How is PS3 stock in your area?

[GreyianStorm]

Hyruken said:

GreyianStorm said:

Hyruken said:

GreyianStorm said:
Hyruken, you're aware that the reported shortages are in the United States, right? Showing photos of the PS3 in stock in the UK does not mean the shortages in the US are imaginary.

On the contrary it does. Because if they are severly under-stocked in the US and severely over-stocked in europe then why have they not slowed down production for europe and transfered the stock to US? I am sure making a Pal PS3 into a US region PS3 is not too difficult, you would imagine it id done at the same factories.

Because by that logic it is like saying Sony are not aware of the demands for their product. Which would be stupid.

PS3s aren't produced and shipped in a day. It takes weeks to go from initial order to them reaching the shops. Sony also has to honour previous orders. Why would a shop in the UK willingly lose its order, just so that some shop in the US can get their PS3s early. It just doesn't work like that. It also comes down to separate sections of Sony. If SCEA only ordered x million for the Fiscal Year 2010, then they will go low on units if they hit that target early. That is the way business works.

Also "severly overstocked" in the Europe can't be assessed by looking at one shop. I know that many in my area (more than your 1 shop) have been low on/out of stock since Christmas. I'm not going to say that means all of Europe is low on stock though, but there are certainly areas even in the "severely over-stocked" European region that are suffering shortages.

Again i think your missing the point. It is not very complicated.

If Sony have had a supply problem in one region (in this case US) they can divert stock from one region to another. This is how selling works, they even came up with a business term for it called "supply and demand". If one area is in dire need of a product the company normally try's to lower production for one area to meet the demand of another. It is as simple as that.

What we see here and by the accounts of others there are stock in abundence. This is nothing new, people have been saying it for months now. I guess it takes months to build mass manafactured products right?

No, you are missing the point.

A) There is short stock in more than just the US. Just because it isn't sold out elsewhere, doesn't mean it isn't close to it. My local shops are all low on stock or sold out altogether. You can not buy a PS3, unless you buy a bundle, and some places don't even have bundles.

B) It doesn't matter if there is an abundance of stock in one area, as Sony does not own the PS3s in retail. They have already been sold. GAME in the UK aren't going to sell PS3s to Gamestop in the US, because they aren't affiliated and it does not help them by doing so.

C) It doesn't take months, but it does take weeks. There is shipping involved, and the vast majority of consumer electronics are shipped by sea as it is far cheaper.

D) You also can't just divert a PAL shipment to NTSC. They are built differently. There is slightly different technology in there. This ties in with the original forecasts. If SCEA had a forecast for 4.5 million units, the manufacturing plant wouldn't have ordered much more than 4.5 million NTSC-compatible components, as it would generally be a waste. If they have run out of components (which is the most likely cause of a shortage, or else stock being held back), then they can not build more US PS3s.

No, what we've seen generally, is that there are shortages. I know MikeB (how trustworthy he is is debatable, but that's for another time) showed images of sold out PS3s were he was. I believe he is from the Netherlands or somewhere around there. That is not the US, but there are shortages. There is not stock in abundance in most places.

To tie in with D): Whether it is a lack of components or stock being held back, it would be expected that there would be US shortages. If it is components, they can not make more US PS3s. If it is stock being held back, it makes perfect sense that there are shortages.

Please just accept it already: There are shortages, would people stop trying to deny it.