Months ago I said that I believed that Sony was planning for a Q4 2007 release because they anticipated Microsoft and Nintendo producing basically updates on the Gamecube and XBox after 5 years and releasing them in Q4 2006; this would have put Sony in the position to release an afordable system and hype their competition to death. When Microsoft released the XBox 360 in Q4 of 2005 Sony was forced to release in 2006 because you can not give a company a 2 year head start in any market and expect to regain control. If Sony would have delayed the PS3 the XBox 360 would have sold 12 Million consoles in North America and 8 Million consoles in Europe and secured a ton of third party support before Sony got to market; when the PS3 was released it would be facing a $200 console with a massive library of games.
