Sony to halve PS3 year-end target shipment to two million?

It seems like launch delays and rumored shipment shortages have harried Sony since day one of the PS3, and they've sure been flying lately. Sony seems to stick to their claims of four million PS3s by year end, with another million to be shipped by March 31, 2007 -- the end of Sony's fiscal year. But supposedly Sony's OEM makers in China and Japan are singing a different tune. DigiTimes reports that the manufacturers are still gearing up for volume production of the new PlayStation, and with a purported shortage of blue lasers and Cell processors, they're thinking the total shipment by the end of the year may be as little as half of Sony's projections. Sony naturally didn't have much to say on the matter, and we've heard enough reports of shortages by now to be fairly skeptical of this one, but we can't say we'd be incredibly surprised by such a failing either.

[ken fager @ Aug 30th 2006 11:19AM]

I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this.

[Smeagol @ Aug 30th 2006 11:20AM]

I love un-named industry sources; engadget would have nothing to 'report' on if it werent for them ... who is it this time MS? Apple? Nintendo?

[R2P2 @ Aug 30th 2006 11:25AM]

They're planning to build and ship 4 million PS3s in the four months left this year, and only 1 million in the first three months of next year? That doesn't quite seem right; you'd think they'd be able to produce them faster as time goes by. Seems like they've either underestimated what they can ship next year or overestimated what they can ship this year, and I know which way I'm leaning...

[Ken @ Aug 30th 2006 11:27AM]

I'm a member of the Sony Gamer Advisory Panel (GAP), pre-ordered a PSP a few months before it came out (and had it since day), and I'm *really* looking forward to the PS3.

Unfortunately, no matter who I pre-order from (Lik-sang, GameStop, etc), I don't think I'll see one on November 17th. With Sony going late into production, a fairly high defect rate on the Cell processor, and various Blu-ray issues (DRM, blue laser diode shortages, etc), I think I'd be lucky to see a PS3 in 2006 at all.

I truly hope these are just unfounded rumors... but I doubt it.

[wiriamou @ Aug 30th 2006 11:32AM]

wiiiiiiiii!

[xbox360dsPSP @ Aug 30th 2006 11:34AM]

It sounds like there will be fewer PS3s on the street than there were XBOX 360s last year. The eBAY community must be stoked.

[Sean DL @ Aug 30th 2006 11:39AM]

R2P2, more like that after the biggest shopping day of the year, sales take nose dives, so they don't need to ramp out that many PS3 in the first three months of 2007.

I'm sure they COULD boost up production if the demand is there, specially if they fail in getting the 4 million they wanted before the end of 2006. I'm going o say this is how it going to look like:

2 million by Jan 1 2007
2 million by March 2007

That way they will still be able to say at there little stock meeting that they shipped 4 million PS3 by the end of the (Business) year.

It's not lieing..just spin, because you couldn't understand what they were saying in the first place..lol

[D2 @ Aug 30th 2006 11:49AM]

I love how all of a sudden everyone thinks they're an industrial engineer.

"sony needs to produce a ps3 every X seconds to meet..."

[Raider @ Aug 30th 2006 11:56AM]

Smeagol....
DigiTimes said the OEM MANUFACTURES.
Sure they are un-named... they don't want to piss off Sony. But in any case you know it to be true. Shortages are going to be even more pronounced than the Xbox 360. That is because the PlayStation 3 contains more exotic technologies that are only produced by a very short list of manufacturers.

[Baumann @ Aug 30th 2006 12:00PM]

If they can ship even one PS3 this year they've surpassed my expectations.

[idiot @ Aug 30th 2006 12:00PM]

wow, is it always this hard to launch a console?



maybe that's why Nintendo is keeping mum...

[Rax @ Aug 30th 2006 12:59PM]

This is just a regurgitation of last weeks news from analysts.

Engadget is week late with news again, but any anti-Sony gets the green light here.

[Mack Swift @ Aug 30th 2006 1:05PM]

I think we should look at Ockham's razor. The simplest explaination should be the one that's true. Right?

Why is Blu-Ray having all these problems? It seems lately that Blu-Ray manufacturing, DRM, DRM licensing, and the players all seem to have some type of hic-cup. Now, what common variable is connected to Blu-Ray? Sony controls all aspects of Blu-Ray.

Draw your own conclusions

[Jason @ Aug 30th 2006 1:26PM]

"any anti-Sony gets the green light here"

It's a blog about technology, and earlier today they blogged about blue laser shortages. Do you really think this story was drummed up by Nintendo and Microsoft?

That wouldn't even make sense. Saying "PS3s are going to be hard to get" starts the consumer feeding frenzy, which is a good thing from Sony's perspective.

[CharlieX @ Aug 30th 2006 1:29PM]

Their exploding batteries was a ploy to ruin laptops so we wouldn't even have $600 to spend on a PS3 anyhow.

[Shotta @ Aug 30th 2006 1:38PM]

No one trusts the official spokesman...everyone trusts the unofficial source

[Sean DL @ Aug 30th 2006 3:24PM]

Yeah and I wouldn't be surprized if Australia and many parts of Europe don't get a PS3 till 2007.

If anything when Nov 2006 hits it'll be:

US/Canada
Japan
England
and maybe
France/Germany/Italy

[IE_Anonymous @ Aug 30th 2006 3:44PM]

D2, couldn't have said it better myself. If you've never been in manufacturing you just have no clue...it's a beast like no other.

[Josh @ Aug 30th 2006 4:24PM]

Hey Smeagol, I get tired of reading your same comment in every sony thread, no matter to what degree it applies. If you have nothing new to bring to the conversation I suggest bringing nothing to the conversation.

[Lithium @ Aug 30th 2006 4:56PM]

Silly Engadget, it's PLAYSTATION not PlayStation.

[c-lee @ Aug 30th 2006 7:58PM]

"No one trusts the official spokesman...everyone trusts the unofficial source"
Well, we have already been OFFICIALLY duped about the 7 usb ports on ps3, 2 hdmi ports, Killzone trailer. What kind of sane person WOULD believe the official line from Sony?

[jack notebook @ Aug 30th 2006 9:19PM]

i can't wait ps3 i hope they dont lie ! no delay anymore!

[John Robinson @ Aug 30th 2006 9:41PM]

I was in Japan last weekend, game shops have posters stating that the 20G model will be about 62,500 Yen & available on November 11th. No word on pricing for the 60G version tho.

[n2 @ Aug 30th 2006 9:50PM]

I said it when the 360 was released. Worldwide launch = mistake. You end up upseting everyone to sell globally, and you don't have enough to satisfy demand.

[Matt @ Aug 31st 2006 2:13AM]

You can do some amazing things when you liquidate your QA department.

Watch and learn from the pros!

[phone verification guy @ Sep 4th 2006 3:42AM]

We've been waiting for so long... Are 2 million PS3 enough? Derfinitely not :(

[PMX @ Sep 4th 2006 7:35PM]

From the picture: "Worldwide Launch"

...seems to be missing a few Continents. 9_9