I'm not intending this thread as flamebait for either side--just presenting some ideas I came up with.

The main thing PS3 had against it at launch and now is high price and perceived lack of games.  However, if they waited one more year, they could have launched at the price they have now, and developers would have made a lot more big, exclusive games.  Also, they could have implemented the second Cell that they originally intended.

As we are seeing now, the PS3 has increased sales roughly 100% year-over-year, so clearly the price was the biggest issue.

My question is: would this benefit have been worth the risk of coming to the market two years late?

Probably not... because then (assuming everything else stays the same) all the developers would have had a chance at seeing the Wii sales for a year, and probably moved some development over to it even before the PS3 launched... it wouldn't take away the PS3s big guns like FF13 and such, but some smaller big names might have moved over... and I bet the 360 would have done better in its second year, so some games might have been exclusive to it instead of multiplat, like Assassin's Creed for example. Trust me, they did not want to launch 2 years after the 360 (and a year after the Wii also).

MAYBE. I think they could have created more hype, allowed more time for their first-party devs, and really exploded. Then again, the 360 would still be in the number one spot, regardless of the Wii.

There's two different consoles you can get. A sophisticated one that has a lot of horsepower, or the Wii. Combine 360 and PS3 sales up to the two-year-late mark and I think that's what the 360 sales would look like. Take away about two million for the multi-console owners.

That's just my thought, though.

Short anwser : no

Long answer : noooooooooooooooooooo

No, then developers would get to see how good the Wii is selling and the PS3 wouldn't have as much games, meaning that the hardcore fans wouldn't buy it. Plus they would risk losing sales to the 360.

No.

how would delay of launching a console give you more games? You really think third party will make games 2 years before a console's launch and wait for it? Heck, makes more sense for them to port it to 360 right away, if not just make it exclusive for 360 if Microsoft will throw in some cash.

So, the answer is HELL NO.

no,,they would have probably lost the HD disk format war since HDdvd was out even in 06.

so it would be a really bad move on their part by delaying one year.

No.

1) Part of the reason Sony could drop their price to current levels is because of the manufacturing of the PS3. Without that experience, without the economy of scale, the cost of the components would not have dropped so quickly.

2) Game publishers would not have sat on their hands waiting for Sony, especially since they would have been staring at a phenomenal Wii launch and likely even better 360 numbers. PS3 would have been looking at an installed user base even lower than what it is now, which would have made it far less appealing to publishers of GTA4, MGS4, etc - especially in comparison to the 360. It is very likely that you would have seen several of these titles become 360 exclusives (true or limited).

3) The PS3 put BluRay over the top. At the start of the format war, sales dedicated BR and HDDVD players were about equal - it was the sudden addition of 4 million more BR players via the PS3 that helped give BR the edge. No PS3, no BR victory (either the war would be continuing or HD would have won), and whooosh goes a big benefit for Sony.

4) Right now the PS3 is doing well because it has had time to establish itself, make mistakes and correct them. Launching now (or a few months ago) it would still be in that "window of uncertainty", 15m behind the 360, and almost 20m behind the Wii, and still suffering through many of the problems they had last year. By the time they made corrections it may have been too late to salvage the console.

If the price was right. Yes. $299 and $399 PS3 launch prices for two PS3 models in North America would of been ideal. If the price is right it will generate a lot more sales and heaps of quality games could of been available for launch.