So, I hope you weren’t holding out for a PS3.  I really hope you didn’t pre-order one.  Sony was already spreading themselves very thin by releasing 2 million systems at launch between Japan, Europe, and the U.S.  Today, Sony announced that that number is actually smaller.  They’re only going to have 500,000 systems available at the system’s launch.  400,000 of those are reserved for the U.S., 100,000 for Japan, and Europe gets bupkis.  The European launch of the system has been delayed for four more months, to March 31, 2007.

For those of you hoping for a PS3 this Christmas, don’t hold your breath.  Seriously, that could hurt.  Assuming they’ll actually get 400,000 systems to the states on launch day (and really, do you believe ‘em?), your local stores will either be full on pre-orders, won’t get any, or will only be sold to the lucky few that camp out for a few days prior to launch (or is that unlucky…). 

Sony’s still saying that they should have 1-1.2 million PS3’s in the states by the end of the holiday season, far more than the Xbox 360 did last year.  But, they’re also sticking to their 6 million PS3 worldwide shipment target by the end of March.  Again, can you believe ‘em?