Phil Harrison has some bold words to say in response to the rather bad publicity it has been receiving of late, saying that Sony have a lot of problems at the moment, but in weeks, months and years after the launch(es), it will all be forgotten. He also speaks on other matters, particularly Blu-Ray.

“Yes, we have overreached in production of the Blu-Ray component - I can’t deny that. But that’s the price you pay for adopting brand new, leading-edge technologies that will be future proof. We will resolve those issues - we are already catching up. We will continue to catch up on the production, and as you know, we haven’t changed our full-year forecast of six million units, so we’re only talking about a ramp-up issue. We’re not talking about the fundamental design of the product itself.”

Nice to see Sony being honest for a change, though you have to question whether they will actually still reach six million units. That is a huge ramp up in production. At least he accepts that Sony have maybe chosen the wrong path for the console. Perhaps they “should of done a Microsoft”, insofar as release the PS3 in Spring, then add the Blu-Ray player at a later date, maybe November? That way, they would be in the market and no problems. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Harrison even addresses the HDMI port on the Core model of the PS3, and why it initially wasn’t (it was only initially available on the 60GB model). The reason? Market trend took a massive turn apparently, and something they hadn’t forecast. More TVs with HDMI ports were (and still are) being sold, so Sony thought maybe it was best to actually include it after all. But this sudden change would cause a huge delay in production, surely? Well Mr. Harrison had the answer to that too:

“The criticial question,” he says, “is not ‘when do you start manufacturing’, but ‘when do you start assembly’. The HDMI port - whether it’s enabled or not on the machine is an assembly issue, not a manufacturing issue. The parts have been procured, clearly, in anticipation of this announcement. It’s not like we’re going to make a decision of that magnitude and then call up our suppliers and say, ‘oh, can we have a few more HDMI ports?’ Clearly this had been well planned.”

Regardless of whether it was planned or not, it’s obvious there has been a lot of problems with regards to the PS3 and production problems. To ship only 400,000 to America, and 100,000 to Japan signals massive problems. Add the fact that Europe are having to wait until March, it’s clear there really is a huge problem.

“There’s no denying that we’ve had some very public challenges,” he says. “Today, it looks like a very difficult situation - but in the weeks, months and years to come, this will pale into zero.”

Again, brutally honest, which is great to see, and has hopefully done some damage limitation. Maybe now Sony will shut up, get on with what they are meant to be doing and have a successful launch. I wouldn’t wish bankrupt on any company, as it provides competition that makes other companies like Microsoft and Nintendo compete, forcing them to think of other ways to gain market share. Roll on the PS3 launch, it will be good.