The PS4 launched in Japan on Saturday, and it didn’t immediately sell out at the biggest local retail chains. This caused a wave of somewhat alarmist articles and comments, some of which called the console’s Japanese launch “muted” or even a flop. Looks like they were a bit premarture, as the stock has been gradually but steadily running out over the weekend.
Amazon Japan was the first to run out on Sunday morning, followed by Edion and Rakuten, where allocations have died up yesterday night. At last even the major retailer Yodobashi Camera has now run out of stock online, with only the Niigata store between the 21 of the chain still showing availability over the counter (as you can see from the handy table included at the bottom of the post).
Apparently, though, Sony Computer Entertainment isn’t staying idle, and is ready to replenish the supply chain. Yodobashi reports that a new batch of consoles will be available tomorrow online, and on the 26th in most stores.
While there was no instant sellout, probably due to the fact that many customers were compelled to preorder online to avoid being left out (it sold out five times in a row when it was made available on the web), and to the shopping habits of the Japanese, that are steadily shifting towards online purchases, it’s doubtless that most units are being sold, and not many are left on the shelves.
We’ll have a more precise idea on overall sales on Wednesday with the Media Create hardware chart, but the situation doesn’t seem nearly as bad as some would like us to believe.
