The good news for US and Japanese gamers is that Sony PlayStation 3 will go on sale in the US as planned in November. The bad news for Europeans, Asians and Australians is that, because of Blu-ray manufacturing problems, they will have to wait until March 2007 before they can get their hands on a PS3.

Toshiba has revealed that Europe's first commercially available standalone HD-DVD players will be available from mid-November.

Already available in the States, Samsung's brought its new Blu-Ray-equipped BD-P1000 player to Europe to show off to industry types. Currently doing the rounds at the IFA show in Berlin, Samsung assures us that it will be hitting the shelves in October. Expect to pay more in Europe than the US$1000 asking price.

Japan's TDK has aligned itself behind the Blu ray format and has produced a prototype of a recordable blue laser disc that has a capacity of 200 GB. On Thursday, TDK also announced that it would begin shipping 50GB recordable and rewritable Blu-ray discs in the coming week.

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., whose Blu-ray high- definition DVD competes with Toshiba Corp.'s format, said it plans to release a player in Japan after October, giving Toshiba at least a six-month head start.