Hirai: PS3 shortages inevitable
Sony US boss Kaz Hirai has been speaking to GameSpot about the launch of the PS3 and he's dropped a fair few details and indeed issued some stark warnings about just how easy it will be to get your hands on the console, come this year's November launch period.
Quizzed on launch plans for the console, Hirai began by re-stating Sony's position that there would be two million units worldwide within a calendar year of launch, but on the more thorny issue of allocations per major territory he added, "Since we're going with three territories, we haven't really come up with an allocation just yet. But even if you do the simple math you're talking about less than 700,000 units per territory, per major territory, between launch and the end of the year. So even if there was some fluctuation - you give Japan more, you give the US more, what have you - you're going to end up with some shortages."
Hirai then added, "Unfortunately, I think it's going to be very much of a challenge to be able to meet every single unit demand that's out there in the market. That's just a logistical impossibility. Unless we suddenly say, "Well we want to wait until June of next year to launch because we want to stockpile product," I don't think that's the approach we want to take."
So not much prospect of waking up with a PS3 delivered fresh from Santa's bulging sack this Christmas morning then, but Hirai then went to admit that Sony hasn't begun making the units themselves yet, although production is apparently, just about to kick off. "We haven't started manufacturing yet. Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the [production] lines and everything else. But they are, again, preparing as we speak to get the manufacturing going. We've not announced and we haven't set really a specific date to say, "As of this day we're going to start manufacturing.".
Despite acknowledging that shortages are inevitable, Hirai however did remain optimistic on the console's longer-term prospects saying in the light of the recent Yankee analysts report, Sony would retain its overall market share as the market plays out over the next few years. "My plan basically is to make sure that we keep at least as much market share as we have had with the PS1 and the PS2. We don't plan on ceding any of the market share to our competitors, especially after the cycle has gone deep".
