Europe isn't "guaranteed" a March release -- Ben Dover, are you there?

Well... are you there? Guess he's a little busy at the moment. Why is he busy? Because the March release date for the PS3 in Europe has been refused to get set in stone -- that is, the release is more "around" March. Phil Harrison gave this smart little speech on the issue: "Given that all of our previous statements about launching in Europe simultaneously with the US and Japan turned out not to be the case, I would not like to make any definitive statements on that. It's not my job to comment on hardware supply issues other than to say some very smart people are working very hard to catch up. In fact, the ramp up is already starting to happen in supply and output, just obviously too late for us to have launched in Europe at the same times as the US." Heh, it's not my job! It isn't, but that's still a funny phrase heard all too often. Let's think about this.

Now, if supply and output really is ramped up to a fairly consistent pace, is it entirely unbelievable that the PS3 might launch sooner than expected in Europe? It's an insanely longshot and probably the most optimistic idea I've typed in a long time, but that would be one of the nicest things Sony could do for Europe at this point. But really, March is probably a safe bet. Any later would probably result in torching the Sony embassy. They have one, right? Just kidding. For kicks, let's disperse 100 percentage points across these three options: Pre-March Release, March Release, Post-March Release. My personal ratios? 15%, 65%, 20%, respectively.