Bloomberg: Sony missed PS3 ship targets

Analysts surveyed say number of launch PlayStation 3s available in US was "even lower than expected"; Sony says it shipped as many as possible.

Many gamers who have been searching desperately for a PlayStation 3 since the console's launch in North America on November 17 have come up empty-handed. A combination of high demand and low supply has resulted in nationwide sellouts of the console, many stores exhausting their initial supplies within minutes.

Gamers winced when Sony announced that only 400,000 units would be up for grabs in North America on launch day, but according to Bloomberg, even that number may have been optimistic.

Several industry analysts have come forward with the belief that Sony may have missed its shipment target by as much as 50 percent. Retail expert SooAnn Roberts told Bloomberg she believes that Sony won't ship more than 200,000 PS3s to North America by the end of the year. Other analysts predicted a similar shortfall prior to the console's launch last week.

Todd Mitchell of Kaufman Bros. Equity Research said the number of PS3s at launch was "even lower than expected," says Bloomberg. The news service also claims that several other analysts echo Mitchell's sentiments.

Sony representatives told Bloomberg, "We shipped as many PlayStation 3 units into the North American market as possible and continue our efforts in supplying systems to retailers nationwide through the holidays." The rep went on to claim that Sony is planning to ship 1 million PS3s to the US by the end of the year. Sony has previously said that it plans on shipping 2 to 2.4 million PS3s worldwide by 2007.

205 Comments

  • Cloud737

    Posted Dec 15, 2006 5:51 am PT

    Heh, the year is almost ending and they almost came close to their LAUNCH allocation. I think it will be a miracle for them to ship the rest of the 500k consoles in 15 days.

  • SpiderFreak

    Posted Nov 30, 2006 12:50 pm PT

    Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on. ONE MILLION PS3s by the end of the year?

    Has EVERY EMPLOYEE AT SONY LOST THEIR MINDS?! I mean, the 200,000 estimate is just from analysts, so it's not like it's fact, but...Come on. ONE. FRICKIN'. MILLION.

    SF

  • ReaperXxxx

    Posted Nov 30, 2006 11:33 am PT

    They were having some issues manufacturing the Cell processors (high SPE failure rates) but the real problem is with the Blu-Ray laser diodes. Both problems are not only costing them consoles, but also an enormous amount of money. The PS3 project was very badly mishandled. That's not a knock on the system itself, just those attempting to launch it. Had Sony simply included a standard DVD drive and dropped the price by $200 as a result, they'd be in a much stronger position than they are now.

  • darklight86

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 12:39 pm PT

    PS3 is not ready to be mass launched. As far as I'm aware, they still have problems with the manufacture process of their processors - and probably will for some time.

  • neoand12

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 11:31 am PT

    Meh Sony will over-come this problem in the coming years. this is nothing new.

  • chamber303

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 11:31 am PT

    hello to all SONY fans. Why SONY fans?....................because. have a problem with that MS boys?

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 11:00 am PT

    sony is done.

  • MSE369

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 10:35 am PT

    Sony better get back in shape

  • markd751

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 10:33 am PT

    Man sony keeps dropping the ball, looks like i'm not getting a PS3, why waste the money?? I'll just pick up the same games on 360 :-)

  • SpeedNut_CV

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 10:03 am PT

    Too bad SooAnn is trying to make some extra $$$ on the side shorting her Sony stock. her targets are off by over 100% already on confirmed sales alone.

  • KFrog

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 10:00 am PT

    Why in the world does Sony continue to insist on shooting itself in the foot? Does this company have any idea how to manage public relations?

  • ADollins

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 9:46 am PT

    Sony you dropped the ball. The developers have now put you on notice, better hurry up and make some consoles to sell or you will lose more exclusivity.

  • NandoSupes

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 9:33 am PT

    I don't know why everyone seems so surprised , Sony is not going to deliver the 1 million PS3's by the end of the year like they said, is not happening, so is just a matter of waiting until next year

  • LexLas

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 9:26 am PT

    Not cool.

  • tomservo51

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 9:25 am PT

    Cmon, it must be a mistake. Sony has never lied in the past!!

  • the_9th_wonder

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 9:13 am PT

    I seem to remember a promise of one million units and no shortages at launch. tisk. tisk.

  • ControllerLord

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 8:34 am PT

    What happened to 6 million by March?!?!

