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   Scared you there for a moment, eh? Well, don't worry, they haven't delayed the European launch of the PlayStation 3 any more. But they did postpone their announcement that was supposed to give us all the juicy - and, best of all, official - PS3 launch details for PAL territories a bit earlier this week. By now, however, it's official: "Sony Computer Entertainment Europe today announced that PlayStation 3 will be launched in the PAL territories of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Australasia on 23rd March 2007 at a price of EURO 599 (GBP 425, AUD 999.95, NZ 1199.95)" (update: replaced with data from the latest press release we received, with prices for all PAL territories).

   Sony expects to have 1 million PS3 units available in Europe during the initial launch period (i.e. NOT from day-one) and they also confirmed that initially only the 60GB model will be available - with the 20GB model to follow later in the year "dependent on demand".

   £425? As in €645? As in $836?! And no 20GB PS3? For their own good, I really hope this announcement only refers to the United Kingdom, and not the rest of Europe, where we were expecting the price to be more like €600 for the 60GB model (which is still a lot more than $600). We'll look for more info on this, and will return with an update to clarify the price and model availability in Continental Europe.

   In the meantime, there are over 30 games confirmed for the European PS3 launch line-up (scroll down for the usual suspects), including fully-featured downloadable games available on the PlayStation Network (Tekken: Dark Resurrection and Gran Turismo HD Concept), as well as a few "brainteasers" such as Go! Sudoku, Go! Puzzle, Blast Factor and flOw. And finally, "concurrent with the European launch, a new System Update to further enhance the entertainment potential of PS3 will be issued".

   The PS3 peripherals available at launch will be as follows:
SIXAXIS Wireless Controller - £34.99 (€53)
Blu-ray Disc Remote Control - £17.99 (€27)
HDMI Cable - £17.99 (€27)
AV cable - £17.99 (€27)
Component AV cable - £17.99 (€27)
S Video cable - £12.99 (€20)    Oh, and if you're hoping for a price cut in the near future, Joystiq says too bad: it's not gonna happen until Summer 2008, at the very least.

   You'd think that with all these delays, and the unlikely price cut, Sony would be at a serious disadvantage in the next-gen race. And you'd probably be right in thinking so, like many of us. But that's not what certain market analysts believe. On the contrary! Research and Markets recently published a report in which they predict that Sony's PlayStation 3 will eventually win the console war, "with an install base of around 75 million globally by 2010". Although other "specialists" also share this opinion, it still sounds like pure science-fiction to me. But, then again, I was never too good at science. And I totally sucked at fiction. So what do I know!

UPDATE: The latest press release we got from Sony clarifies the prices for all PAL territories (see first paragraph), but it still says that the 60GB model will be the only one initially available.