The PlayStation 3 which has been available in Japan and the US since last November has now a confirmed launch date of March 23rd across Europe, along with over 30 game titles. Only the 60GB version will be available at the time of launch, which will have a recommended retail price of €599 (£425 in the UK).
Originally this console was to be released in Spring 2006, but was delayed due to issues with Blu-ray's copy protection, followed by a second delay in Europe due to a problem manufacturing blue laser diodes for the console. Since its launch in the UK and Japan, it has sold over one million units in each country. However, its overall sales are still well behind Xbox 360's 10 million shipments due to its much earlier launch of November 2005, not to mention that the Xbox 360 is already available in the EU. Sony aims to have one million PS3's available in Europe for its launch, with a quarter of this figure in the UK.
Like the PS3 versions available in the US, the upcoming European PS3's will play Blu-ray disc movies, however as Sony previously announced, the player will not play region coded Blu-ray discs from the US or Japan.
