Sony made it official today at a press conference: The PlayStation 3 will launch in early November 2006. The launch will take place simultaneously in Japan, North America and Europe. Sony expects to ship one million units per month.
Sony has also confirmed a number of details about the PS3. It will offer 100 percent compatibility with older titles. The PS3 will also come with full Blu-Ray support, an HDMI connector and an upgradeable hard drive (60GB it appears) that will support the Linux OS. The PS3 will also be capable of acting as a server to allow for media storage. The PS3 will be supported by a set of community tools that will include chat voice chat and commerce services among others.
All games will ship on Blu-Ray discs in part to prevent piracy.
Meanwhile, game developers should receive final PS3 development kids in June.