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PS3 Missed Ship Targets, Loses Exclusives

Posted by Zonk on Wed Nov 22, 2006 02:29 PM
from the man-these-guys-cannot-catch-a-break dept.
PlayStation (Games) Businesses Sony The Almighty Buck
Sony's having a rough week. After shootings on launch day and a harsh review from the New York Times, Bloomberg is now calling Sony out as having completely missed its shipping targets. The analyst company says there may have been as few as 50% of aimed-for units available, and that the company may only get about 200,000 units to stores by the end of the year (something Sony flatly denies). PS3 fans now also have to deal with the fact that Koei is cross-platforming two previously exclusive titles. Fatal Inertia and Bladestorm are now in development for the 360 as well, marking the latest in a string of titles that have slipped away from Sony. There is some consolation for the company to take away from this week, though. They did better than Microsoft last week in Japan, with around 81,000 PS3s, 19,000 PSPs, and 16,000 PS2s sold to a mere 4,000 Xbox 360s and ... 4 Xboxes.
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[+] The PlayStation 3 Launches In the U.S. 578 comments
Sony's next-gen console has officially launched in the states, complete with an NYC launch party, and a giant line in San Francisco. While many gamers went home happy, the night was not without incident. There was also some ugliness, with individuals being hired to stand in line, as was done in Japan earlier this week. Overall, though, the news is positive for the hundreds of gamers who waited through the night for their new console. "As midnight approached, the first person in line, New York native Angel Paredes, was escorted into the SonyStyle Store where he was handed the first North American PS3 by Hirai and Stringer. The console's box also included a personal autographed message from Hirai. Paredes, his voice hoarse from interviews and arms tired from repeatedly hoisting the console, was a good sport, standing still for the multitude of photographers and offering a few words for anyone who asked. The first three gamers in line were comped their PS3s. Once the media buzz died down, the rest of the attendees were ushered in to get what they had been waiting for all week. Though the consoles' next destinations were unknown — many are expected to be posted on eBay for a quick profit — the next destinations of the new PS3 owners was clear — go home and get some rest. " Any readers spend the night in lines, and want to share about it? Did you eBay the thing, or are you just taking a break from Resistance? Let us know how things went, and what the system is like.
[+] NY Times Review of PS3 237 comments
An anonymous reader noted that the NY Times has done a fairly negative review of the PS3. It would seem that there have been a fair number of these; it's pretty evident at this point that Sony's launch of the PS3 was not exactly well planned out; issues are still rolling in but the real test will be how it does over the holidays and into the next year.
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  • Sony Style Store just had some (Score:5, Informative)

    by mihalis (28146) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @02:38PM (#16955700) Homepage

    I was just in the Sony Style store at 550 Madison Avenue (Sony's US headquarters) and they were selling PS3s. There was a line of about 15 people (ok, men) at the checkout, which is highly unusual in my experience (I shop there regularly) and the staff behind the desk had some PS3s sitting on the floor ready to be handed over. The boxes go out in a distinctive black bag with PS3 graphics on it.

  • Bet They're feeling Blue (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gt_mattex (1016103) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @02:41PM (#16955758)

    If I'm correct the original PS3 was set to be built without the BluRay.

    I'm willing to bet that is the root their delays.

    At some point some marketing exec sat down at a global strategy meeting and predicted that to make BluRay work they would need to inject using their most popular gadget.

    Won't it suck for that exec if it turns out BluRay killed the PlayStation...or at least crippled it regardless of majority share of the market.

    • Won't it suck for that exec if it turns out BluRay killed the PlayStation...or at least crippled it regardless of majority share of the market.

      I think you mean "Wouldn't it be Apropriate if it turns out that Blu-Ray Killed the PlayStation?"

      and Yes it would.

  • Loosing exclusive titles hurts (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jfclavette (961511) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @02:42PM (#16955774)
    I'm not usually a Sony doomsday prophet, but if something can kill the PS3, it's this. They need their RPGs. They need Koei and Squeenix. If those juggernauts start to slip away, then Sony is in big, big trouble. Most switches will lean in the 360 direction because of comparable specs and input mechanisms. If the exodus reaches some sort of critical mass, where companies don't believe that the PS3 will sell anymore, that whole situation might end very badly for Sony, and very well for MS and, to a lesser extent, Nintendo.
    • I agree entirely. Pressure from a few of Sony's powerhouse studios already resulted in the Japanese price drop. Konami & "Squeenix" felt the high price point would result in a smaller installed base, resulting in lower sales for their titles. If studios are concerned that titles like Metal Gear and Final Fantasy won't sell, there could be trouble ahead for Sony.

