One of the problems with prophecies and forecasts is that if you look too far ahead, you miss what's right in front of you.

Game industry analysts have had different sorts of opinions on who will come out on top at the end of the next-gen console race. While some have predicted Sony's downfall as a result of their current pricing strategy, the Yankee Group predicts Sony's dominance with the arrival of the PS3.

There's just one hitch, of course: the PS3 still isn't being manufactured, let alone sold.

A recent Gamespot interview with Sony Computer Entertainment's American President Kaz Hirai outlined the overall projection Sony has for the future, while at the same time keeping mum about certain topics. In addition to discussing the result of Yankee's prediction, Hirai also mentioned that point about the PS3 still not being in the manufacturing stage. Hirai says,

We haven't started manufacturing yet. Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the [production] lines and everything else. But they are, again, preparing as we speak to get the manufacturing going. We've not announced and we haven't set really a specific date to say, "As of this day we're going to start manufacturing."