Sony is now officially confirming only a single pack on March 24 and that there will be stock of approximately one million units, which should allay any concerns of shortages.
Single Pack
Some were displeased to hear that the North American launch of the PSP might only be in a Value Pack format. It is now known for certain that North Americans will not get an option of a console only PSP. The $249.99 Value Pack will contain a 32MB Memory Stick PRO Duo, headphones with remote control, battery pack, AC adaptor, soft case, wrist strap, cleaning cloth, a UMD with game / movie and music videos and the first one million value packs will contain the movie Spider-Man 2 on UMD.
One million
With online stores going in and out of pre-order mode, many were worried that all stocks were already accounted for. Even after one month of sales, Japan managed to "only" sell 500k PSP units. To prepare for a potential onslaughts and to the dissapointment of many eBay sellers who were hoping to take advantage of the shortage, Sony has announced that there will be one million PSP units available for sale.
While it is great news to hear that there probably won't be any shortages, it is dissapointing to hear confirmation of no option aside from a value pack. Not only have users found fault with the Soft Case and Headphones, but some will be wanting far greater memory sticks. Also, perhaps Sony should have included a screen protector.
Nah, the way Sony ships things and how they say they're going to ship things is WAY different. If you were searching for slim line PS2's that's a good example. They'll send maybe enough for reserves on launch, then they'll stagger the shipments about 10-15 consoles every week or every other week. Sony likes to do the "sold out" thing and people come in ask if we have any we say no we're sold out people are like are they that hard to get we say yes, then more people want to get it because it's the new hot thing and so on...
al - that happens based on the stores own local supplier - Sony _do_not_ ship direct to the retail outlet - you need to have a distrubtor involved. When they ship 100,000 they do it in one big chunk every week. When that hits the US or where ever the dest is, the distributors get their allocated units and then they go out from there to retail outlets (and even often to second tier distributors).
If there is any sort of hiccup in production - or demand outstrips that 100,000.. then of course you end up with shortages. Hardly some evil plan - just run out of stock. Look at it logically - if a company could ship 100,000 and sell that many a week, and they didnt, a publically owned company like sony would be shot by its major shareholders (cos sales = profits, in fact previous production problems have often hit their share price hard - dont expect a sompany like that to do it on purpose). Often the availability is not constant too - you have production problems.. and surges and declines in demand.. you cant please all the people.. all the time :-) And this applies to any goods manufacturer.. from handbags to cars.. Also.. the number of hands a single good will go through can be numerous - and each company can have its own transport and logistics issues. I always love how the parent company always gets the blame for a product not sitting on a shelf - there are just so many factors.
I know they don't ship directly to the retail outlet... There will be a shortage and it won't be due to demand at first. I know there are many factors including logistics, UPS seems to lose packages a LOT, coincidentally on highly anticipated games and consoles... It doesn't help when Sony shorts the distributors either.
al - How can you _know_ Sony wont get the units to the US? Thats a very bizarre assumption. They shipped ontime in Japan (Nov 4) with approx 500,000 units. And have been shipping about 100,000 a week since (and stockpiling some recently in readniess for US launch). If you dont get to be able to buy a unit on 24th of March - I'll guarantee it will be because of demand, and not some wierd 'ship doesnt get to US' problem - they are slow, but they are very reliable... this is starting to sound like another DS fanboy rumour in the making..
I have the PSP... and no I'm not a fanboy... what I'm saying is if you've ever bought any sony console you would know how crappy it is the way they supply things. I know how crappy it is because I work a part time job where I have to deal with crappy customers who buy this stuff.
Well I have just about most consoles you can think of :-) and I work in the console/PC gaming industry (with all sorts of people for all sorts of companies - distributors, publishers, developers etc. And honestly, what you are referring (inferring) is the problem of demand and supply? This is not unique to any company - it happens to many companies all the time. You make the assumption this is a Sony only problem? If you are working with selling this gear, then you would know supply problems have occured on many titles and consoles across the board? And you are making assumptions that it will happen berfore it even does? (this is why I find it very fanboy type comment - not logical at all).
"I know they don't ship directly to the retail outlet... There will be a shortage and it won't be due to demand at first."
Would suggest you wait and see - then be the biggest critic around, by all means, if they dont ship any PSP's (Im sure you wont be the only one). I wouldnt go betting on it though..
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