      • Re:Loosing exclusive titles hurts (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Babbster (107076) <aaronbabb@NOSPAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday November 22 2006, @03:29PM (#16956602) Homepage
        To be fair, it's not a really question of "will" MGS and Final Fantasy sell - they'll sell huge, in that if there were 2 million PS3s owned by gamers, each of those games could still sell a million units. It's more a question of how huge the sales will be. Think of it this way: If Take 2/Rockstar had skipped the Xbox entirely in terms of GTA games, they still would have sold millions of units and made a ton of money. By releasing on the Xbox, they probably got at least a million more sales (virtually every used Xbox I see on Craig's List comes with at least a copy of San Andreas) for the relatively small cost of porting the game.

        The problem for Sony is that there seems to be a perception that they need their exclusives due to the Microsoft head start and the high price of their hardware. Because they didn't lock up franchises like GTA or the "hot" new property, Assassin's Creed (for example), Microsoft can make what is probably a cheaper deal to make them multiplatform and gamers won't have those extra incentives to buy the PS3 (don't get me wrong, there are other incentives - I'm only a "hater" in terms of price).

        The bottom line is that PS2 ended up with many (many, many) exclusives over time thanks to their ridiculous market share advantage. For at least the next year, if not a couple years, they're not going to have that advantage (certainly not in the US, probably not in Europe, maybe not in Japan depending on the Wii's penetration), so PS3 exclusives will have to come either from the preference of a particular developer (MGS's boss seems to be enamored of Sony, for example) or specific deals (like cheaper licensing fees) between the developer and Sony. Otherwise, it makes more sense to at least go multiplatform based purely on the hardware numbers.

        As a gamer, I hate exclusives because they unnecessarily (given the relatively low cost to port games as opposed to starting from scratch) limit my options. They are necessary, though, for companies trying to differentiate themselves from the competition and sell more hardware.
    • Koei doesn't make RPGs to my knowledge. It's certainly not what they're known for, at any rate.

      Anyway, the two exclusives that Sony lost are both new franchises. If Sony loses Dynasty/Samurai Warriors (or FF13 and DQ9 on the Squenix side), then there will be reason for worry. (Yeah, I know the Warriors games have almost always come out on the XBox, but the PS2 versions generally come out earlier and with expansions.)

      Rob
    • More to the point, third parties porting their games to other platforms, to me, suggests lack of confidence in the PS3 marketplace, and *that* is scary. After all, it's one thing for a dope like me to predict doom for Sony. It's another, entirely, if their third-party developers lose confidence in them.
    • This is not a worry. Most of the big-name RPGs are Japanese and with the sales of the 360 in Japan I don't think Sony has much to worry about there.
      • I don't remember the original playstation being all so hot (even in japan) when FFVII came out. Square Enix will jump ship as soon as they get a better offer on a system they think could work with their support. With FF13 so far away, it still just reminds me of the N64 days. There was a Final Fantasy scheduled for it, promised as exclusive blah blah blah. I still even have the screenshots of the demo (a bit like how we have the FF13 trailer now), and it looked damn good.

        Then we turned around and surpris
        • I've been thinking that the PS3 is looking a lot like the N64. When making the N64 Nintendo was really arrogant and high off of the success of the Super Nintendo. If you look at the interviews leading up to the Gamecube Nintendo was basically saying "Yeah, we really screwed the pooch on the N64 - this system should correct all of our mistakes" and switched to optical disks, put better sound processing in, and made the system easier to develop for. I don't think the PS3 will cause Sony to tank (or cause t

  • Xbox? (Score:4, Funny)

    by fatty ding dong (1028344) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @02:44PM (#16955808)
    They did better than Microsoft last week in Japan, with around 81,000 PS3s, 19,000 PSPs, and 16,000 PS2s sold to a mere 4,000 Xbox 360s and ... 4 Xboxes.

    At this stage in the game, who is buying a NEW Xbox? You couldn't find a used one or hit up Ebay? I need to find one of these 4 people. I have a nice 486 with a Turbo button that they might find appealing.

