two (shortages and quality shortcuts)

The problem is going to be made worse by the fact that the PS3 is crammed with cutting edge technology (Cell processor, Blu-ray drive, etc), and a kink anywhere in the parts supply pipeline could also be a disaster.  Also, it leaves very little room for testing.  Sony really can't afford to slip up here, which leaves me wondering why Sony is cutting it so fine.  Given Sony's recent track record, the PS3 will need a serious running in to make sure that it doesn't contain any exploding parts.

I know that pretty much every tech company operates by the principal of Just in Time manufacturing, but I still can't understand why Sony has held off production of the PS3 for so long and instead shifted attention onto creating pink versions of the PS2 and PSP.  Sounds like Sony's priorities are all messed up.

My advice would be to steer clear of the early PS3s (thus saving yourself some cash and avoiding a lot of Holiday hassles if the thing is a dud) ... or buy a few, sell em on eBay for a small fortune and wait for all the bugs to be ironed out!

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