Is it possible that the HD production problem is limiting the PS3 distribution, while the 4 gig XBox, not dependent on a HD, is making a big difference here?

Honestly it's unlikely, nowadays it shouldn't, and probably doesn't really occur that Manufacturers don't have enough supply for the platform holders, especially considering how Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo have to request their supply, and the exact numbers many months in advance to the Manufacturer. ;)

Plus companies that produce HDD's or CPU's generally have a absurd amount of production capability, for example: IBM really makes all the CPU's for Xbox 360 & PS3, (not entirely sure wheter it powers the Wii?) IBM has never indicated that they have any problems delivering, probably because they don't, and 100 million CPU's in 4-5 years time is quite alot seeing how it's just on game consoles.

Lines so long you could probably have taken a nap all three times eh? :P

Sony wasnt willing to make as many bundles simply because of the added costs. It wasnt like you couldnt find PS3s all weekend. They were plentiful, but the special BF bundle looks simply like it was limited to a certain amount and thats it.

Yeah, but IBM doesn't have 2 meters of water in it's fabrics.

While the Tsunami/Earthquake/Floods could have impacted the HDD suplly negatively for the PS3 it hasn't been confirmed, so I haven't ruled it in or out, and honestly I had forgotten about that fact. (Yes I'm a horrible person I know :P)

Can someone tell me who manufactures the HDD's for the Xbox 360 & who manufactures the HDD'S for the PS3? I really don't know this :( If it's the same manufacturers the Xbox 360 should have been just as negatively effected, and I haven't really heard of the Xbox 360S 250G model being supply constrained...

Not really, this is why a non-HDD model can benefit a company in this christmas season.

I think sony would have mentioned that they could not meet demand due to supply issues if that had been the case. Similar to how microsoft announced that their december sales from last year were lower then anticipated due to lack of supply in America.

Actually to be honest with you its just that Vgchartz seems to have a lot of trouble tracking software that isn't "large scale".  Lots of more casual mainstream games like the Cabela's Hunting series and many others are significantly undertracked on this site.

Its currently happening with Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports Season 2, and a some of the more niche / casual Kinect games.  Trust me Kinect is pushing software.

I'm so winning my bet.

LOL, yes!!!  Thank you for getting that out of way early so we don't have to deal with those threads again for the whole 1st half of 2012.

OT: Everyone else has pretty much said it already, but this is simply mindblowing.  I still have some reservations about it being the top selling console of 2011 WW, but regardless it's obvious that I was wrong about MS needing to to cut the price.  And even though I personally think KInect isn't as appealing this year as it was last year, that sure isn't slowing anything down.  Next year it looks like it'll be getting some more developed software so the appeal could even increase.

No Xbox 720 next year.  I see them riding this wave alone for one more year.