    • At my stage in the game I would actually consider buying an Xbox brand new.

      Why?

      They're cheap! Well, at least cheaper than the new generation of consoles. To me that's a lot. In addition, the games (most of which I've not played) I could pay 20$ or less for! That's a win-win for me, especially for a brand new console w/warranty.

      I have a PS2 I've probably played 20 or 30 games total on. And now, I can find games for 20$ or less that I salivated over about 2 years ago (I just bought GT4 and am hooked on t
    • They got them to mod and put thousands of classic games on, of course.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Valdrax (32670)
      At this stage in the game, who is buying a NEW Xbox? You couldn't find a used one or hit up Ebay? I need to find one of these 4 people. I have a nice 486 with a Turbo button that they might find appealing.

      Dude, I've seen brand new, unopened consoles from the 80s in Japan. We're talking Famicom and PC Engine (aka NES and TurboGrafx-16). There are several shops in Akihabara that sell both the systems and plenty of games, not all used.

      In comparison, an Xbox isn't that surprising of a purchase. It's still no
  • "PS3 Missed Ship Targets" the convoy must have made it safely across the channel then.

  • Well (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sv-Manowar (772313) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @03:16PM (#16956378) Homepage Journal
    A small number maybe, but Sony are also undoubtedly losing out on the import markets. After they recently shut down Lik-Sang.com and got importing PS3's to the UK and a number of other countries banned by law they will have surely shut out a sector of the market of those who are the most hardcore gamers and cannot wait for their consoles (with the European and Australasia launch coming in March 2007 due to lack of Blu-Ray components). It's a shame they had to go to these lengths, which would be understandable if they had have had a global launch date, but leaving some countries without the console for a number of months isn't the best idea, and by blocking imports to those countries they are only loosing more sales and aggravating consumers.

    I have a feeling that Sony will need to start giving incentives or at least making it a desirable environment for developers in order to create some games that will become a MUST for the console buyers (like Halo for Xbox, Gears of War/Halo 3 for Xbox360, Mario for N64 etc) if they want to really compete with the low priced Wii and the 360 which is flaunting it's powerful internet features now.

  • Funny thing... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dlc3007 (570880) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @03:21PM (#16956464)
    The interesting thing is that if all the numbers are true (or even close), that means that over 10% of all PS3s purchased were resold on eBay -- maybe higher. Don't know why, but that's funny to me.
    • I remember reading in a very non-scientific report (which probably didn't mean much, but this is slashdot, who cares) something as high as 25%. Though it almost make enough sense for me to beleive it.

      In any case, I doubt game developers will cry over it. They gave Nintendo the finger a decade ago because Nintendo was trying to control them. Sony during the PS2 days did the same, so they're probably all -praying- for Sony to fail so they can jump ship for the next console maker who'll give them everything
    • Sony is dying.

      Same troll, new generation.

    • Re:Other PS3 problems of note (Score:5, Funny)

      by Control Group (105494) * on Wednesday November 22 2006, @02:57PM (#16956052) Homepage
      So, is this only the second time you've posted this exact comment [slashdot.org], or have I missed others?

      I'd accuse you of karma whoring, but people normally log in for that.
      • Yeah, it's funny how the poster is talking about "poor backward compatability" when quite a few users have said that they're minor issues for the most part. Certain titles are unplayable but Sony has said that they're planning on fixing those issues.

        Oh, then there's the "numerous" hi-def scaling issues which is really just the same issue (once again, goint to be patched soon) happening to multiple titles.

        This guy should be writing for some political or marketing company. He's got the "take a minor issue a

        • Re:Other PS3 problems of note (Score:5, Insightful)

          by thatguywhoiam (524290) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @04:26PM (#16957410)

          I am interested in people knowing the problems that the PS3 is having so that they can make informed decisions about their $600 purchase. Is that wrong?

          Your selfless concern is touching.

          Please refute any of my points and I will listen. Saying "its gonna be fixed soon in a firmware update" is not a refutation.

          Not a refutation, but a mitigating point, to be sure. Each new console has issues that will be corrected with firmware updates. This is a good thing.

          Ok I'll bite:

          Poor backward compatilibity with PS1 and PS2 games

          About 98% of previous titles play just fine. Some have sync issues with FMV sequences, which do not affect gameplay (and yes, will be fixed). This is not 'poor compatibility'. Go check Sony's game database if you like, they have a tool for this.

