PS4 Launch Day Not Expected to Face Shortage; Sony Prepared for Over 1 Million Orders
Sony is reporting that due to careful planning they will have plenty of PS4's to go around come launch day and should not face any shortages.
Fox Business reports that President and CEO of SCEA (Sony) said the PS4's yield numbers are "phenomenal."
One of the key factors is delaying the console's launch in Japan, giving all of the extra systems to American and European audiences. Sony is even confident enough that they believe users will be able to pick one up around launch date regardless of over a million pre-orders.
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Sony is turning their main focus to their biggest sales market for the holiday season, Japan, according to Bloomberg News. The console will be released on Feb. 22, compared to the November release dates for North America and Europe.
In 2006, the PS3 fell behind a bit after suffering parts shortages. The plan to only reach 32 markets before year's end increases their chances of keeping them running smoothly.
"We had a tough experience of supply not meeting demand at an early stage of introduction for PS2 and PS3," Sony executive Andrew House said. "This time, we want to avoid that happening again. We want to launch it when we can meet the volume."
As far as the competition, Extreme Tech says the Xbox has had to lower their production from over 7 million units to 6.2 million because of a slow down with the Blu-Ray drive and Kinect camera.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 console suffered early on because they rushed shipments. The system had what came to be known as the "red ring of death," where the unit would freeze up and the green "ON" lights turned red, rendering the console useless.
Also, in 2006 the Nintendo Wii completely ran out of units, leading to an embarrassing and chaotic game of catch up for the company.
The PS4 and Xbox One are expected to sell around 3 million units each come launch day, according to analyst Michael Olson for Piper Jaffray.
