Sony hopes to resolve PS3 "shortages" by May

James... If the shipping numbers for wiis are higher than the numbers for the PS3. Which last I checked is the case, the fact that we can't find any Wiis means that more of them are selling than the easy to locate and find PS3s. This time last year I was still looking for a 360 which had more being shipped at this time than PS3s had shipping at this time... Your logic seems to be the logic of denial...

It is technically correct, but still sounds stupid. itrackr seems to show between 70-85% availability, which means some retailers don't have any in stock. Problem is, go to the closest store, and they probably have stock. And Sony ends up sounding stupid. Again.
Sometimes when I walk into best buy, circuit city or target (I seem to end up in each about once a week) they are sold out of ps3s. Other times they have them. If consumers want to purchase a ps3 from a specific source, they may have trouble. If they want to purchase a ps3, they have plenty of options.

umm..I live toronto too, and every single store that sells any sort of videogame has PS3s in stock..I can walk over to my local best buy and see a nice pyramid of rotting PS3 consoles for sale.

Okay, okay, now these lies are just starting to get ridiculous. I also just love how the Joystiq editors just through sarcasm any place it fits. People have been seeing PS3's all over the country since eary-mid January, and now all of a sudden, Sony can't keep any on the shelf? Sony really needs to find some way to shut their execs up and really get in the game, or else it's game over for them.

I used to be *Shudder* a sony fanboy, then I
converted when the PS3 sucked =\ The PS2 still rocks though, but only because you don't have to take out
another mortgage on your house to pay for it.

Oh well, I'll stick to playing my Wii, and to saving up for a 360 =p

Not only can these be found everywhere, you can also get them ONLINE, without a bundle, from several stores... INCLUDING SONY'S. I have links to several online stores, and a list of idiotic comments from Sony, at my blog... I've started a counter...

-Leshrac
http://alinktothefuture.com

Do I get $1200?

White Rose Duelist: What word can Sony use to discuss this situation that won't get everybody's fanboy panties in a bunch? How can something be technically correct and yet not indicative of reality... you're not making sense.

Intentless: you dolt you just proved my point. My "logic of denial" is just simple logic and applies to any product, even your Xbox 360. You keep bringing up mythical shipping numbers because without those numbers everything else is meaningless, which was my whole point. I see this crap in forums all the time: people will use the stock in a local store and try to infer completely different things from it:

Situation A: I went to store X and saw tons of product A. That means product A is totally awesome and popular! Otherwise, why would the store stock so many?

Situation B: I went to store X and they were totally out of product A. That means product A is so awesome and popular it sold out!

THERE IS NO LOGIC HERE. The fact that the Wii is hard to find or that the Xbox 360 was hard to find at this time last year doesn't (by itself) mean ANYTHING unless you also bring up how many units they were shipping to the stores to begin with. You need other evidence (total units shipped to retailers and total units sold to consumers) before you can say anything about demand.

Here's a little test: A store gets 5 Wiis every week for a month and sells all of them instantly. The same store gets 40 PS3s at the beginning of the month and sells 21 of them by the end of the month.

1) Which system is "sold out" and which system is sitting on the shelves all month?
2) Which system is more popular?

The answer is that despite not being sold out and "sitting on shelves" the PS3 is more popular because it has sold more units (1 more unit, to be exact).

It's all hearsay and conjecture without sell-through numbers. I don't even care... I have all systems, but I'm astounded at how very basic statistics and logic don't seem to make their way to our populace.

If you want to play fanboy and "prove" that the PS3 isn't selling just post total sales numbers for a given sales period. I'm guessing people don't like this approach because a) they are morons and b) the PS3 isn't trailing the 360 by all that much (and heaven forbid we take Japan into account) so it's not fun to be accurate.

This whole thread of comments is pointless. From this point on every commenter who posts about how they did or did not see a large stock of some product in a store and tries to infer something from that information gets banned from the internet and gets all educational degrees revoked.

@ 12 Shortages in Toronto? I'm not gonna call u liar but obviously u haven't looked hard enough. I'm a torontonian and there everywhere.

BTW, a funny situation is when i was at da mall in da sony store i asked if i cud get a ps3, they said they sell out like mad and u wudnt be seeing a ps3 for a while, then I went to the eb games right beside it - 7 in stock.:P

Still tho i like the system and ill probably be picking it up when a few gud games come out. But we'll see.

And about the Joystiq anti-sony thing, I dunt agree with that. I remember i started reading this site when the 360 came out, and i thought this site was the biggest source of anti-Ms propaganda out there. But the reality is theyre jus biased against faulty systems and rocky launches.

It seems most of you don't know what a shortage really is and are only comparing it to the difficulty in finding a Wii on the shelves.

Something doesn't need to be hard to find in order for there to be a shortage. Even if PS3s aren't on the shelves for just a day of the month that would be a shortage. Not all customers are specifically looking for what they buy when they enter a store.. sure they could come back tomorrow or go to the store down the street to get a one but in many cases people just buy what is there.. impulse buying.

