Good news for PS3 launch supply

by Vladimir Cole { Feb 9th 2006 at 2:00AM }

According to Warren Communications News, William Zeitler, Senior Vice President of IBM’s Systems & Technology Group, told a news conference yesterday that "yield learning" on the Cell processor that forms the core of Sony's PlayStation 3 console has been "faster than on any chip we’ve done." In English, that means that IBM is learning quickly how to produce more working Cell processors per batch of chips they cook up. This bodes well for supply of this critical component if factories contracted by Sony to produce components for the PS3 are able to crank out lots and lots of Cell processors in record time once the PS3 heads into full production.

This doesn't necessarily mean that the PS3 won't be scarce at launch, though. Consoles are made of many components. A shortage of any single component can disrupt an entire plan, as Microsoft learned during the launch of the Xbox 360. Plus, IBM's Zeitler notes that the company was able to ramp up their production of Xbox 360 parts quickly as well. What this tells us is that if the PS3 is delayed or is hard to come by, it probably won't be IBM's fault.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ill trooper @ Feb 9th 2006 2:05AM

WAREZ TEH GAMMZORZ!???

Just kidding! Gonna stay focused on the pre-order tip for this one, staying up all night outside of BestBuy was 'Teh SUXX.'

Dalton Marks @ Feb 9th 2006 3:03AM

I agree, I'm preordering this sucker once the street date is finalized. No more 3 month XB360 waiting list (in which I STILL haven't gotten my 360 >:O)

leg3nd @ Feb 9th 2006 3:33AM

I'll belive it when I see it. Hmmm G5 yeilds? Not good enough. 360 yields? Not good enough. Third time is the charm? I am not going to hold my breath.

Drew @ Feb 9th 2006 4:58AM

your pre-orderING? I would do it NOW if you haven't. At my store, we've already taken 50+ ps3 reserves. And at launch we only got 33 xbox 360's in stock. We are thinking about stoppping the reserves for ps3's temporarily until we find out allocation numbers, or other information. It's hard to guarentee that many systems. At this pace we can't. So i would preorder one NOW if possible.

soco @ Feb 9th 2006 5:04AM

well from what the information has been the problems with the 360 had nothing to do with chip yields, so like the thing says, it may not be IBMs fault, but that doesn't mean there still won't be shortages.

Alex K. @ Feb 9th 2006 6:43AM

I for one don't believe it. See Apple PowerMac G5. See Apple Intel Switch.

See the fact that Apple needs to sell 100,000 PowerMacs per quarter whereas Sony will have demand for about 2 million PS3s per quarter.

kizza @ Feb 9th 2006 8:08AM

Oh, I can't wait to walk out of a store with my shiny new silver ps3 tucked under my arm with a copy of motorstorm, burnout, unreal 2007 & hopefully I-8 ready to insert in the slot.

It's gonna be great times when the next gen really starts & the PS3 & revolution are upon us. Sony will have enough units ready here in australia for me to get 1 at launch....
As soon as they are taking pre-orders & the price is officially announced at $399-$450, I will be placing my order..... Unfortunately us poor aussies will not get it until about sept-nov time.

I predict they will have enough consoles to release in japan in spring like they said, then nth america in may-july, then europe & australia in september... I believe this is how sony has worked in past instances....& fail to see them change that winning way anytime soon.

I just wish the launch would hurry up as when 360 launches here in oz in march, it will become ever increasingly difficult to look at ps2, cube & xbox 1 games.

Comon sony, get those cells, rsx graphics chips & all the rest of the plastic fantastic (like pamelas boobies) parts happening. I'd love to be playing a PS3 by march 2006 instead of hearig MS fanboys talking smack before they even know the enemies weapons & tactics...

PS3 will deliver the devastating combo that rocks the 360 box, then the revo shall blackin up bills eyes....and finally sony will come up with a flooring uppercut that will knock bill & his 360 out for the count......
Bloody scammer has upped the price for the xbox 1 & has stopped production on them.... Shows his dedication to his own products... I guess the ps2's emotion engine was not that bad at all, considering that it's their original design means PS2's will still be able to be manufactured 2-5 yrs from now.

I say this owning a ps2 & xbox currently (sold my cube unfortunately, when should have axed the xbox). I have no plans to buy a 360 for that fact & the fact that there aren't enough standout, original games on MS's hardware. All they have is halo, online FPS's, shitty clancy games. Too much emphasis on live & not enough on innovative, standout, non sequel, non PS2 or pc handmedown titles.
Get with the program bill, start making games for gamers, instead of games for hybrid console/pc nerds, who only like online FPS's, racers & little else.

