Sony to Buy Back PlayStation Titles

A recent article in Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun indicated that Sony Computer Entertainment of Japan - in an umprecedented move - plans to buy back 700,000 to 800,000 pieces of PlayStation software at 2,000 yen (US$16.50) per package from retailers for a total of 1.6 billion yen ($13,195,876) by the end of November.

It is not known which of the 200 titles will be bought back but it does seem interesting considering it is holding its own with a total of 8.5 million units shipped worldwide. The surprising buyback will cover 10 percent of all inventories in the nation's 7,000 stores.

Will this massive undertaking come to the US as the shelves are bulging with more PlayStation titles than ever?

Does this mean that Sony's machine is in trouble? Not exactly. The buyback was motivated to ease the financial burdens of retailers, considering the massive amount of titles that they've needed to keep on shelves. The program won't affect SCE's profit or revenue this fiscal year because the possibility of the buyback was incorporated into the 1997 fiscal year projections.

What will happen to the massive amount of titles? No one seems to know.