An analyst with Lazard Capital Markets said in a note to clients that the vast majority of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) game consoles at launch will be the premium (60GB) versions of the game machines that will come rich with features at a higher price-point.

“The split between premium (60GB) and core (20GB) units at U.S. retail stores, should be roughly 80/20%,” said Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, citing the management of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

There will be two versions of the PlayStation console available. The first one is equipped with 20GB hard disk drive which will retail for a recommended price of $499. The other features a 60GB hard drive, card reader and HDMI output and will retail $599, which makes the PlayStation 3 the world’s most expensive game console.

Given that larger hard disk drive, HDMI output and card reader hardly cost Sony additional $100, it is highly likely that the company wants to give priority to the premium console version in order to cut down high building costs of the game machine and losses on the “core” version of the console.

As reported, the initial PS3 shipments to the U.S. will be 400 thousand units, however, Gamasutra web-site quotes the analyst as saying that Sony executives promised to import another 800 thousand by air into the U.S. by the end of the calendar year. It is reported that Sony expects to ship 1.2 million PlayStation 3 consoles to the USA and the same number to Japan by the end of 2006.

And by January, Sony predicts that improvements in Blu-ray production and easing of component shortages will allow the company to ship roughly 1.2 million units per month. Lazard suggests that 14 million PS3s will be shipped through 2007.

Sony has recently said that it would delay the release of its highly-anticipated PlayStation 3 game console to March, 2007 in Europe, Russia, Middle East, Africa and Australasia, as a result of insufficient supply of Blu-ray disc drive components. Still, the firm stressed that it would succeed in shipping 6 million game consoles till March 31, 2007.