Once again the almighty kizza has set everyone straight & has influenced them to get a superior PS3 or even revolution over a 360 as your gonna have more fun, diversive titles on either one of the other consoles.

Ramp up production sony.... my money awaits the purchase of the hype machine... I'd rather buy a machine backed by hype & a likely large installed base due to that hype & smart marketing that will guarantee it has a large selection of the best titles..rather than buy a machine that REALLY DOES HAVE "TOY STORY GRAPHICS & BRINGS OUT EMOTIONS" but is marketed badly as the makers spent all their money on the machine, has minimal standout titles & only lives a short life........ Can anyone say dreamcast ( I know it didnt have toy story graphics or emotions, but it died because of the reasons mentioned)..

Kamalot @ Feb 9th 2006 9:21AM

I hope the quality control is better than it was for the PSP's pixel-graveyard they call a screen.

Oh and Kiza, you sound like a total tool.

" my money awaits the purchase of the hype machine... I'd rather buy a machine backed by hype [sic] ..rather than buy a machine that REALLY DOES HAVE "TOY STORY GRAPHICS & BRINGS OUT EMOTIONS" but is marketed badly as the makers spent all their money on the machine"

Please buy your products based on hype rather than those based on performance. You mention the Dreamcast was killed by hype. That may be true. I also enjoyed more games on my Dreamcast than I ever found worthy of my time on the PS2.

eric @ Feb 9th 2006 10:32AM

I wouldn't be worried about the cell (cough PowerPC)... there other components that give me concern. Um, Blu-Ray anyone? Where IS it? I can't buy a player yet or movies, and yet PS3 will have it.

C. Grant @ Feb 9th 2006 10:34AM

It wasn't the processors that made the PS2 so scarce, it was the RDRAM. Microsoft has been equivocal about the reason for shortages; low yields one day, general difficulties the next. The problem is really the sophistication of the components, and total package, multiplied by the enormous rollouts these products enjoy. They're unparalleled in the computer industry.

SuicideNinja @ Feb 9th 2006 11:22AM

I don't know how come Sony-advocates get so excited about the "games" for the Playstation brand. Every time I go to the wall of PS2 games in a store...nearly all the games are crap. Thousands of games, and only a handful of good exclusive ones. Sony has left a sour taste in my mouth with their cheap PS2 hardware, so I'm very hesitant to purchase anything for the PS2. I've got a couple of slim bricks if anyone wants them.

Do I want a PS3? Yes, I would like to play I-8 and the Final Fantasies (if they are exclusives). I just hope they aren't as problematic as the PS2s STILL ARE. If you still have laser problems in 14 versions of a console, then you shouldn't be producing consoles anymore. But Sony keeps plugging at it. They made me lose any confidence I could have had in the new Bluray drive, or any other disc drive that comes out of them.

I think the PS3 is something to avoid getting at launch, unless Sony is a couple of versions into the console by the time it gets to your country. The game lineup isn't looking to be that exciting anyway. I think this year goes to the 360, and next year will go to the PS3 as far as games go.

Why do Nintendo products almost never have hardware problems? I'm confident in buying a DS or Revolution at launch, because I've never had a Nintendo product go bad due to poor manufacturing and parts. Playstations have been hell, I've had one laser that needed to be replaced in an Xbox, but no problems with the Nintendo products.

m3mnoch @ Feb 9th 2006 12:18PM

okay. so, here's my official ps3 launch prediction.

early summer in japan. not nearly enough units -- about 300k. they will be $599. about 15% failure rate. lots and lots of loud, loud clammoring about 'recalls.' which, they will probably do.

the u.s. launch will come in time for the holidays. about 600k units. still $599. failure rate will be back under control - 5% or less. tho, still lots and lots of complaints.

it'll have about 20 launch titles, none of which would be considered 'next gen.'

it will pretty much go down as the worst console launch in history.

the reason? they won't wait until 2007 to get it out the door. if they waited and worked on it a bit more, it'd be a much, much happier story.

m3mnoch.

kilo113 @ Feb 9th 2006 12:57PM

Yeah, Suicideninja is right, the first ps3 units will probably have not so great build quality or durability. Ps2 units now and from launch always had drivelaser issues among other things.
And if you've ever opened a ps2 you'll see that it really is just made with flimsy plastics and uses very fragile cable ribbons. The new slims are even worse, and really don't feel solid at all.
I've played with all three console hardware and the NGC and xbox really have a much better build quality than ps2 units.

