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Quote:Online services that track online retailers say that the supply of the PlayStation 3 game console seems to be sufficient to satisfy the demand and from that point of view is better than the Xbox 360 supply a year ago.

Specialists from online track service NotifyWire.com, which tracks online retailers and sends “in stock” alerts to members via email and cell phone text messages, have been surprised at the amount of Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles available online.

“I wasn’t expecting this much volume before Christmas. I think we’re already at the point where many people won’t pay a premium for the console or be forced into buying bundles,” said Ian Drake, the chief of NotifyWire.com.

Usually retailers and online stores bundle game consoles and games to force anxious buyers into higher margin items. However, with the relatively expensive PlayStation 3 system this does not seem to work well. Compared to last year’s Xbox360 release, the PlayStation 3 has been available at more retailers, more often, and for longer periods of time.

“Last year, at NotifyWire.com, we tracked several one thousand dollar Xbox 360 bundles which would sell out in less than two minutes after becoming available. Just today, a one thousand dollar PS3 bundle was in stock at eToys.com for over 12 hours. This sort of thing didn’t happen with the Xbox 360 until well after Christmas,” said Mr. Drake.

While the PlayStation 3 is not readily available from retailers online or off, it looks like level of enthusiasm for the console is moving closer inline with the supply and this is clearly not what the industry was expecting, the online tracking firm believes, noting that this may be an alarming sign for Sony, for whom it is crucial to sell as many PS3 game consoles as possible.

Meanwhile, the sales numbers of the PlayStation 3 are yet to be released for December. Back in November the company sold 195 thousand of the game console in the USA, which is much lower amount than the firm anticipated to supply for the launch day.

Sony PlayStation 3 console is based on the Cell processor developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, the RSX graphics chip by Nvidia Corp. and will be equipped with Blu-ray optical disk drive. There are two versions of the PlayStation console available: one is equipped with 20GB hard disk drive and priced at $499, another features 60GB hard drive, card reader and some other improvements and is offered for $599.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/...14442.html

This generation is just...so interesting. :)

Meanwhile, the Wii is still completely impossible to find, despite far more supply... :)

Anyway, this isn't all bad for Sony -- the units ARE selling. Maybe they aren't selling as fast as Sony wishes, but they are selling, and in large numbers, so it's hard to say that this is really some sign of bad things to come for them... maybe when combined with the past year of bad press though. We'll see...

Yes, but Nintendo shipped several times the amount that Sony did, they sold out, and are still a hot item that can be tough to track down. If the demand for PS3 has leveled with far, far less units than the Wii, how is this <b>not <b/>horrific news for Sony?

Oh, it's bad news, but "horrific news" would be those units not selling at all, not just them selling not as quickly as Sony wanted...

Really, it's too soon to tell right now how demand will be in 2007. If PS3 demand keeps faltering then yes, it could quickly develop into a serious problem for Sony...

No, Brian (B), I have to agree with Brian (A). You have to keep one thing in mind: Nintendo's Wii shortages are mostly legitimate examples of demand exceeding supply. With Sony (and the 360 last year), supply is kept intentionally low to artificially increase demand. It worked wonders with the PS2 and the 360. You never found either machine in-stock in a retail store in the first six months of existence. Yet, the PS3 supply is less than half what the PS3 offered, and you have a decent chance before Christmas to find them in a Wal-Mart or Target.

The only way the news could be worse would be if none of them sold at all. Having unsold inventory of an item that before Christmas is certainly worthy of being called a disaster.