  • nev70

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 8:10 am PT

    iestynx People should be able to wait for them to get it right. This console is going to be around for years to come, and in time will make the 360 look old and tired. Is that wnat you reallly think or hope? the ps3 techs design is already 1 year old so its already lost shelf life by the time Sonys PS3 'blooms' MS will have their next console out something that will run dx10 making the PS£ obslete now what consolea tech looks old and tired ??? Sony will be in big trouble if they think there going to get a 7/8 year life cycle out of the ps3.Consider also there high price how long will it be say be £250? as is out at £425 ? one thing for sure this is a massive gamble on Sonys part!!

  • stinkeyb

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 7:30 am PT

    Sony messed up allot leading up to the launch. It's time to get back you fans Sony. they need to do whatever it is in your power to get me a PS3 ASAP

  • iestynx

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 5:57 am PT

    I personally think that it's best not to rush these machines out, or they'll probably end up with hardware that breaks down after a couple of weeks and there'll be a massive recall. People should be able to wait for them to get it right. This console is going to be around for years to come, and in time will make the 360 look old and tired.

    I can wait at least another year as there is a vast back-catalog of games that I want to play on the PS2.

  • AtomicEdge

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 5:14 am PT

    Oh how sweet my memories of sony-fan-boys from the 360 launch.

    "LOL well done M$ you just messed up, I think I will wait 6 months (ha! -AE) and get a PS3 on launch: GO SONY!"

    There were so many like that, but with worse spellings and more $y/\/\b015.

  • Da1ShrpSh0trGrl

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 4:41 am PT

    I lost all respect for Sony. And I hope this teach them a lesson.

  • wwonka666

    Posted Nov 27, 2006 3:34 am PT

    gokunj2
    Agreed. Sony should have made a ps3 that did not include Blu-Ray,(which would knock the price down $100-$200, making the price more reasonable), then releasing a Blu-Ray Add-on.... But gokunj2 Blu-Ray is the future and we all need 1080P (even though the friggin tv's cost $3,000 now and is apparently now "Full HD". Sony is pushing this awful format to the consumer to make up for development costs and I hope it backfires on them. Penetration is very low in the HD arena right now and most people who do have one have 720P/1080i televisions. Sony wants you to feel you have to get one of their TV's to experience PS3 because Sony isn't thinking about the gamer, they are thinking about pushing other divisions. We the consumer should decide what we want and they should have just agreed to a standard rather than try and divide the market. But hopefully it will split in half and we the consumer can we winners with a combination HD/Blu-Ray drive. But that isn't going to happen for quite some time. As I've always said if Sony delivers the games then I will buy the system, but looking at it now, it would seem my 360 is gonna do me just fine for at least the next year or year and a half.

  • gamepunk86

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 11:54 pm PT

    watever. im not gettin one anytime soon

  • rpc2006

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 10:34 pm PT

    Sony, Sony, Sony..........its time you start getting your act together again.

  • berzerk0912

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 10:06 pm PT

    lies, lies, and more lies, thanks sony!!!

  • bigcrusha

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 8:18 pm PT

    Sony should have seen this coming. You can't win two wars with one machine. Making millions of copies of a console that will be both a gaming revolution and DVD revolution will take a long time to make. What follows? Less consoles on sale and many empty handed fans. Maybe if they took the time to analyze and foresee problems before launch instead of using the extra time to praise their newest creation, they could have been next gen marketing gods...

  • saannin

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 7:48 pm PT

    True gokunj2! Sony should bite and do the same thing that MS did with the HD Player add-on. They might aswell they did copy Nintendo. That's funny! Sony if you can't beat your competitors you should copy them..... hahaha! You (sony) always give me good laughs, with your lies, and now with your inability to be creative (talking about the PS3 controller)....... You are funnnnyyyyy!!

  • saannin

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 7:41 pm PT

    This does not directly apply to the subject but I looked up the cost of a HD cable for the PS3 and it cost $50, man (for the 360 its $40). So if you want Hi-def for the PS3 you have to pay $500 or $600 plus $50 for the HD cable, that's $650 (for 60 gig one) if you want the whole next gen. experience. That's crazy money. I probably still buy it but man that's bad marketing. I have a premium 360 and it comes with the HD cable straight out of the box. It just suprises me how sony stiffs everyone especially the US.... (by the way I'm not a MS fanboy if anything I'm a fan of all systems!!)

  • gokunj2

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 7:34 pm PT

    Agreed. Sony should have made a ps3 that did not include Blu-Ray,(which would knock the price down $100-$200, making the price more reasonable), then releasing a Blu-Ray Add-on.

