The BBC reports that Sony is delaying the launch of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) until November. The BBC said Sony blames the delays on the console's Blu-ray disc drive.
Sony had been aiming for a spring launch for the successor to best-selling PlayStation 2.
The news was announced at a hastily-convened news conference, after reports of a delay appeared in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's main financial daily newspaper.
The reports had triggered a 1.8% drop in Sony's shares to 5,470 yen ($46.56; £26.67) on the Tokyo market.
The PS3 is one of three new gaming consoles promising cutting edge processing and graphical power.
It is hard to see how this delay won't give at least a slight advantage to the Xbox which released the Xbox 360 last year. There was a shortage for the Xbox 360 that angered gamers but now they new Xbox 360 will have a prolonged time period to stand alone with no new competition from Sony or Nintentdo.
