What is Digg?Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
Readers have reported that this story contains information that may not be accurate.106 Comments
- randomengine, on 10/12/2007, -7/+78They don't want to....short supply creates more demand that might not be there if there is enough supply.
- Pluckie, on 10/12/2007, -9/+46Unfortunately, out of the 700,000 that are to be launched, 100 of those units are expected to actually be sold.
- RazorElite, on 10/12/2007, -5/+39Why can't system launches ever supply enough consoles (hopefully Nintendo will). Sony has had the past 6 years to work on the PS3 and 3 months before launch they haven't even started manufacturing the most advanced game console ever. Haven't they learned from MS mistake? Which brings me to my next point, 700,000 per territory seems like a stretch if they're still launching in November. Let's hope 1/3 of those aren't defective like the PS2's launch.
- drizek, on 10/12/2007, -5/+37At $600 they need all the shortage they can get.
- 703_KN33, on 10/12/2007, -2/+32i cant wait til i sell my ps3 on ebay the first week.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+29if its anything like the xbox360, you might be able to get 600 bucks for it!
oh wait. - BBX25, on 10/12/2007, -16/+45That's 1.3 million less than what Kaz Hirai promised. That's another broken promise courtesy of Sony. :(
Not that I was getting a PS3, anyways. - djSyndrome, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26The difference is that the 360 customers waited (im)patiently, mostly because there were no other 'next-gen' offerings at the time. Sony doesn't have that luxury.
- whiskerlickins, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22Our local GameStop clerk said that they're only getting 10 units of PS3s. They had 75 units of XBOX 360s last year.
- JeffH, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21Short supply creates more demand, but doesn't lead to higher overall sales. It just leads to inflated prices from person to person sales (such as the 360 on ebay for thousands of dollars around Christmas last year). It provides more short-term demand, but creates no extra profit for Sony. They have no reason to intentionally make a shortage.
- motang, on 10/12/2007, -8/+26I am thinking they are intentionally doing this to create a media buzz that states that the PS3 sold out, and is in high demand.
- samdu, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20How do you figure? That's 2.1 million units worldwide. They "promised" 2 million at launch. 2 more million by the end of the calendar year.
- kazem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17I think it creates a lot of hype in the media. You get a lot more of those corny news stories about people waiting in line than you do about shoppers happily buying a system.
- jhuebel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14@staticneuron: I can't help but like you. You make me laugh.
- SpeedyG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Am I the only one reading the stories about production problem after production problem after revealing Sony representative comment? Because every one of those says that 700K PER TERRITORY is laughable.
- acemilo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11"PS3 to launch with ~700,000 units"
If and only if they actually are able to produce the 2 million units they promised. Remember, they have not started production yet and have under 90 days before launch. They need to be finished producing the launch units before november to get them tested and packaged and shipped in time for ppl to get them, so they have to be in the stores at least a week before so they can be ready. So, they have about 70 days from today to produce 2 million fully functional units for launch. This is totally NOT possible. Microsoft started producing in august and only had around 400k for each region. Dugg down as inaccurate, it will be way less than 700k per region. - RazorElite, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14VERY short supply also creates frustrated customers. How many people were pissed at 360's launch after they waited hours in line, didn't get a system or did get one but it crapped out couple months later. So unless your system has very low defect rates, the games are fantastic, and customers really can see their purchase was worthwhile, you should try to get as many out there as possible from launch.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Indeed. It's not like they're going to win this war with competitive pricing.
- nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Title is innacurate. PS3 will launch with 700k units IN EACH TERRITORY(according to the article). This is, so far, more than originally promissed.
- heavensblade23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I'm not sure I know what you mean. The problem with the E.T. game was that they made more cartridges than there were systems, thinking that it would be a killer app. This failed to happen and they ended up having to destroy the unsold stock. I doubt Sony is going to be burying millions of PS3s under concrete in a landfill.
- ryogahibiki, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Don't forget, almost all of these units will be forced to buyers in bundles, meaning it'll come with at least 3 crappy games you didn't want, plus you have to buy separately that one game you really DID want since they cleverly did not include the one popular game in any bundles, plus they force you buy a pleather carrying case, a PSP with 5 UMD's, a MD player, a 50" Bravia and a $200 3 ft. Monster HDMI cable (EVEN if you buy the cheaper PS3 w/o HDMI) and a cheap cleaning kit consisting of a tube brush and a 2 oz bottle of acetone with instructions written in chinese, And on top of that, they really really REALLY encourage you to buy an extended warranty because they "they're already heard of so many units breaking / overheating / exploding" which makes you wonder why you're buying one in the first place?!? Oh...the anticipation....
- Darkmetsu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9You won't catch me pulling an all nighter to spend $600+ on something that might crap out on the first week.
- ThetaDot, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10There needs to be the happy medium. 700,000 is still too low. It's more likely to cause frustration than cause a frenzy in demand.
- ZenKai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8It's pretty simple really. When you're going into sales with the kind of prices we're talking about for the PS3, if you drastically cut the supply, the outrageous price seems reasonable. As JeffH points out, those 360 prices were appalling. This is the same approach, but I suspect it's also to factor in some of the price hike over their competitors.
That or they figure that 700,000 will be enough to meet demand at the cost. Don't get me wrong, I'm neither a Sony fanboy nor a Sony basher. I'll prolly get one myself. But I think I'll wait until it's less than a couple of months worth of car payment. - interiot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8They'll probably also send out like 50% units of the $500 version, even though anyone who's crazy enough to sit on a sidewalk for 14+ hours on a cold autumn night is almost certainly going to want the $600 version. (though unlike in the 360 case, cold tired customers can't shell out an extra $200 to get the equivalent functionality of the premium unit)
- mywhitenoise, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12what a douche bag. I bet you're balding, fat, and living in your parents basement, right?
