Japan's Sony said on Thursday it will launch the high-end version of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console on March 23 in Europe, but it has no plan at the moment to offer the basic model there. The electronics and entertainment conglomerate last September delayed the European launch of the PS3, Sony's most important strategic product for this business year, to March from November due to a production glitch.

"We will focus on the launch of the one with a 60 gigabyte (GB) drive and have no plan now to introduce the 20 gigabyte model," Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka said.

Sony Computer Entertainment is the video game unit of Sony.

Moreover, Sony plans to release 30 game titles such as the "MotorStorm", "Genji", "FORMULA ONE", and "Ridge Racer". In addition, peripherals such as the Blu-ray Disc Remote Control (24.99 Euro) and the HDMI Cable (24.99 Euro) are expected to appear on the market at the same time.

Sony started selling both the high-end model with a 60 GB hard disk drive and the basic model with a 20 GB drive in Japan and North America last November.

The 60 GB model, which will sell for 599 euros ($776), will also become available in Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand on March 23.

About 1 million units of the PS3 will be available during the initial launch period in those regions, Sony said.