When Sony revealed the PlayStation 3 at E3 2005 it looked like the future. A sleek curved machine, a new controller, and the promise of games in high definition.
What no one realized was that the launch was already in jeopardy. Not because of the PS3 itself but because of the Blu-ray inside it.
Players who lived through the seventh generation remember that the PlayStation 3 did not reach stores until November 2006. An entire year after the Xbox 360. A year in which Sony surrendered momentum and market share.
What most people do not know is that the delay was not part of some grand strategy. It came down to a single component. The blue laser diode inside the Blu-ray drive. The very part that made Blu-ray possible. And the one thing Sony could not produce fast enough.
What seemed like a small hiccup became one of the costliest delays in PlayStation history. The story of how that diode nearly sank the PS3 is more dramatic than anyone realized.
The PS3 was the first console to ship with a buil…
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