Its pretty bad form for Sony to run low on stock. Logistics of this kind should be second nature to them being a "hardware" company and all.

I always see PS3s (40 GBs) available in my area (Belgium and Luxembourg) though not in big amounts. Yesterday though, only one PS3... Could be a sign of shortages arriving (though, to be fair and complete, only one 360, elite I believe, was available too, and like 40 Wiis...) in a big Walmart-like store.

so people say Sony does not ship any PS3 on purpose anymore? Why on earth would they do that?

US = yes

EU = no way

Speaking from the UK at least, they are in every shop that normally sells them, online as well etc.

Wow so you been to every shop and checked every online store, damn must have been hard since you are disabled and all..... unless you have anything contribute...take a hint from your sig.

You go to buy a ps3 and you see this:

http://www.play.com/Games/PlayStation3/6-/GenreBrowse.html?searchstring=Consoles

Wouldn't you wait 10 days for 2x the storage?

David Reeves (SCEE) last month:

I always see PS3s (40 GBs) available in my area (Italy ...Rome) .

It's not that hard to find them, although many retail outlets definitely are not restocking 40GB SKUs on a regular basis for the simple fact that production has stopped, making availability limited.

I haven't seen a 40GB in stores for weeks.

MGS4 bundles are currently the only in production SKU readily available, and even that seems a bit sporadic since it looks like the bundle may well be a fairly limited production run, meaning it may cease production once the 80GB Core SKU rolls out.

I saw about two total during the debut month of MGS4 (when they were fairly scarce and 40GB SKUs were everywhere), and I recently saw a shelf full of the bundles (8 consoles) at a Fry's, but no 40GB SKUs. It seems the 80GB bundles are the only regular stock currently available.

Amazon is out of MGS4 bundles until the 20th, after being at the top of their video game hardware list for about two weeks.

If the MGS4 bundle stays in production, I'm not sure what the allure of the SKU would be other than BC, which matters mainly to core gamers rather than the average consumer that wants to play PS3 games. Most consumers aren't going to pay $100 more for a PS3 (than an 80GB Core) for a $60 game.

If it stays in production through 2008, it wouldn't surprise me to see a reduction to $450 for the bundle until production ends (or a much less likely upgrade to 120GB storage). If not, we'll be seeing less and less of the bundles being produced once the 80GB Core becomes available.

Here in the middle east it is in good supply, thought the 40GB is depleting slowly from shops.