Recent concerns from the Sony faithful led us to believe that the PlayStation 3 delay was merely a rumour have been squashed today as Sony games chief Ken Kutaragi, today announced the delay of the upcoming console.

Sony had until recently been pledging for a Spring release of the console in Japan and other regions later in the year, this comes as a blow to the PlayStation fanboys as their arch rivals are already playing their high definition Xbox 360 titles.

The new expected release window is November for Japan, USA and Europe simultaneously. This puts the PS3 almost a year behind the Xbox 360 in terms of retail launch. As predicted, "technical hitches" related to the console's Blu-ray disc drive have forced the delay.

This comes as good news for Nintendo and its Revolution console, if they also don't announce further delays. Releasing before Sony in the Japanese market would certainly bring a surge of sales for Nintendo. The Japanese remain extremely faithful to their home products as the Xbox 360 fails to impress with its lackluster sales of late.

[source news.bbc.co.uk]