Sony did it again! The PS3 launch in Europe has been pushed back until 2007. Sony blamed manufacturing laser diodes for the PS3’s Blu-ray Disc drive for the shipment issues. “The revision of the launch date in European territories is caused by the delay in the mass-production schedule of the blue laser diode within the Sony Group, thus affecting the timely procurement of key components to be utilized in PlayStation 3″.

This morning in Tokyo, Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi reportedly announced that only 500,000 PlayStation 3s would be available in the US and Japan at launch, and that the console’s European debut had been pushed back until 2007.

Of the 500,000 launch PS3s, 100,000 will go on sale in Japan on November 11, and 400,000 will hit store shelves in North America on November 17. “We decided to focus on the Japanese and US markets,” Kutaragi told reporters at a Tokyo press conference before apologizing for the delay, according to the Associated Press.

[UPDATE] When contacted by GameSpot about today’s PS3 news, Sony reps said only that the company had “not announced specific ship numbers for Japan or North America.”

Two weeks ago, Sony Computer Entertainment America president Kaz Hirai spoke with GameSpot about the forthcoming launch of the PlayStation 3. In the interview, the veteran game executive said that Sony expected to ship 2 million units worldwide by the end of the calendar year.

Source: gamespot.com