- vhold, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Has anybody mentioned the fact that the longer you delay the manufacture, the cheaper it gets?
Basically a ton of the components are falling in price as we speak. If you buy up those parts, build these things and stick them in a warehouse, they depreciate. The more cutting edge something is, the bigger the risk because the prices are most unstable.
The Wii is probably in a good place in this regard.. It's older components probably have more stabilized prices, so won't depreciate as quickly, so building a bunch up front doesn't carry as much risk. - brewer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9"Never happy are we."
No, I think Wii will be very happy. - Boor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Pfft testing, sony doesnt need no stinking testing. They have 90 days to produce them. Now lets place bets on what will break first on the ps3's. My moneys on one of the blu ray parts. THough they could have problems with heat also.
- totorototoro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7like the 360, they will sell out their first run, regardless of the actual number. the difference is, they will also sell out in Japan.
- mike_p, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Yeah that's why they need to stop making stupid renderings that "represent" the game and show some real footage. Anyone remember how last year all those people were upset that Call of Duty 2 didn't look like the commercial and felt they were victimized. They pulled the ads in the UK altogether!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty_2#Controversy
But shame on the consumer for being naive as well... - syuusuke, on 10/12/2007, -10/+15knowing Sony.. the first batch are usually the lemon machines or preloaded with rootkits lol
- gwolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Don’t be surprised if you see more developers making a run for the border.
- deweather, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I know I don't have to tell you this, cause we all know all the commentors on digg are the smartest people in the world, but $600 is the "premium" ps3. There is also a $500 one that seems to never be talked about on digg or the media which really doesn't make sense. Sure it doesn't have an HDMI or Wifi, but it still has blu ray (for games I persume since you won't be watching movies without HDMI). But its still better than the "premium" xbox360 which will need an HD-DVD add on which will make it *gasp* $100 more than the "basic" ps3.
Seriously guys, can we stop with the PS3 bashing and actually wait until it comes out? Competition is good to us gamers, remember that please.
P.S. Resistance: The Fall of Man developer (insominac) says it will be 22 Gigafrackin' bytes! AND it comes out for PS3 launch! Though I'm not shocked at ALL that this wasn't posted on digg. - slaystench, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5They will sell out of the initial shipments, that's not really a concern. However, how many sold after the demand is gone, is the real question.
- nklnch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Sony will only have an estimated 700,000 units per territory. That is however 200,000 more than Microsoft had for the USA launch of the Xbox360."
NPD would disagree with your 360 figures...
From NPD via 1up (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3146429&did=1):
"Total number of Xbox 360s sold in the United States in November: 325,902."
And while your PS3 numbers assume a three way split of the initial 2 million shipment, the 360 had a very US centric launch. On the Japan launch in December of 2005:
"Of an estimated 159,000 units shipped to retail, Enterbrain reports that 62,135 of them were sold to customers Saturday and Sunday."
"Another report by Media Create cited only 41,817 units being sold in the system's first two days" - najackbair, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Every trailer, either for the 360 or ps3, is always about half of what the actual game is. The trailer for Motorstorm is incredibly impressive, but the game play graphics or only average. Check it out here:
http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=3553 - Arramol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It makes sense, but I'm not sure they're capable of producing more. Keep in mind that yields on the Cell processor have been extremely low...10-20% last time I heard. That's got to be creating a supply bottleneck.
- archer75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is due to the piss poor yields of the Cell chip.
- ZeroMP, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Is 700,000 units really that much of a shortage for the US market? I'm not buying one, and nobody I know personally is either. The worst thing that Sony could do is overproduce units when they are taking such a huge loss on a console with such a huge price tag. Though I'm sure they would kick out 4M units this year if they had it in them...
- Disease, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Fscking camping noobs
- briansorders, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4these things are going to be selling on ebay like hotcakes
- Smeed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Half of these will go on ebay after everyone saw what happened with the 360.
- JangoFett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3No one talks about the stripped-down PS3 because if you're paying that much for a console you might as well get the good $600 version. It was the same way with the 360; everyone who was smart got the Premium edition for the HD.
I don't think you'll even be able to buy a system for $600. Once retailers get their hands on the consoles PS3's will be packaged up and sold as bundles for $700+. - apoc06, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3true, but the game still isnt done yet. so lets not throw a wet blanket over it until its out.
when it comes out and doesn't live up to expectation, just don't buy that game. i thought it was always that simple. - RMSzero, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I don't know if you guys do understand economics. Short supply doesn't create demand. The demand is either there or it isn't. Shortening the supply only means that the price people are willing to pay, in dollars or time spent waiting in line, goes up.
The other reasons people have said make sense though - allow component prices to go down before you ramp up production, limit your unsold inventory as you roll out the product in case you have to recall or make fixes, build holiday buzz from the long lines and frantic parents. It makes sense to me. - h00ligan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2at ~$700 bucks it won't be a problem - not with the 360 and wii both in full swing.
- Philbert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"I'm gonna guess that prices hit 2,500 to 2,800 easy on launch day. And there will be no less then 23 listings for empty PS3 boxes. And half of those empty box auctions will have bids at 1000 bucks when they end."
Seeing those empty boxes for sale is what I live for lately. lol The prices and listings on eBay will probably happen well before launch day with people selling pre-orders, that will be shipped as soon as the sellers pre-order arrives. I bet a lot of those sellers are people who work at stores that sell them and can set a couple aside for themselves or buy them up before they even hit the shelves when the shipment comes in. - walterd93, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm glad that the server could handle it niia. :p
- walterd93, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3People don't talk about the $500 version because it's worthless, no one's not going to spend an extra $100 to get what the WHOLE console and company is based on-graphics.
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