A delay to the launch of PlayStation 3 looks even more likely today, after Sony decided not to unveil the next-gen machine at this week's Destination PlayStation in Miami. Destination Pl⛄ayStation is an annual, invite-only event in which third-party software publishers try to sell retail buyers on their upcoming🥀 products. In other words, it would have made sense forPS3 to be there.

Sony has continually stat🤡ed that PS3 would be released - in Japan, at least - this spring, despite problems finalizing its Blu-ray discs. But the next-gen machine has made no appearances of any real in♛terest since the E3 show last May, and an expected hands-on chance with PS3 failed to materialize at either Destination PlayStation or a recent games event in Taiwan.

"We hope to release PlayStation 3 in the spring, however we have made no official launch date," was Sony's official statement this morning.

It's highly unlikely that PS3 will appear anywhere until this year's E3 game show,🅰 which makes it hard to believe that a spring launch is anything more than an optimist's dream. With E3 now only two months away, we won't have long to wait to find out the truth.