Report: Japan launch PS3s cut by 20k

Newspaper says number of consoles available in Sony's home country slips by around 20,000; no news on whether the US numbers will slip too.

It was said to be "more of a target" than an actual proper figure anyway, so it's perhaps no surprise that Sony has now announced that there will be only 80,000 PlayStation 3s shipping for the Japanese launch date of November 11. In this morning's Nihon Keizai Shimbun (a leading Japanese economic newspaper, also known as the Nikkei), it was reported that the number of PS3s for Japan had been dramatically slashed by one-fifth.

This figure falls some 20,000 units shy of the originally promised 100,000, due to "component shortages." Sony Computer Entertainment America vice president Jack Tretton had previously admitted to Bloomberg, "Clearly we've had production issues."

The Nikkei says that the reduced launch numbers have forced some Japanese retailers to cut preorders for the system short. As an example, the newspaper claims that Tsutaya Online ended preorders after just six minutes, and Amazon Japan ended preorders after 20 minutes.

The PS3's North American launch takes place on November 17, and at least for the moment, the planned launch allocation of 400,000 consoles seems to be unchanged. A Sony spokesperson had not returned requests to comment as of press time.

253 Comments

  • brerrabbit23

    Posted Nov 10, 2006 4:02 pm PT

    look for them to cut about 300k, spidey.

  • naka_kun

    Posted Nov 10, 2006 9:32 am PT

    wow...80.000...what about the 60Gbs version?
    wow...I wont even go to akihabara tomorrow...maybe just to take some pics...

  • Solidesnake2004

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 7:04 pm PT

    My Response: 20,000 is better than nothing.

  • psp109

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 12:30 pm PT

    idk what u guys are all complaining about. 360s better no ps3 is. bs they both have bad and good things. both will feature great games and ps3 will finally have a good online feature. but ps3 has the 6 axis which will ad a little bit more fun into the game. just buy both and shut up. i am buyin both sytems and my friends gettin wii so i will play all the new systems.

  • Lasafrog

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 10:57 pm PT

    Said it before - I will not hand a company with Sony's rack record of knowlingly releasing 2nd rate 1st run hardware $700 to play a video game. 360 rocks, most games are multiplatform these days and will have vastly superior online support with 360 anyways. Plus, with the Wii and Twilight Princess coming out 2 days after the PS3's (sort-of) release, who has any time for garbage like Genji or a non-line version of the 8th (!) stupid Tony Hawk game?

    Props to 360, good luck to Wii, and may my GBA Micro and DS continue to make my day complete. Oh, and my PSP is pretty to look at my pictures, can't leave it out

  • Sergsky

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 10:19 pm PT

    I am getting mine when the second generation software arrives. You should do the same. I waited a year for my 360. With every new console most of the first gen software looks and feels like the previous gen of consoles, whether it comes from Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft, but with a higher price.

  • el3fitness

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 3:44 pm PT

    man i hope i get mine. i have one on reserve !

  • psycotictaratua

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 3:03 pm PT

    _Sam_
    I have no idea when I'll get a ps3 You won't, because by the time you can afford it, they will be sold out and there'll be a three year waiting list.

  • _Sam_

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 2:35 pm PT

    I have no idea when I'll get a ps3

  • cameron_love

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 2:27 pm PT

    I have a small theory on the drop in machines being manufactured. What if your a company and you make loads of products, and one is a new games console that is going to cost a huge amount to build and you need to sell it at a huge loss (and yet be really expensive still) to get it on the market. But your confident of doing this because everyone loves your company.
    Then suddenly a couple of your products arent as warmly received which causes a dip products and your rivals have built a similar less powerful but much cheaper and hyped up machine 12 months before you. You decide to slow down manufacture a little to let the profits rise, keep shareholders happy and prepare for a big assault on your rival. Then there much developed and worked on copyright protection codes that your sticking on music and films and games is starting to cause major problems with peoples machines and lawsuits and court cases costs rack up over trying to defend the use of this new DRM technology.
    Then 6 million or so of your battery products are forced to be recalled at HUGE expense because they are a fire risk and suddenly the profit drops into possible Red and your seriously concerned for the welfare of the company with possible lawsuits, costs of recall, cost of replacements of these fire hazzards. So all departments are told to cut budgets immedietly. So this causes the games console division to slow expensive manufacture (that you have to pay for before you can launch and sell the machine) to a much reduced amount and with shareholders and directors extremely nervous and worried about the company in so much trouble in other areas they dont want to see another huge fiasco in the Gaming division. the shareholders and directors demand they cut supply to whole continents, thereby having enough machines to satisfy demand in the ones that matter most which is your homebase (and best customer Japan) and to dent your rivals biggest customer base (America) and leave the neutral Europe area until a later date. Then you decide that with shakey support from games designers and the realisation that a huge component such as Bluray isnt really ready to enter the marketplace and dominate yet,that manufacture of the machines should be slowed further because of further nervousness over the success of this machine and doubts over whether they have got it all right.... at the wrong time!!! So slowing the manufacture thus means even less products on the shelfs and so numbers are cut further. This means manufacturing costs are reduced further and makes the shareholders and directors happier that at least the Gaming Division is making cuts in its expenses and reducing the huge drop in overall company profits. It also means that once the first batch outsell, they can assess the demand for it and increase the costs of manufactuing more units to counter the demands they have surveyed. Once the machine is showing additional sales from periphials, and other departments have worked hard in cutting there expenses and the full scale of the "fire hazzard batteries" has been analysed on the companys overall status, and once they have a month of two of Bluray vs HD-DVD under their belts, then they can review allowing a bigger manufacturing budget and push on with the console by mid 2007.

