"No final PS3 launch plans until mid-September" - Sony UK

Sony UK has insisted it is still at least a month away from finalising PS3 roll-out plans, as official UK distributor CentreSoft confirms it has been testing the water on controversial pre-release initiatives with the retail community in preparation for the November 17th launch.

GamesIndustry.biz has learned that CentreSoft called a meeting two weeks ago for leading indie games retailers in order to gauge their views on a number of hypothetical launch scenarios. The distributor plans to utilise the feedback in order to best represent indies' interests when Sony confirms it launch plans for the UK.

CentreSoft managing director David Neal confirmed to GI.biz that the scenarios discussed included what might happen in the even that Sony implements its controversial GBP150 pre-order scheme, and how the system could work to ensure parity and fairness of allocation across the board.

âThis was a CentreSoft meeting and doesn't represent Sony official position in any way,â Neal said. âWe wanted to canvass the opinion of indies on a number of 'what if?' scenarios - but we're as much in the dark as everyone else on Sony's plansâ.

One retailer present at the meeting, speaking under condition of anonymity, explained how the discussion on the pre-order scheme sought to explain how it could work to guarantee day one stock for vendors.

âThe brief was: guaranteed day one stock - if I take 400 orders I get 400 on day one, not the launch window. But to ensure that we'd have to give up the whole deposit to Sony,â the retailer said.

Speaking to GI.biz, a Sony spokesperson confirmed that the meeting was an independent CentreSoft initiative, while revealing that formal plans would not be confirmed until next month.

âWe and Centresoft are trying to work as closely with our trade partners as we can to ensure a smooth launch. We have not announced our launch plans and probably won't be doing so until mid-September,â the spokesperson said.

âThis is in large part because there are many unknowns we need to resolve before we complete our plans. One of these unknowns is production and production quantities.â