It seems that Japan, home base for Sony, is getting the short end of the stick with the upcoming release of the PlayStation 3. First, they were only allocated 1/4 as many units as North America at launch, and today we’re finding out that even that initial number of 100,000 might have been a little high.
According to IGN, today’s Nikkei Keizai Shimbun morning edition stated that due to component shortages (more than likely involving the Blu-Ray player), that the initial estimate of 100,000 PS3s for Japan’s launch has been scaled back to 80,000. That’s a 20% decrease!
As you’re probably well aware from reading VGBlogger and other sites, the PlayStation 3 will not be easy to come by this year, especially with Sony adjusting shipment forecasts this close to launch. Although no official word of a lower North American target was mentioned, I can’t imagine us weathering this new shortage without losing a few thousand units in the end.