  • cameron_love

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 1:57 pm PT

    i remember the day that Sony laughed hard at Xbox360 owners who couldnt get there machines at launch and had to be disappointed, claiming there woud never be an issue with the PS3 launch and virtually everyone would get their hands on a console at lauch, hence the reasons for postponing it for a further 12 months. PS3, good or not.... i would be a bit annoyed if i put off buying an Xbox360 for this long only to find out that there are going to be less PS3'a available at launch than there was 360's and chances of obtaining one at launch is slim to none. Not only would i feel betrayed by Sonys empty promises and pathetic snipes at a rival company that did a slightly better job then they are doing, But I would worry that something that is taking an age to manufacture due to sooooo many component problems could mean that the chances of component failure after launch is reasonably high as well!

    I have a 360 and i love it, I am keen to see how the PS3 does and if it offers a significant experience over the 360 i may also buy the PS3 too but i certainly wouldnt buy one for the first 12 months because i see something happen in 12 months time..... either it will flop so bad it is removed from sale to safeguard Sonys already dwindling profits, it will drop in price significantly (not just $20 drop but possibly $100 drop or more) to compete against the other consoles as their manufacturing gets better and cheaper, or a vastly different PS3 to what we have now is released 12 months later similar to how the Nintendo DS/DSLite and PS1 and PS2 had radical changes to its design and components, only it will be brought forward very quickly. Consider it, if you are trying to manufacture 2 million machines for launch and you only produce 500,000 then your going to consider ways of speeding up the manufacture and that will involve getting the designers in, pumping them full of coffee to work through the night finding a way to keep as much of the original PS3 intact, dump the parts that are not working as predicted, find ways to speed up manufacture by changing to some parts to different ones, and then add a couple of new neat tricks to make it look like the upgraded PS3 is actually better for the consumer!

  • I-_-I

    Posted Nov 7, 2006 3:06 pm PT

    I agree, the launch games are pretty average kinda reminds me of 360 launch.

  • Irve

    Posted Nov 7, 2006 1:16 am PT

    Who cares how many units they have out .... the launch games are all average at best .. wait till Q1/Q2 next year when not only will it be easyier to buy the system but there might be a few games that match or better games on the 360. Personally i'm waiting till 2008 till i get a PS3 this year i'm gonna try and get through all the classic games i've missed / not played on Xbox,Ps2 and GC then early 2007 i'm getting a Wii and in late 2007 i'll get a 360. the only thing that would speed that up is if my Telly broke and i upgraded to HD earlier than planned !

  • Rhubarb9

    Posted Nov 6, 2006 9:32 am PT

    Tsutaya Online ended preorders after just six minutes, and Amazon Japan ended preorders after 20 minutes.

    wow they want it bad...

  • Anti-Matter-D

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 10:49 pm PT

    Ahhh Shhit.

  • holhardy

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 9:39 pm PT

    Wow with less then 12 days, this is going to scare people here in US

  • rtofthedirtysou

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 6:34 pm PT

    they might as well not bring the ps3 out because of all the shortages. it does'nt make any sense!!!

  • gtjava

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 6:07 am PT

    damn sony wats happenin? first no world launch then only limited numbers if USA and Japan and now another cut. dont disappoint us even more!

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 1:47 am PT

    Ah, they just can't catch a break? Can they?

  • Tungsten88

    Posted Nov 4, 2006 11:15 pm PT

    I love my 360 and I want to check out the Wii, but that's not why I don't need to care about this. There has been no announcement to cut North American shipments so why waste time cursing?