          Numerous high def upscaling issues including PS3 BluRay movies not appearing in high definition properly

          Again, disingenuous. Some older model HDTVs don't do 720p, and there is an issue with that particular resolution on those particular sets. And fixable. Considering the very small installed base of total HDTVs, this strikes me as a fairly minor problem (although irritating to be sure). And that is the only problem, not 'numerous'.

          A very poor online system, as compared to the Xbox Live System

          I agree. Both the Wii and PS3 online capabilities are inferior to Microsoft's network.

          No high definition cables ship with the system, you are stuck with a composite cable unless you pay extra

          While I agree that the high-end SKU bundle should have included these, you surely must agree that most people would end up throwing this cable away. Nintendo doesn't even think you need to buy one from a store. (Or at all, until December.)

          Poor graphics on side to side game comparison tests

          For that game. Talk about intellectually dishonest, you act like its an exhaustive comparison.

          Poor framerates and "tearing" reported on multiple game titles, including Tony Hawk and Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire

          Yeah, maybe. Had some slowdown on Gears of War, too. Tony Hawk, being a cross-platform franchise, perhaps had the least amount of time for a PS3 port. Gundam just plain sucks. But point taken.

          Poor buggy development tools which make development very hard as compared to other current gen systems

          Remind me again, why do we care what Nolan Bushnell thinks of the PS3 dev environment?

          Remind me again, why do WE care about the dev environment? How is that warning consumers of the dangers of the PS3?

          Multiple launch titles cancelled or delayed due to development issues

          Scrapin' the bottom of the barrel, here. Newsflash: software doesn't tend to ship on time. I'm not excusing them but this is hardly anything new.

          Tell me, what is it when you remove a title from your previous console's dev roster so you can push it as a launch title for the next console?

          With the Xbox 360 already having 7 million units sold worldwide blahblahblah attachrate balhblah (snipped)

          The fact is, you are looking at two console launches only a week out. And considering the shortages, the data is skewed anyhow. You cannot project this out in a linear fashion. For instance what do you make of the fact that the PS3 and the DS are in American kids Top 10 Xmas Gifts list [wonderlandblog.com]and the Wii is no where to be found?

          What you are doing is called cherry-picking. You can do this to anything and make it look bad. Hey, what's with the Wii? No component cables for sale until December, and even

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by scot4875 (542869)
            Your rebuttal reeks of as much optimism as the original poster's did of pessimism.

            There are numerous, deep flaws with the PS3 and with Sony's strategy over the last year. No amount of rationalization changes that.

            Yes, I'm a Nintendo fan. Despite my poor experience with the PS1, I was also very excited about the PS2 -- until I saw that Sony was lying about it. This time around they're just being even more blatant.

            --Jeremy

          • Re:Other PS3 problems of note (Score:4, Interesting)

            by bishiraver (707931) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @05:38PM (#16958424) Homepage
            "Remind me again, why do WE care about the dev environment? How is that warning consumers of the dangers of the PS3?"

            Because poor dev environments caused the downfall of several historic game consoles. See: Sega Saturn.

            While there were other issues with the Saturn, such as dev libraries being difficult to get ahold of... development of Sega Saturn cross platform titles often meant spending several extra months of development on the Saturn compared to, say, the PS1. It was one of the primary reasons the Saturn failed (along with its high initial pricetag, and difficulty getting hands on dev kits in the first place, low number of game releases outside of japan.. all of which except the last sound eerily familiar when looked at in context of the PS3).

            Ease of system development is very important in forecasting how well third party developers will attach to a system. That's why it's important for a consumer to take into account on initial release. After a year or two when it becomes obvious which system will have better developer support, it can be safely ignored. But what we're trying to do is forecast which will be the one that will have the most numbers sold.

            On a sidenote, one of the reasons the PS2 caught on initially and sold a huge number of units was adding DVD. At least, in Japan. DVD technology hadn't caught on huge there yet, and that coupled with several exclusive RPGs (squeenix, etc) cemented its success in Japan. This to some extent also helped it sell well in the US. It's what they're trying to do again with the Blu-ray, but unfortunately the blu-ray technology doesn't have a firm foothold in one of their markets already. Blu-ray movies are few and far between, compared to a point when DVDs were being sold like hotcakes - at least, for US movies. This, along with the production woes, make them introducing a new format much more risky at this point in time.

