The computer component manufacturing giant, Asustek, have reportedly begun to ship PlayStation 3 game consoles to Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

The very fact that the unit is in prodcution means that the hardware setup has been finalised and the launch is expected to take place sometime in mid-November. From the article:

According to a report, about 200 thousand component sets were shipped to Asus in June, which means that the company is in position to build 200 thousand game consoles. It is also said that in July the Taiwanese builder will receive higher amount of component sets for the PS3, while in September and October the company will get “more than one million [component] sets.

Sony had promised to have 2 million PlayStation 3 consoles available at launch and look set to achieve this if these figures are correct.

The two versions of the PlayStation 3 game consoles – for $499 and $599 – will be launched on 11th of November in Japan and on the 17th of November in Australia, Europe, U.S. and other regions.

[Read] X-bit Labs.