Sony May Have Missed PlayStation 3 Goal, Analysts Say

Sony Corp. may have missed its goal of having 400,000 PlayStation 3 consoles in U.S. stores for the video-game player's Nov. 17 debut, analysts said.

The number of machines available was ``even lower than expected,'' Kaufman Bros. Equity Research analyst Todd Mitchell said today in a research note. Analysts including Michael Savner at Banc of America Securities and Anthony Gikas at Piper Jaffray & Co. also predicted a shortfall.

Limited supplies haven't satisfied demand for PlayStation 3, leading some customers who obtained consoles to sell them on the Internet at markups of several times to their retail price. Parts shortages forced Sony to reduce its year-end goal for worldwide shipments of the new console by half, to 2 million, in September.

``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,'' Sony spokeswoman Kimberly Otzman said today in an e-mail.

The company is airlifting in shipments weekly, and aims to have 1 million units in U.S. stores by the end of the year, Otzman said. She didn't say how many shipments were on hand for the launch.

American depositary receipts of Tokyo-based Sony fell 67 cents to $40.12 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Each ADR is worth one ordinary share. They have declined 1.7 percent this year.

Tokyo-based Sony has struggled to assemble the consoles due to a shortage of a laser used in its Blu-ray DVD player.

Short supplies of the consoles led customers to line up for days outside stores across the U.S. Some people who purchased the $499 and $599 machines sold them on Web sites such as Ebay.com for as much as $5,000.

Lines, Markups

More than half the 150 stores checked by Kaufman Bros. said they wouldn't have enough units to cover preorders, according to a Nov. 16 research note by retail analyst SooAnn Roberts. She predicts Sony will ship no more than 200,000 units to the U.S. this year.

Savner said in a Nov. 7 report that Sony would miss its target. Gikas said in a Nov. 16 note that he expected 200,000 PlayStation 3s available at the U.S. launch and 400,000 by year- end.

Toys ``R'' Us Inc., the second-largest U.S. toy seller, expects more PlayStation 3 machines to arrive next week, spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said in an interview. She said the company received enough PlayStation 3s at launch to cover preorders.

``They gave us allocations for the holiday season last week,'' Waugh said. ``We wish we could have gotten more.''

Nintendo Co.'s Wii, which was introduced in the U.S. on Nov. 19, ``is doing phenomenally,'' Waugh said. The Wayne, New Jersey-based company's Times Square store sold more than 2,000 units in a few hours, she said.

Wii is sold out in some stores, although the company expects to be ``in great stock through the holiday season,'' Waugh said. The Wii appeals to Toys ``R'' Us core customers of families and children, she said.

Customers who want a PlayStation 3 will probably wait and buy more games for their PlayStation 2, Mitchell said in an interview.

``If there is a substitution, it would be more for the Xbox 360,'' Mitchell said. ``Demand for PS3 is from hard-core gamers, who wouldn't opt for a Wii. It's not an alternative to PS3.''