PlayStation ‘HUB’ and a September Launch of PS3 in Japan and the US are been rumored here
Of course XBox Live needs competitions. Not sure what Sony can pull of till September. But it is indeed crucial. Like the whole thing. I think the PS3 release date is the one dimension of the watershed decission that is due this year: If they release in September or earlier and if PS3 as well as the online service are comparable to what’s out there right now then Sony might have a chance to survive. The quality of PS3 and online service are the other dimension.
Since nobody has seen anything yet, it can only be speculated upon.
But the fact that Sony has shown nothing since last years E3, and those images were clearly not from a real PS3 point in the direction that the PS3 will not be as great as Sony tried to make everybody believe last year.
If Sony had any images or release date then they would need to put this out right now in order disturb the momentum of the competing technologies: Every day people buy XBox 360s. These people will buy games for that machine, and not for the PS3. Decent hype around the PS3 could stop the ongoing proliferation of the 360 somewhat.
A friend of a friend said that there will be final devkits in June. If that would be true then a September launch is impossible. And that in turn mean that Sony is done. Toast. Over with. You probably can still buy a Flatpanel TV in 5 fives with those four letters on. But chances are that it’s actually from some chinese company that picked up the brand.