Sony will start selling PS3 in Hong Kong and Taiwan on Nov. 17, it said this week.

The PlayStation 3, Sony’s first new game console in six years, is scheduled to debut in Japan just over a week from now on Nov. 11. Then it will hit stores in North America on Nov. 17. It was originally scheduled to go on sale in Europe and Australiasia at the same time but Sony postponed the launch in those regions until March 2007 because of component shortages that meant it wouldn’t have enough consoles ready in time.

Typically the launch of games consoles in Asian markets outside of Japan has lagged both North America and Europe but now Sony will put the PlayStation 3 on sale simultaneously with its North American launch.

The more expensive version with a 60GB hard disk drive will go on sale in Hong Kong and Taiwan on Nov. 17 and cost HK$3,780 and NT$17,980 (US$486 and $544) respectively. The cheaper version with a 20G-byte hard-disk drive will hit the two countries in December and cost HK$3,180 and NT$14,980 respectively.