21 August 2006 - Sony Computers American president, Kaz Hirai, has let it slip that manufacturing of the PS3 hasnt started yet.
With a November 17th launch date looming, Sony apparently still has quite a way to go in building up its stock of consoles.
Hirai, in an interview with Gamespot UK, said that everythings pretty much on track, and all signs are good to go.
However, he also said, We havent started manufacturing yet. Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the production lines and everything else".
But they are, again, preparing as we speak to get the manufacturing going."
Weve not announced and we havent set really a specific date to say, As of this day were going to start manufacturing'.
He also admitted that Sony dont expect to be able to keep up with demand, calling it a logistical impossibility.
Sony has allotted the number of units to each territory yet, and Kirai explains, I think that weve always talked about shipping 2 million units worldwide within the calendar year".
Since were going with three territories, we really havent come up with an allocation just yet."
But even if you do the simple math, youre talking about less than 700,000 units per territory, per major territory, between launch and the end of the year.
According to Kirai, a final line-up of launch titles hasnt been agreed yet, because Sony wants to feed games to consumers piecemeal, to keep the portfolio fresh.