            And about your point about the 'top ten xmas gifts':

            The kids polled are probably very young. While this is one of the targets of the Wii, I can definitely see how the PS3 came on the list, and the DS as well - without the Wii.

            You have to look at where the youngin's are getting their information, and keep in fact that they're more impressionable by the media than your typical teenage/adult gamer. They hear 'blazingly fast' and 'not much faster than the gamecube' and they go apeshit. They list the DS because they've seen older kids at school with them, or schoolmates with them, or they've played their friends DS, etc. You have to keep in mind that younger kids see a bunch of people with something and say "Those are cool! Everyone has one! I want one too!" rather than making a truly informed decision based on market level projections, hardware issues/points, games, etc.

            As a sidenote, I like how legos are up there on the list ;)

              • Well, that and the fact that nobody gives a flip about HD movies anyway. With the video tape->DVD transition, the biggest draw for normal people (i.e., not audiophiles) was simply not having to rewind the stupid thing, not the better A/V quality. Blu-ray has no similar tangible advantage, so people don't care.

                I disagree, but only in terms of speed-of-adoption. I think it is a better analogy to use Surround Sound. That was never really a 'must have' feature for many people, but 'sure is nice' for a lot,

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Perseid (660451)
      - Poor backward compatilibity with PS1 and PS2 games
      - Numerous high def upscaling issues including PS3 BluRay movies not appearing in high definition properly

      Both of which are most likely fixable through firmware upgrades. Especially the compatibility which is supposed to be fixed in short order.

      - Poor graphics on side to side game comparison tests
      - Poor framerates and "tearing" reported on multiple game titles, including Tony Hawk and Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire

      I say this a lot. Maybe I should
      • The reason why fans and foes alike are complaining about the backwards compatibility problems is because it has seemed to hit the more popular games. For example, the Final Fantasy series is apparently all broken to one degree or another, with XI not even playable.
    • http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm [the-magicbox.com]

      For 2006 through the end of October, 84,949 360s sold in Japan. 81,639 PS3s sold at launch.

      From what I can find, there were 100K 360s sold in Japan in 2005.

      So it looks like somewhere around 190K 360s vs 82K PS3s in Japan currently with Microsoft's 1 year head start.

      Value Japanese sales in the greater scheme of things as you please.

    • 360 numbers in Japan are lower b/c of Blue Dragon (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jchenx (267053) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @03:09PM (#16956234) Journal
      First of all, I totally agree that the numbers from Japan are useless, in comparing PS3 to 360 (as many sites are reporting). Of course the PS3 is going to do well in it's first week! That said, I did want to point out one thing ...

      Then again Microsoft's numbers are picking up in preperation for Blue Dragon, only a couple monthes ago they were barely breaking 1K units. However now it's much more.
      Actually, I'd say it's quite the opposite. I would fully expect 360 sales numbers in Japan to be lower than usual because of Blue Dragon. It makes sense and here's why.

      We know that there's surprisingly a lot of interest [1up.com] in the Blue Dragon 360 bundle, set to release in December. It also recently took over the #3 spot on Famitsu's list of most anticipated titles [joystiq.com]. So, if you know there's a bundle coming out in December, why on earth would you buy a 360 now? It's akin to buying a system when you know a price drop is going to happen in a few weeks.

      The numbers will be most interesting a week after the game and bundle launches. (The week it actually ships will see an artificial bump of 360 sales, similar to the PS3 one. I fully expect, "wowzers, 360>PS3 lolololezr" articles then as well) Then we can start tracking trends to see if MS will actually have a chance in Japan, or if it's going to be more of the same.

        • Last I heard, it was the limited edition sets that were all sold-out. If you're telling me that all 100,000 bundles have been reserved, then that's just frickin amazing. And you'd be right, there wouldn't be anything to "wait" for.

          Although, I suppose that if Blue Dragon is the only reason why you want a 360, it would make sense to just wait until it launches and pick the system up with the game (even if you can't get the bundle), to save multiple trips to the store. There'd be no worry about limited quantit

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by JorDan Clock (664877)
            100,000 pre-orders filling up for a Japanese RPG in Japan doesn't sound that far fetched. From anecdotal experience, I've found Japanese friends to be big on bundles. They are equally big on Blue Dragon, mainly because of the creator. Hironobu Sakaguchi is bigger with the Japanese than John Carmack is with FPS fans altogether.

