It’s rumoured that Sony will reveal details of its Playstation 3 console on Wednesday and, in particular, announce a launch date.

Reporters have unexpectedly been invited to a meeting in Tokyo, originally scheduled as a routine gathering for Playstation developers. This suprise move has naturally led to speculation that Sony have a big news story concerning the PS 3.

As well as being a games console, the new PlayStation will be able to play music and films, and Sony hope that it will rival Microsoft’s Xbox 360 set, and Nintendo’s Revolution box, which is expected to be available later this year. These so-called next generation sets feature technology and capabilities that surpass those of a high-end PC, particularly in terms of graphical performance.

In February, Sony announced that they might miss their spring release date for the PlayStation 3 because of haggling with their industrial partners over technical specifications. The specifications relate to their Blu-ray high definition DVD technology – a competitor to Toshiba’s HD DVD format. Sony claimed that unless these specifications were finalised soon, their launch date could be delayed.

In 2004, the games console market was worth $24 billion, and clearly Sony are under pressure as Microsoft strengthen their hold on the market with their Xbox 360.

Sony aren’t developing the console alone though: they are in partnership with an industrial consortium. One has to ask if Sony were bluffing when they threatened to delay the release of the set.

I guess we’ll find out on Wednesday!