Good Things Come in Threes, and Bad Things Too (PS3)

It seems like Sony has been constantly taking criticism since E3, the price of the console, the price of the console…oh and the price of the console, and this week has been no exception.

First of all there had been some pretty hefty rumours going around that the UK allocation of the PS3 on launch will be just 150,000 units, with Sony’s own Official Playstation Magazine saying “Estimates suggest that UK stock allocation is likely to be in the region of 150,000 units, so don't expect to be able to walk into a shop and snatch one off the shelf on day one.” Sony deny these rumours though with a company representative clarifying that “We have yet to confirm allocation for the UK territory. We're on target to ship 2 million units globally at launch and 6 million units by end of fiscal year.”

Secondly Sony has taken a bashing because of a PSP advert which was deemed racist by people all over the internet. The advert which features a white woman grabbing a black woman by the jaw has the slogan “PlayStation Portable White is coming”. Sony hit back at uproar though saying “The marketing campaign for the launch of the White PSP in the Benelux focuses on the contrast between the Black PSP model and the new Ceramic white PSP model.”

And lastly Sony has been in trouble with the taxman, and has been ordered to hand 191 million Euro in taxes after the tax office accused SCE of under-reporting games business income. Sony’s response was pretty straight forward, “We have always made appropriate tax payments in compliance with the tax codes of countries; this notice is unsatisfactory.”

So, that’s the end of what seems to have been a hellish week for Sony. If Karma comes in to play Sony might be reporting massive profits next week, but at the moment this reporter thinks that’s unlikely.