FFXIII first shipment is only 1 million???

[dunno001]

Hmm... I can't really see any blame on S-E in this situation.

Starting with the console bundles, I'm leaning on the limiting of those being a Sony factor more than a S-E thing. Sony has created artificial system shortages in the past, and my thought is that people who are looking for a FF13 PS3 and can't get one might settle for a regular PS3 (in the event they don't have one), one that Sony doesn't have to pay royalties to S-E on.

As for the game, if there's a shortage, I think it's going to be from retailers under-ordering. S-E knows the used game market in Japan, and won't want to short-ship games. If after the first week, 1.3m are shipped, but, say, 1.5m are wanted, those 200k are going to watch both the new AND the used markets. With the quick turnover in Japan to the used market, I can see some copies being turned in after a week, and the resale of those will be new copies that S-E can no longer sell. Since they need the sales, they won't want to force people to look at the used market right away. (Of course, some people still will, but that's another story.)

Meanwhile, the retailer's side. They've been burnt by many games on multiple platforms recently, the biggest example being the stand-alone version of Monster Hunter Tri. To prevent further losses from a highly-hyped game, they're ordering enough for preorders and a few extra, rather than plenty extra. Upon sellout (which I do think some stores are going to do), they will be quick to order more. How much more, of course, is another variable, and it's one that I couldn't firmly guess at. I would guess that they'll stay low, since the retailers that do the worst short-ordering will stay low from lost potential sales to other retailers.

Nonetheless, I think it's safe to say that egg is on many of our faces from the first day predictions...