The announcement yesterday by Sony that the PS3 is being pushed back until November in terms of release date has been met with a frosty reception from the games industry. However, there was little surprise. Gamers, however, seemed shocked as well as annoyed.
Shares of the big American game publishers rose 2 percent to around 5 percent amid relief on Wall Street that the delay would not be worse; the machine is now due in Europe, North America and Japan simultaneously in early November. Yet gamers filled Web message boards with pained and at times vitriolic expressions of disappointment.
Both consumers and game experts said the delay could prompt some gamers who had been waiting for the PlayStation 3 to switch to buying an Xbox 360 from Microsoft, Sony's top gaming rival outside Japan.