            Also, try not to explain away the numbers by using the idea that these people would try to save trips. The Japanese are more mobile than Americans. Going to the game store isn't going

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Mr. Samuel (950418)

      Why don't we get USEFUL numbers. Sony launches a console, Microsoft has a console that's been out for a year. Why do we expect Microsoft's console to sell as many?

      This is an excellent question, and I can only assume the answer is one of two things:

      1. For some reason, gaming site users have an insatiable appetite for fuel to the "console war" fire, perhaps with little regard for the accuracy of said fuel.

      2. See #1.

      Imagine what the world might accomplish if the energy we put into worrying about which

    • Sony launches a console, Microsoft has a console that's been out for a year. Why do we expect Microsoft's console to sell as many?

      Granted it bucks the trend, but the DS Lite has been selling over 100,000 units per week in Japan since Nintendo has been able to make over 100,000 systems per week for Japan.

      • Re:Nice BS numbers from Japan. (Score:5, Informative)

        by Baldrake (776287) on Wednesday November 22 2006, @02:43PM (#16955798)
        Not to mention that the Japanese are very unlikely to buy an imported good that isn't from a Japanese-owned foreign interest anyway. I'm surprised that MS has any sales there at all.

        You mean like the iPod [businessweek.com]?

        Please, this constant repetition that the Japanese are xenophobic when it comes to electronics is terrifically boring, and worse, counter-productive. It's as bad as the auto makers who blame xenophobia for why they aren't able to sell the Chrysler Neon in Japan.

          • No? (Score:3, Insightful)

            by LKM (227954)
            Doesn't that essentially equate to them not liking stuff because it's not Japanese???

            No. It equates to Japanes people not liking stuff because the seller was too fucking stupid to figure out what they actually wanted. The 360 simply has very little games that appeal to Japanes people. Hence, no sales.

      • See that's a completely valid question (though the other side is, there's more games for it). However acting like this is useful data in showing that the PS3 is better than the 360 is pointless. Bill Gates said it, and I hate to quote him or paraphrase him but he nailed it on the head. "Sony can make 80,000 bricks, and people would buy them."

        While the data is completely valid, the conclusions someone might draw from them are not, and when 1up is saying the ps3 is doing better, it's not even technically va
    • At the end of all this, its just Sony's to lose. They are the reigning KING of consoles. Anyone can spew the facts of Xbox this or Nintendo that, but at the end Sony controls 65%+ of the console gaming pie.

      Well, if you include handhelds they control less than 50% of the hardware market; when it comes to software Nintendo sells about 4 times as much software as Sony does.

      This lack of shortages does not matter. If Sony pushes out PS3 next year this will be a thing of the past. Sure they may lose market share
    • I disagree entirely. Consumers are willing to change on a dime. As recent history has shown, delays in Windows Vista have driven huge increases in people switching to Mac or Linux.

      oh wait...
      • , delays in Windows Vista have driven huge increases in people switching to Mac or Linux.

        Worst analogy ever.
    • That's a terrible analogy. Perhaps you'd like to come up with a bad car an logy next.

      "You see it's like this: If Honda designed a car with seven engines..."
    • That's a given, but I'm wondering how the 360 did in North America. Also, it will be very interesting to see the sale figures for next week given the fact that the PS3 and Wii (I got mine at launch Wiii!) are in short supply.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by HappySqurriel (1010623)
      One thing a shortage can do is enable a company to be delusional about the demand for the product that they're selling. I'm going to use cars as my example ...

      Suppose that this year GM produced a brand new supercharged luxury compact sedan which they sold for $50,000 that was based on the Cobalt; and suppose that GM only produced 25,000 of these cars that sold out (almost) instantly. A marketing drone in GM suddenly believes that there is a massive market for this car and decides that it is important to inc

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mrchaotica (681592) *

      Nintendo's clearly hurting now that their system was released last.

      It was last by 2 days. That's negligible. Besides, it's already sold several times as much as the PS3 anyway (considering they both sold out, and several times many more Wiis were made...).

      So, why did they launch prematurely?

      Christmas. Not that it's going to do them any good, though, because "getting it out in time for the holidays" on paper won't cause them to magically have enough consoles to even come close to meeting the seasonal dema

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