  • nemes1s3000

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 7:24 pm PT

    DVD's and consoles don't mix and match when it comes to this.

  • V-Nine

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 6:54 pm PT

    I hate that Sony is sinking faster than the Titanic and are even providing their own iceberg. I think someone inside the company is trying to steal some mega bucks because all the shirts are/have been acting funny and saying the most silly things and setting unheard of goals. I am really REALLY hoping I dont have the worlds largest most expensive paper weight to go with my paperweight of a system PSP. If final fantasy goes non exclusive any further sony has lost me and the way Gran turismo is beeing handled is becoming questionable. Its like sony just turned crazy all of a sudden. Hope this aint the sign of the times striking this early. C'mon sony get it together, its to early for this crap to be happening.

  • pikadeth

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 6:30 pm PT

    This is what happens when you try to win a DVD war and console war with one machine.

  • gamergoddess89

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 6:01 pm PT

    aw sony!! what have you become oh wait you still pretty much rule so it'll be ok and japan hates 360 so no matter what you touch over theere gaming wise its gold so no worries
    ok yes i will agree the pink DS lites are cool i mean i don't even like pink but it makes me proud in a way if i had a pink console or handheld you know it would just scream out i'm a girl and yes i'm playing gears of war on a pink 360. i ordered a custom faceplate what can i say but i would really love to have the pink PSP that they are releasing in Europe

  • aramitz

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 3:19 pm PT

    The big winner this christmas is going to be DS lites (especially the pink ones). I've never seen girls go so ape over something video game related, as soon as my store gets them in their gone.

  • brothaval

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 2:47 pm PT

    I agree with DigitalDevil. Just because half the games on a system's game lineup aren't rated M shooters, doesn't mean they can't make quality gaming. What exactly would you call Mario, Metroid, or Zelda? Just because the games don't have freakin' heads flying off, blood spurting, doesn't make them worthless, "kiddie" games.

    Nintendo's got their ish together this time around.. Them, as well as Microsoft, with the 360. Maybe Bill Gates and Shigeru Miyamoto should be friends

  • _Sam_

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 2:25 pm PT

    If they manufactured more, more could have gone out

  • Ansem_Rev

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 1:51 pm PT

    THE GOD OF ALL GAMES HAS A HALO. in fact it has 3.

    HALO 3 - Nuff said...

    XBOX 360 FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Jestarius

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 12:45 pm PT

    If it is about the games...the PS3 has at best 2 games on launch worth playing, the Wii has about 4, and the 360 at this point has 10 or so.....exclusives dropping off ps3's radar and sharing with the 360....gee...if it's about the games, why would you buy a ps3, for now or the future?

    if it's about corporations...sony blatantly misleads it's followers, refuses to accept responsibility, and even ships it's lackluster amount of consoles with known defects (bad controller batteries). Just on a moral basis, why would you waste your time with them?

  • flanderosa

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 11:22 am PT

    Let's not forget that Sony made a complete and utter hash of the PS2 launch (at least in Europe) and look where that machine is? Companies have a habit of making a hash of new console launches. What about the Xbox360 launch last year? What about the Dreamcast launch before that? In fact, Sony will be perversely loving the amount of attention the machine is getting - remember what they say? Bad publicity is better than no publicity. And anyway, all you moaning about shortages in the US, at least you have machines in the country. We in Britain have to wait till March (though I'm not even THINKING about getting a PS3 until October - when GTA4 is scheduled for release).

  • GrimBee

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 10:19 am PT

    Here delay, None tomorrow...

  • honkyjesus

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 9:42 am PT

    so sony had all that time to get units ready, they maybe came up with 200k for America, now they are saying they are going to make five times the number they had all those months to make in about a month

    wow, sony is credible, right lol

  • Belgium_1830

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 8:21 am PT

    Lets face it, the PS3 was not ready to launch in 2006 and hasn't really launched yet. Nintendo are the true professionals here.

