At Sony's PlayStation Business Breifing 2006 held yesterday in Tokyo, Ken Kutaragi released a slew of details specific to the PlayStation 3 hardware and online strategy, along with the strategy for Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) throughout the end of the year. The biggest story of the day was that the PlayStation 3 will be launched worldwide in November 2006, most definately creating a scenario of extreme limited supplies upon launch and shortly thereafter if Sony cannot deliver the promised one million units per month projection. Here are the hightlights from the breifing.

PlayStation 3

• Simulataneous November 2006 launch in Japan, North America, and Europe. Manufacturing capacity estimated at 1 million units per month. Total number of units produced by end of March 2007 is 6 million, which might equate to 2 million available worldwide at launch.
• PlayStation 3 is 100% backwards compatible with PSone and PS2 games on day one and feature upscaling to High Definition resolutions. All new PS3 games will be on BD-Rom discs, no DVD PS3 games. Console will also feature full HDMI support, unlike Xbox 360's current analog only video outputs.
• A 60GB hard drive may or may not ship with the unit in the box; however, all PS3 games will require use of the hard drive. There are no hard driveless scenarios the developers will have to code to, unlike the 360. Initial capacity is 60GB and will feature the Linux OS on the drive acting as a media server. Larger capacities are possible. Sony will also allow games to boot off the hard drive, allowing downloadable games.
• "PlayStation Network Platform" is Sony's answer to Xbox Live. The service will feature matchmaking lobbies, video/voice chat, along with a marketplace. The platform will also feature a unified ID system like Microsoft's Gamertag and will provide basic access to the platform for free.
• Final hardware Development kits with production Blu-ray drives and controllers will be completed by the end of June and available for purchase in July.
• Price was not announced, but a minimum price point of 50,000 Yen (~$425) was rumored.

Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP)

• Sony will introduce the Sony PSP Basic Pack in the US at the end of this Month at the price of $199. This pack has only been offered in Japan with none of the accessories from the current $249 Value Pack.
• A spring update to the built-in web browser for the PSP will feature Macromedia Flash 6.0 support
• A major firmware update is planned for this fall will feature RSS support, video and voice-over-IP.
• A USB GPS receiver will be offered later in the fall that will interface with new games (Hot Shots Golf).
• A PSP EyeToy camera will be released in September and will feature a version of EyeToy Play and video chat.
• Also was mentioned was a electronic distribution system for the PSP is being developed and will allow the use of playing PSone emulated games off of Memory Sticks.

With the final PlayStation 3 development kits to be completed by the end of June, has Sony given it's game developers and publishers enough time to be prepared for launch? With such a narrow four month window, the launch title list may be fairly limited. Until then, the upcoming GDC and E3 2006 shows will hopefully begin to feature games running on the PlayStation 3, instead of approximation renderings.

PS3 worldwide in November [Joystiq]