Report: Japanese PS3 Launch Numbers Cut

Reports emanating from Japanese newspaper Nikkei Keizai Shimbun suggest that Sony has been forced to cut its day one Japanese allocation for the PlayStation 3 by 20 percent to just 80,000. When originally announced in September, the day one launch allocation for the PlayStation 3 was put at 400,000 for North America and “about” 100,000 for Japan. Sony Computer Entertainment America co-chairman Jack Tretton later described the figures as “more of a target”. By comparison, the Nintendo DS regularly sells two or three times the Japanese launch figure in any given week, suggesting that stock of the PlayStation 3 could feasibly be sold out in on its November 11th launch in a matter of minutes. The delay is being attributed to component shortages, recalling the reasons given for the launch delay in Europe (now scheduled for March), and the small number of units originally scheduled for the Japanese and American launches. The Nikkei Keizai Shimbun has made no suggestion of a cut in Sony’s other targets, which still call for two million units worldwide by the end of 2006 and six million by the end of the financial year, ending March 2007.