Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Sony Corp., announced late on Monday that it would launch its highly-anticipated PlayStation 3 game console in mid-November. The company plans to deliver up to 4 million new-generation consoles already this year, but the game machines will not be very affordable: $499 - $599, depending on the model.

The PlayStation 3 will be launched on 11^th of November in Japan and on the 17^th of November in Australia, Europe, U.S. and other regions. There will be two versions of the console available, one is equipped with 20GB hard disk drive – it will have recommended price of $499 (ˆ499), another features 60GB hard drive – it will be offered for $599 (ˆ), which makes the PlayStation 3 the world’s most expensive game console. Even the premium version of the Xbox 360 has recommended price of $399.

Even though the PlayStation 3 will be a year late compared to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s executives have said that the part would be more technologically advanced. Apparently, technological leadership comes not only because of Blu-ray optical drive, but also because a new wireless controller. Ken Kutaragi, head of the PlayStation division, showed off a new wireless game controller that will come with every PS3. Using the new controller, players will be able to interact with a game simply by moving the handset around, the Financial Times reported.

Sony also pledged to have 2 million PlayStation 3 consoles available during the launch window, according to a report from PC World. Sony plans to ship 4 million PS3s worldwide by the end of 2006, and 6 million by March 2007.

A recent research showed that the PlayStation 3 console will cost about $900 to build, which means that even at a rather extreme price of about $600 per unit, Sony will continue to lose money on every gaming machine it sells. According to Merrill Lynch research company, the most expensive component of the PlayStation 3 will be its Blu-ray disk drive, which will initially cost $350. The second most expensive part of the gaming machine will be the Cell processor which will cost Sony “at least” $230 per unit to make. Nvidia’s RSX graphics processor will cost $70, while for 256MB of XDR memory as well as 256MB of GDDR3 memory Sony will have to pay $50, believes Merrily Lynch.

In three years time after launch the cost of manufacturing the PS3 can reach $320, believes the research firm. Merrill Lynch notes that the price of two most expensive components – the Cell processor and the Blu-ray optical drive – can tumble significantly already in 2007 when the microprocessor is shifted to 65nm production technology, while the Blu-ray drives reaches high-volume manufacturing.