I hope the Ps3 won't end up like this! Since it will be a "premium" product, I hope they use solid partscase.

Jeff @ Feb 9th 2006 1:09PM

m3mnoch:

I'll see your prediction and raise you mine.

Sony are if nothing else great at marketing. Especially when it comes to game systems. Just look at how the PS2 took down the Dreamcast despite being barely more powerful in the real world and being a year later. I think everything Sony's been saying about the PS3 so far has been with a clear agenda of either a) building hype, or b) alternately raising and lowering expectations, depending on what's more desirable to the company at the time (i.e. raising expectations for the power of the system, lowering expectations for the price point).

So, my prediction:

The system launches in Japan in late April, just before Golden Week. (Ok, this is optimistic at this point, but it does follow the pattern, and Japanese manufacturers do like to hit that Golden Week period, which is THE big holiday week in Japan.) The price will be 43,800 yen. There will be only one model available, in the three colors. There will be 500,000 units available at launch, which will sell out within hours. There will be 4-5 launch titles. The failure rate will be similar to other electronics; about 5%.

The US launch will happen in November at a price of $399. There will be 700,000 units available, which will sell out to pre-orders, i.e. you will not be able to get one on launch day if you didn't pre-order, but more people will have them than managed to get Xbox 360's. There will be weekly shipments of 100,000 units each, however. We won't go 3-4 weeks with nothing, then only see a trickle of units. There will be 20-25 launch games - and based on the list we've already seen, most of them will be original titles (fewer sequels than the 360 launch). Many of them will already be known quantities, though, because they'll have been out in Japan for various lengths of time.

Bottom line is it'll be a more successful launch than the 360 had. Sony's got more experience and whatever you seem to think, they haven't rushed this thing to market. It'll have been more than a year between the systems' unveiling and launch, and they've obviously been working on it since well before the announcement. Remember, we had very little info on the PS2 before its Japanese launch either - all we had was pictures of the system, and shortly before launch (about a month ahead) we got screenshots of A-Train and then Ridge Racer V. We've actually seen more of the PS3 than we did the PS2, including that real-time rendered MGS4 movie. So while an April Japan launch seems optimistic, I do think it's possible.

This doesn't mean I think everybody will be satisfied. You still won't be able to walk into a store and buy a system and not everybody's going to like the launch tiles. It'll be similar to the PS2 launch. I couldn't get a PS2 on launch day but I did get a second shipment system a week later, and I only ordered it about a month in advance.

I don't think the PS3 will cost anywhere close to $599. All that talk about the system being expensive has been a red herring both to throw off MS and Nintendo and to make the system seem "cheap" once the price is finally announced. If you saw the survey of Japanese game publishers a week or so ago, you'd know that they don't expect the system to be all that expensive, and they know a lot more than we do at this point.

Jeff @ Feb 9th 2006 1:18PM

"Ps2 units now and from launch always had drivelaser issues among other things. "

Oh, this has always been a bunch of nonsense. People just don't take care of their stuff, and as old as these systems are getting now, they're starting to wear out.

I've got two launch systems (well, my US system is second-shipment), one from the US and one from Japan. No problems whatsoever with either. The only thing I do any different than anybody else is I don't throw my stuff around; I treat my game systems like any other electronic component. It's a home console and it's meant to stay where it is. But I do use both systems a lot, even today, and have never had a problem.

Optical-drive systems are not as reliable as solid-state (ie. cartridge) systems, but that's just as true of the Xbox and GameCube. The Xbox even has another point of failure, the hard drive. Any moving part adds another failure point. But I've never been convinced that there's anything about early PS2's that's any different from later PS2's or from any other optical-based system. I'd have no problem buying a launch PS3 either.

Now, the Xbox 360, on the other hand... I mean MS is the one company out of the three that's had to deal with launch systems that can actually explode. And I got burned by that myself (no pun intended); my Xbox system was one of the ones subject to the replacement power cord (which we all know is really a fautly power supply that's still in my system).

m3mnoch @ Feb 9th 2006 2:00PM

sweet! you're on jeff! what'll we wager? a public virtual flogging?

looks like units and timelines are close. not really enough for a flogging, but the price and failure rates between us are drastically different enough to induce said public humiliation.

bookmark this thread ladies and gentlemen!

from jeff -
japan: 43,800 yen, 5% failure, golden week release, 500,000 units. 5 titles.

u.s.: $399, 5% failure, november release, 700,000 units. 20 titles.

from m3mnoch -
japan: 70,800 yen, 15% failure, june release, 300,000 units. 20 titles.

u.s.: $599, 5% failure, november release, 600,000 units. 20 titles.

jeff, did i miss anything?

m3mnoch.

bd @ Feb 9th 2006 2:36PM

Now that we are predicting, I say it'll cost $499. A hard drive will be available for 99$, although Sony should add it for free, or sell PS3 for $599 only and force us to have the hard drive.