  • blaster710

    Posted Nov 4, 2006 9:46 pm PT

    Wahahahah, this effects me in no way

  • akuya32

    Posted Nov 3, 2006 1:38 pm PT

    Wow, it would suck if they cut 20k in North America. We are already hurting for systems. Thank goodness there is the wii for people who might not be able to get their hands on the ps3. Good move by Nintendo.

    Is it me or does anyone thing that Sony and Nintendo planned to have their systems come out together to make sure people didn't turn to the 360 if they couldn't get a ps3? Just food for thought.

  • JYGFluffy212

    Posted Nov 3, 2006 1:07 pm PT

    darn!

  • nottostable

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 5:52 pm PT

    this is going to be awsome.to bad they cost so much.

  • raydnex

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 5:00 pm PT

    dang it...

  • Dark_Lord777

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 3:18 pm PT

    We can only hope that Sony doesn't make the same mistake Microsoft did. That is not have enough units to fulfill orders.

    what was the actual figure of X360's at launch day?

    Nintendo's Wii might get left in the dust of the 360 and the PS3 if it doens't deliver good games. You can't win it all on innovation alone. The design is nice, but it needs great games to back it up


    -Rhyno

  • SicsStringFreak

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 9:56 am PT

    see i love my 360 and im fond of microsoft, didnt really like the ps2, but i loved my psx and ps1, and i hope that the ps3 will offer in ratio to now, what the ps1 did then.. it saddens me to see sony faced with these kinds of problems, i know i know, great news for xbox fanyboys, but , bad news for any true gamer, a true gamer will not limit himself to one system, i at first was very skeptical of the ps3, but now i am looking forward to getting one in a year or so. so i hope sony can turn this around. both (really all 3) systems have great things to offer this gen.

  • faizali86

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 7:36 am PT

    i hope they manage to set things right

  • daveg1

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 4:30 am PT

    there whole projections for the amount of machines avalible day one are not entierly true or they are just sending more to the u.s. who knows!?

  • Newager

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 2:03 am PT

    Only time will tell.

  • powerslave88

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 11:34 pm PT

    definition of CONSOLE WAR - Nerd paranoia

  • osxgp

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 9:39 pm PT

    What is Sony doing?

  • thenewcraze

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 6:14 pm PT

    Atleast you know what you are talking about...

    Very difficult to have a decent conversation without having to sift through all the BS I mostly see on this board. Being the "elitist" I believe myself to be, I can only come to one conclusion in the matter:

    Capability and effective implementation walk a broad line. The PS3 and XBOX 360 have tons of development potential to end the console war. It doesn't always come down to innovative software/hardware taking the cake - it is pushing the limitations and boundaries of hardware that will spotlight one (or both) sides.

    Why should it matter? In a few years, the high-end nVidia graphics cards or the Cell processors that power our systems will be replaced by more powerful hardware, so what's the rush to draw a premature conclusion? The only real winner is the PC gaming market as the technology is never (in a broad sense) at a stalemate. With every new computer hardware piece hitting the market, there is software out there taking advantage of it - neither one is ever lagging behind another.

    The console developers are in an impasse due to the full potential of the systems not even beginning to be touched by current and near-future software. Give it some time - software can only be as good as the effectiveness of the hardware - and to the same degree, it's also the other way around.

  • UmonDaisuke

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 4:36 pm PT

    I'm not repremanding you Umon. Don't take offense.

    None taken, though I should be the one apologizing for calling you jaded there (sarcasm dually noted there too ). Perhaps I'm a bit too picky, and since I mostly play action and fighting games, I'm used to paying close attention to every single pixel on screen. Anyway, perhaps I've sent the wrong message because the 360 hardware is perfectly capable of doing 1080p (in fact, Lost Planet was running at that resolution on the TGS floor). The extra processing power of Cell is perhaps making things a bit easier for some developers on the PS3.

  • thenewcraze

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 3:33 pm PT

    I'm not repremanding you Umon. Don't take offense.

    I said launch titles and one's this year. I'll give you RR and maybe Marvel, irregardless that it may not even be stable.

    I have a Platinum Mits 1080p DLP; a Denon DVD-5910 player that upscales to 1080p and a Tosh HDXA1 HD-DVD. Can't make a complete and honest conclusion on a difference in resolution.

    I do this stuff for a living. Then again, maybe I am "jaded." Maybe, I'm just blind. Maybe apathetic. All the above?

    This isn't about the malleable "My-Specs-Are-Better-Than-Your-Specs" because I can write whatever I want on paper - doesn't make it true. If so, the validity and effectiveness of a marketing department become moot point.

