Yup, it's finally here. Sony PlayStation, which has conveniently ignored Singapore for the longest time, has finally decided to take an interest in us. It actually decided to have a press conference today. On March 7, the PS3 will be officially launched in the Republic and the 60GB version will go for S$799, a lot cheaper than the S$1,100-S$1,500 that we have been paying for the imports so far.

This article, however, is not about whether you should get a PS3, but about the press conference that ended with more questions than answers.

The first question is where was Sony Singapore? Journalists here have always been dealing with Sony Singapore directly including the launch of the PSP. Interestingly, Sony Computer Entertainment (the guys that handle the Sony PlayStation) decided that its Hong Kong folks (who look after the Southeast Asia market as well) would visit us directly on his time, together with the help of PR agency Ogilvy Singapore. Not a single rep from Sony Singapore was present, though there as another lady from Sony's Asia-Pacific office.

Interestingly, Sony Singapore is also one of two official distributors for the PS3 in Singapore.

Instead of using Powerpoint slides on a projector, the speaker decided to magnify his PS3 brochure on a huge 46-inch Sony Bravia. While the high-def LCD TV was absolutely fabulous, I could not make out most of the text on the presentation, even with my new S$220 plastic lenses which I had just made a few hours before. But what was wierder was that the main guy from HK decided to leave shortly after his presentation, in the middle of the Q&A session. And left the journalists with burning questions in the lurch.

We continued to direct questions at the nice lady from HK, but it seems she did not have much to offer. Actually, she did not even have her own name card.

Questions came fast and furious from the media: What is the difference between the Singapore and the US version? Why did Sony decide to launch in Singapore three months later? How many games does Sony plan to release in Singapore by the end of the year? Can the Singapore PS3 also access additional content on the US portals or is it limited to the Singapore/Asia portal?

Sony said 200 units of the PS3 would be available at the launch party on March 7, but it could offer no guidance on how many more units would be available in retail stores. It could also not provide any indication on when stocks would arrive. When the lady could not answer the questions, she said we should go down for the launch party and speak to a higher-ranking Japanese executive who would speak through an English translator. This was clearly unacceptable as some of us were filing stories within the week.

Anyway, I asked her why Sony did not send someone who was high-ranking enough to meet the Singapore media to answer all our questions at the press conference that they organized!

Discrepancies also arose. At one point in time, the main speaker (who left halfway) suggested that PS3 Singapore users would not be able to access portal in other regions through the use of some blocking mechanism like IP address blocking, but later his colleague clarified and said that there would be no restriction.

Sony also indicated in its press materials that it was "extending invitations to up to 200 members of the public to be part of the exclusive PS3 party", where these folks would be the first in Singapore to purchase a PS3. But upon further prodding by the press, the story ended up as any member of the public could go down without an invitation, and the units would be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Because I stayed back to play the games, I managed to speak to a third member of the Sony HK team who unfortunately had taken a back seat earlier. This guy was the most helpful and took a lot of effort to find the answers for me. For example, he told me that the PS3 Singapore would be no different from the US versions, that you could access the additional online content from any country or region portal, that there was a region coding for movies on Blu-ray but no such limitation on PS3 games on the Blu-ray.

I have attended a lot of product launches in my seven years of IT journalism, but this was probably the most unprepared product launch press conference that I have ever attended.

Then again, one wonders if Sony even needs to do any PR or publicity for the PS3. Even with its poor communications strategy here, the PS3 will still sell like hot cakes. And that's because as a product, it is simply fabulous. Period.