A report from financial analyst Merrill Lynch suggests that Sony's next-generation Playstation 3 console could be up to a year late and will cost so much to build that the company will make a loss on each machine.

The analyst firm speculated that delays in agreeing standards for Blu-ray copy protection may cause the full scale production of Playstation 3 to be delayed until the autumn or possibly next year.

Merrill Lynch also said that the cost of parts for the unit could reach $800, ensuring that Sony would make a hefty loss on each console. The analyst estimated the cost of each Cell processor at over $200 and the Blu-ray components at over $300.

Sony's corporate website still shows the release date as spring of this year, but no firm dates have been announced. The company's stock lost over four per cent of its value on the news.

Sony controls up to 70 per cent of the gaming market but is facing increasing competition from Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's forthcoming Revolution.