  • WakkaWakka55

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 3:16 pm PT

    http://forums.e-mpire.com/showthread.php?t=64092

    ^ Taiwan and Chinese launches could be the reason for the 20,000 JP unit cut.

  • Benjifull2

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 2:32 pm PT

    are there gona be any ps3's left by 17th of november, sony every couple of weeks keep sayin there is gona be less and less consoles at the launch, i live in france so i no im not gona get a ps3 until march well i doubt that europe will get any in march. i already got a xbox360 coz i new sony's ps3 wud neva reach europe in 2006 so now i think im gona get a wii and then wen the ps3 reaches europe in 2020 i mite get one

  • maihem

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 1:53 pm PT

    SpareJesus:

    Ever heard of gran turismo, socom, killzone, warhawk, heaveny sword, wipeout, medievil, twisted metal, god of war, ratchet & clanck, dark cloud, syphon filter, jak and daxter, ico, shadow of the colossus, sly, etc, etc, etc?. I suggest you to check some more before posting BS.

  • powerslave88

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 1:09 pm PT

    its just games.. they can wait 'till next year

    LAUNCH DAY is not the only day you can get your excellent ps3

  • Blacksamurai87

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 12:22 pm PT

    ouch. 4 mil from the N

  • Terran499

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 12:03 pm PT

    Production issues my *ss. Where did people think those 15,000 PS3 kiosks were going to come from!

  • bobreturns

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 10:51 am PT

    lol "Clearly we've had production issues." *sarcastic* noooooooo lol

  • SpareJesus

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 10:46 am PT

    williamwu1985
    hope sony is fine, i really dont like other consoles along with their games.

    Just to call to people's attention; you do realize, that if Sony and the PlayStation fell through, there'd be no reason not to get another console, correct?

    Not that I want that to happen, I've happily owned both the PS2 and PlayStation, but just for the few that don't realize..

    The last I checked, Sony didn't make their own games. Unlike Nintendo (and in some cases, MS), Sony is not a first-party company. They rely on other developers and publishers to give their console a 'flavour of the month' to make their products special. (Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, DMC, GTA.)

    If MS or Nintendo failed and stopped working in the videogame industry altogether (or maybe Sega in place of MS), I'd be devestated, as there are no other companies that could make the games Nintendo made. (Besides RARE/Hal, but obviously, they had permission from Nintendo and worked in tandem to create games like Donkey Kong Country or SSB).

    I'm aware that Sony have occasionally published one or two titles (Loco Roco, Untold Legends), but if Sony were to 'go under', these games could easily be ported onto other consoles.

    At some point, there's (I'm assuming) going to be a limit to just how 'impressive' consoles can be, at which point, it won't matter what console a game will be on. So it wouldn't matter whether they were on the 'New XBox', 'New Ninty Console' or 'PSWhatever', just so long as they had these games.

    However, I'd know that I'd be able to find most of Sony's games on Nintendo or MS at that point, as the games do not belong to Sony themselves, they're just licensed and/or appearing on that console as a 'supporter'.

    If Sony went under, I'm assuming that to keep their franchises alive, Capcom would move DMC, Rockstar would move GTA (and have done, somewhat)..so I wouldn't really be missing out on anything. In fact, it'd mean one less waste of money to play more games on that one console.

    If anyone sees my point or agrees with me, more power to them. But for now, I wish Sony the best. I'd hate to see such a pretentious company go under due to simple mistakes. Hopefully, they'll grow stronger through this.

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 10:46 am PT

    HAHA will the numbers continue to fall as launch day LOOMS over sony????

  • bobreturns

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 10:43 am PT

    how can it slip?

  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 10:31 am PT

    Bad news. Maybe Sony should wait a little for a better launch. But I don't think that's possible now. It's now or never.

  • Scammeleon

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 9:52 am PT

    HAHAHAHAHA!
    Sorry, bit of fanboy slipped out there...
    Poor sony, screwing themselves over once again! As though they weren't too short on units before this anyway...

  • i_like_evil

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 9:22 am PT

    I wish Sony would stop lying and covering things up. They had to claim they had more units than they actually had and now people are going to get pissed off. If this bloody company just said they couldn't keep their promise in the first place...

    The thing is, Sony is not ready. They CAN'T wait any longer or they will fall way behind the competition. I've never seen Sony like this before. But it always happens. After so many years at the top... the mountain of gold starts to slowly melt.

  • FallenOneX

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 8:51 am PT

    If Sony was honest (for once) about rolling out units every week after launch, they should just wait for Black Friday in the US. We all know the US launch is going to get cut as well, they just won't tell us by how much. We had 50 360's on launch day, I'll write in later with the amount of PS3's when they come in.

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