Maybe before the end of the year, but if you didn't have a preorder before mid August your not guaranteed to get one at launch or for the couple of weeks after

You are going to have a rough go of it I think. I know they have said they are holding back stock but with the high number of preorders I very much doubt you will be able to just walk in and pick one up. You may have to wait in line with all the preorder crowd to even have a shot is my guess.

Thank you guys I think I'll delay my vacation a few weeks then it will be best if I can do everything in one trip and yes prices in all of South America are really crazy.

I don't think it will be that hard to find. A lot of demand atm is from ebay sellers who think they are going to make a mint but I really don't think demand is there. It'll be like the PS3 launch where everyone said they'd be sold out and then at launch they were readily available. Unless Sony deliberately holds back shipments in an attempt to create false demand.

There are always going to be scalpers, that is the unfortunate thing... I remember reading about some people ordering 9 wii-u's and then just returning them... pretty crappy stuff.

But... I really think if Sony can deliver enough consoles, that will fix the scalpers and allow enough stock.

Ps I do not think for 1 minute that the amount of pre-orders is due to scalpers,... I do not think Sony is creating a false demand and I certainly dont agree there is no demand for a new console after 7 years... I think there is a lot of demand.

If you can find a PS4 anywhere in North America that's been on shelves for more than five minutes, I'll give you $1200 bucks for it.

You hope to be able to walk into a store and pick up not one, but three PS4s on launch without a preorder?
Good luck bro

I'm calling it now. The PS4 and Xbox One will be as readily available as the Wii U after one week.

amazon: probably not.

retail: sony said specifically they were reserving stock so that at launch people just going to the store could find one and not everything is going to the pre-orders/scalpers. i think it will be easy for a determined person to find one but you might have to go to the store early.

Yeah it's really difficult to know if this is going to be a great launch or just PR spin... I get a feeling that its not a wii-u situation, when that was launching there was a total malaise on the forums I went too... I dont think there was much internet excitement... but of course unlike the wii-u we have two consoles fighting for peoples money. How well the XboxOne sells will define if/how long the PS4 is out of stock. 

I think it takes about 1 week for stuff to be delivered from the factory, just depends on one thing really - how many pre-orders do both consoles have and how many they are producing for day 1. I suspect the shops will get less stock (if any?) until the pre-order backlog is cleared (otherwise its bad customer service). 

So how quick they clear the pre-orders will definately decide when/how they will get stock. 

Note I expect the PS4 to beat the Wii-u launch sales considerably and the XBO to beat it as well at a lower rate.