If you are wondering why Sony is only going to have 500,000 PS3s available at launch (400k in North America and 100k in Japan), you can blame part of the shortage on the number of demo kiosks that Sony plans to have up and running at retailers as the new console debuts. Am I being overly dramatic? Just read this little blurb regarding the demo kiosk allotment situation via our good friends at Gamespot:"Speaking with Bloomberg, Sony Computer Entertainment America Jack Tretton said that 15,000 PlayStation 3 demonstration kiosks will be deployed to American and Canadian retailers over the holiday season. By contrast, only 3,000 demo kiosks were used for the PlayStation 2 launch."
That kiosk number represents 15% of what Sony plans to ship to Japan. It is not an insignificant number. The question then is: "why is Sony dedicating so many units to demo a system that no one is going to be able to easily buy due to shortages?"
[Via Gamespot]