  • peyo6700

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 7:45 am PT

    jus 1 comment.........wiiii and 360!!!! lol

    th ps3 just dont worth a buy i got nes,snes,sega genesis, dreamcast(great but forgoten),ps1, ps2,64, 360 and wii so im not a fanboy lol

  • Jubei_Kimagami

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 7:33 am PT

    ...beware, the next-gen's finally upon us! ;-) ...well, well, well...now we're down for the count and the final contenders to fight for their share of the pie have finally arrived! After watching the turmoil for the PS3...shortly after being followed by the launch of the Nintendo 'Wii' one's gotta admit that Nintendo pulled off a great launch this time, doing so many things right, where SONY failed to deliver (ironically speaking in more than one way...mind you! ;-) And speaking of which...it ain't all about the technical horsepower that one has got underneath his console...but the 'fun' which is more essential nowadays...more than ever; I don't wanna sound like a fanboy here (I own multiple platforms and love to see a change in the console wars landscape once in a while...especially when a big company like SONY is responsible for shutting down my import sources one by one i.e. LikSang - miss you guys! - and acts nothing but arrogant throughout the whole process...'protecting' us serious gamers out there?! C'mon...gimme a break here and cut me some slack, will 'ya?!)

    Besides...I really was about to fly over to NY to get myself a PS3 and a 'Wii'...but guess what?! I got my 'Wii'...but neglected the PS3...in favour of a X-Box 360 with Gears of War and all that gimmick stuff - especially HD-DVD - I'll wait and see how the PS3's gonna be welcome by the european market first...especially with their 'Blu-Ray' attempt...X-Box360 is in its 2nd generation cycle now...'Wii' delivered what it promised to be...just SONY with their PS3 seemed to have bitten off more than they can chew...and by far still have more on their plates than might be good for them...so to speak of.

    I really was psyched up to the PS3 hype...but after what they've done to import retailers and their launch plans for the different markets I'd love to see SONY fail with their ambitious plans; not only that they - after losing their lawsuit with the force feedback patent at court - snagged that innovative '6-axis-move-detection-feauture' obviously from the 'Wii' controller but on the other hand SONY with its PS3 technical map and overall intentions to serve the customer's demands on so many levels has so much derived from the 'classic console' structure and most ironically, Microsoft - well known as a PC hard-& software company - has produced a console, which is more about the 'console' idea itself than critics expected before the X-Box 360 was finally revealed! And even in the 'online' segment...even though I hate to admit it - Microsoft has set up a very tough competition in comparison to SONY's network...whereas with the 'Live' community you simply plug in and play...in regard to the SONY network it's plagued with a couple of minor hassles that distract from the overall 'experience'! In my opinion Nintendo's online ambitions this time really seem to be very interesting - in terms of 'emulated games' and the Opera browser - and one just has to wait and see for himself, how things will turn out in the end...

    For the time being I'm happy with my PS2 with 'FinalFantasy XII', the X-Box 360 with 'Gears of War' and the HD-DVD Drive (The movies rock!!! Their so awesomely crisp and HD!!!) and my Nintendo 'Wii' with 'Zelda'...and have mixed feelings towards the upcoming launch of the PS3 in the european market...I wouldn't mind a change in the console wars landscape this time and'd love to see Nintendo's ambitions with their unique approach to finally pay off as well as MIcrosoft with their X-Box 360 make a stand for I think that this time, SONY with its PS3 is NOT going to blow the competition away as they did it in past events...and THAT's the bottom line!

    ...in the long run, we all - the whole gaming community - win! So stop **** around about the whole 'console wars' and who's about to win and so on and so forth...just appreciate these fine pieces of hardware that are out there nowadays and have fun, everybody!!!

  • dwilson65

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 7:04 am PT

    All the fan-BOYS have to attack something.Grow up it's about gaming ,don't hate something just because you can't own all consoles .OR are you all just sheep going with the crowd baaaaaa baaaaaa , Let me repeat It's About Gaming not corporation's

  • CianMCL

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 6:02 am PT

    i agree with Flavius_Aetius cuz there is some great console out at the mioment. if you like games why cant you like all consoles. people are mainly b!tch!n bout the ps3 cuz of its cost if the 360 had the hd player it would be nearly $300 more seein as hd wud have been more expensive last year ps3 wud be $400 if they didnt have blu-ray the consoles have to be givin time to fully exploit what they can do and to you xbox fanboys remember the 360's cocked out too so dont be sayin all thet is negatinve bout ps3.

  • Jestarius

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 5:41 am PT

    all I have to say is the gamestop I'm at had a ps3 all through black friday, and NOBODY BOUGHT IT. It sat out in the open, and people bought 360s. That is how stellar sony's hack of a console is. With the thrid party developers bailing on exclusivity agreements on sony....I think the 360's gonna do just fine.

  • legol1

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 5:25 am PT

    i heard someone at ebgame near my home said the 360 owned 2006 but nothing can save it in 2007...maybe sony they are so much games being dalayed on ps3 im starting to wonder if there will be any killer apps on ps3 in 2007 .

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