"I don't know how come Sony-advocates get so excited about the "games" for the Playstation brand. Every time I go to the wall of PS2 games in a store...nearly all the games are crap"

Are you serious? PS2 won this console race because it had too many more great exclusives or highly expected sequels than the Xbox. You only like FPS and Racing games?

m3mnoch @ Feb 9th 2006 2:46PM

oooooh! $499 with a $99 hard drive. i like it. nice work, dude.

m3mnoch.

gamer1 @ Feb 9th 2006 5:36PM

I have to agree with bd on this one. $499 sounds about right. But the reason for why the PS2 did so well was because of the US's addiction to sports games. Check out the PS2 game sales charts:

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/684/684395p1.html

I might preorder a PS3 when it comes out online, depending on how much it costs. I think that its the best way do it, as that is how I was able to get the Xbox 360 at launch. Although, I had to purchase it as a bundle, the games that came with it were pretty good to me at least.

That is another thing. I lucked out on getting pretty good games with my Xbox 360 bundle. If preorders online for the PS3 are in bundles as well, I'm afraid that they might package the system with crappy games. I hope that the PS3's launch titles are somewhat good if they decide to do the bundle approach this time as well. Since the PS3 should be a little more expensive than the Xbox 360, there's no way that I'm going to fork out a couple hundred more dollars for weak games. The advantage of the system launching in Japan first lets importers test out the games, so at least we get a heads up on what our money is going into. As far as US developed titles, I'm not really into sports games. Maybe there'll be a good FPS for it, but it would have to be better than what would be out on the Xbox 360.

When it comes to the systems though, Microsoft really needs to flood the US and Europe markets with systems. Since they're not hitting in Japan, they're going to have to compensate by taking additional marketshare in the US and Europe. This seems like the best way to get Japanese developers to create for Microsoft's platform. If there is a significantly larger user base for the Xbox 360 than the PS3 in the US and Europe, Japanese developers will develop for the system, eventually bringing more Japanese gamers to the system as well. The time is ticking for Microsoft. The longer they take to develop more systems, the more people will wait to buy a PS3 or Revolution instead.

Firegryphon @ Feb 9th 2006 10:42PM

I agree with you gamer1. If Microsoft had not shipped a single console to Japan and delayed the European launch enough to get a good foothold, they might have had a chance. I think they lost too much momentum with these rediculous shortages. They could have start shipping to Japan after someone started releasing the games more aligned with the Japanese market and still hit the shelves prior to golden week (though talk about a nasty challenger... like going up against Survivor in time slots).

I hate to have to agree with m3mnoch, but I think that his predictions are closer to probable.

http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=33

bornonce @ Feb 10th 2006 2:51PM

I will reiterate a post that I made on gamespot exactly one week after E3 05: Sony will release TWO versions of the PS3.

The reasoning is as follows:
(1). Sony cannot possibly launch a PS3 with ALL of the feature they promised at E3 and still be cost-competitive with the XBOX 360 and the Revolution. They will have to offer a "gamer's version", for about $400.00, with possibly slightly reduced performance and NO Blu-Ray Video capability (a 2X Blu-Ray drive would just be too expensive).

(2). They will launch a "Media Center" version for about $700.00, including a 2X Blu-Ray drive and the full features shown at E3 05. This will be targeted at "households", for use in your Home Theater center.

I based this on the history of CPU's and GPU's, and the fact that yields vary too much to guarantee that all of the components can meet the required specs.

JMHO

louis @ Feb 10th 2006 3:55PM

Well I look at it like this basicly PS2 has been out to long anyone who would have rushed out and bought one at launch have grown out of consoles now they have lives there are a few exeptions but genrally thats how it will go and all the 12 to 16 will be out of the sales because they genrally only get these big expensive things for cristmas from their parents by the time PS3 comes out xbox360 will have droped on price to about (for the premium pack they'll phase the core out)� 180-199 From what I have seen is that many many people who have a PSP (including me)have bought a xbox 360 because of the ability to link the two up. This has given 360 another lead everything is fitting into place nicley. sorry sony your time is up in the console world. Another company will come along to try and get there share of the computer game market if they succed it'll now be known as 'DOING A MICROSOFT'.