You can’t blame Sony’s Phil Harrison - after talking up the PS3 so much and promising console numbers and release dates that never materialized, he’s got to start being a little more cautious. But I think his current statements shed some light on just how dire Sony’s production problems are:

Appearing in this month’s official Playstation magazine, Harrison states:

On asking if the PS3 will definitely be out in March in Europe…

“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.”

So Sony, what you’re telling us is that Sony might not even meet its thrice-delayed launch date in Europe?? Can you tell us anything definitive about the European console? Is it ever going to make it to Europe? From our ends, it sounds like you’re just barely making your production quotas and hedging your bets. Please, tell us we’re wrong.