I work for a very large retail chain, the biggest in it's respective business in fact, and while we often have PS3s.. we also often sell out of them before our next shipment arrives. That is called a shortage and I'm glad to hear Sony is almost able to meet demand.

As I have access to, and interest in, the North American inventory numbers through our computer I can tell you that all across the continent we are not stocked to meet demand. There are certainly SOME stores within our chain that never get depleted but they tend to be in smaller cities and rural areas.

Just keep in mind.. not all shortages are as dramatic as the Wii shortage.

Jack Tretton's comments are clearly exaggeration butthat doesn't change the fact that there is still currently a PS3 shortage.

James -

The PS3 is best indicated by the it is on shelves because no one wants it:

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/11/december-npd-hardware-sales-push-industry-to-new-heights/

and

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/21/wii-outsells-both-360-and-ps3-in-january-despite-shortages/

931,300 combined sold in the US

Add in this:

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/07/ces-sony-ships-1mil-ps3s-targets-6mil-by-march-07/

So...Sony shipped a million units by the end of December, but only sold 687,300 of them. Sony didn't fail to outsell the Xbox 360 in December and January because of a lack of units, they were/are clearly there and ready to be purchased. It is that no one did.

The Wii sold 1.5 million in the US AND is still hard to find. The numbers don't lie, the PS3 is in stock because it isn't that popular.

"If you want to play fanboy and "prove" that the PS3 isn't selling just post total sales numbers for a given sales period. I'm guessing people don't like this approach because a) they are morons and b) the PS3 isn't trailing the 360 by all that much (and heaven forbid we take Japan into account) so it's not fun to be accurate."

The numbers I have seen (Japan and America) have the PS3 trailing the Wii by a fair amount. For January, the Wii sold about twice as many units as a PS3 (NPD data) and the 360 sold about as many as the PS3 (slight edge to the 360). Japan PS3 out sells the 360 by a healthy amount but still only sells a third the units the Wii does. I could post the hard numbers if you want, but I do not think it is that important. The DS is outselling all consoles.

LaughingTarget: Data. Thank you. In particular I want to talk about the sales numbers for last month. Based on the January data the Wii is kicking everybody's ass and the 360 and PS3 are very close, with the 360 edging out the PS3 by about 50,000 units.

50,000 units across all retail establishments (discounting online sales) would indicate that the 360 is selling like one more unit per store per month. So the stock of PS3s and Xbox 360s should look exactly the same in any given store and be selling at almost exactly the same rate.

Therefore the Xbox 360 is gathering just as much "dust" as the Playstation 3. While you think demand for the PS3 would be higher because the PS3 new, it is also more expensive and currently has less games, so it cancels out the "new" effect. The reasons the Xbox 360 was selling better at this time last year are the lower price and complete lack of competition. The PS3 is facing the 360 AND the Wii, while the 360 faced no next gen competition. Do you honestly think the 360 would have sold as many units last year if the Wii and PS3 were both out?

All I'm saying is that PS3 sales, given the hurdles it's facing, are completely respectable. All this talk of Sony being "dead" is some complete fanboy fantasy world. Just look at the data. Couple that with continued PS2 sales, respectable PSP sales, PS3 sales in Japan, Blu-Ray sales surpassing HD-DVD sales, and Sony is doing just fine. They definitely need to overcome their birthing pains and start getting games out there and find a way to get the PS3 profitable and reduce the price, and these are all things that are currently happening as early as next month.

If the PS3 is failing, why can Microsoft barely sell more units in the US? Why is the Wii kicking both their asses? Is it that both Sony AND Microsoft are failing with units collecting dust on the shelves and the Wii is the true console victor? Will the Xbox 360 have any success outside the US? Is the Xbox 360 this generation's Genesis? When you stop being a fanboy and look at the data, this seems to be the reality.

As far as 360 vs. PS3, the situation will only get worse for Microsoft. Sony's game library will only increase and their price will only go down. If Microsoft can barely sell more units now, how will they be able to topple a PS3 with a more solid library, online service, and lower price? Halo's worldwide popularity is easily cancelled out by Final Fantasy, so what trick does Microsoft have up its sleeve?

LOL, wow. these guys at Sony are something else. "Shortages"....lol, yeah shortages of demand.

If they would have done it like Nintendo, not ship any units period, tell everybody a big ass lie that the Wii is selling like hotcakes and are not to be found anywhere and just maybe both of these make-believes might have some substance to it.

James -

the 360's library will also only increase, and the price will also only go down. it will *always* be cheaper than the PS3.

you can try and rationalize "barely" more sales a year after launch as much as you want, but it's exactly that. selling more systems a *year* after launch despite the PS3's grandiose appearance on the scene.

the only trick microsoft has to do is keep doing what they're doing. its Sony who has to do something different. and quick because 3rd parties are deciding what to develop for.



.

and FF and Halo couldn't be more different markets. even if they were, there's no way FF comes out in '07. try again.