With a little more than two weeks left to go before Sony's PlayStation 3 makes landfall in Europe this March 23, one more Europe boss sees the landing as a proverbial pot of gold.

Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland (SCEI) managing director Niall O’Hanrahan was highly optimistic of the console's launch, noting that 20,000 (of Europe's 2 million) PS3s were to be sold among 600 retail stores in Ireland come launch day, adding up to a potential sales total of €15 million in a single day.

"Ireland is still the number one territory for PlayStation penetration per head of population in all of the PAL regions," he said.

In light of the the console's expected € 630 (US$ 831) price tag, O’Hanrahan said that (according to market research) the truly determined fans would still be willing to pay the price, citing the console's sheer computing power and Blu-Ray as a relative bargain for the given price. And Hanrahan's confident about the console.

Make no mistake about it, you’re talking about the guts of €700, and we know that. But don’t forget what you’re buying for that. You’ve got the cutting-edge games player, the cheapest Blu-Ray DVD player on the market and a specification that would probably cost more if you were to build it out on a rival gaming console.