The recent sight of frenzied shoppers standing in line for a chance to purchase a Wii or PS3 may very well be headed for a repeat performance, with less than two weeks remaining before Christmas. Industry watchers believe that the prospect of locating a PS3 or Wii will diminish substantially following this week.
Large retail chain stores such as Circuit City and Toys ‘R’ Us are promising shoppers that supplies of the elusive machines will be ready for sale this weekend. A PS3seeker representative said, "We believe there are going to be Wii held and released Dec. 17 and that will be the last shipment before Christmas. We think there might be a PS3 shipment about the same time."
Desperate shoppers who aren’t able to secure one of the machines during the next week and a half still have the option of going online and bidding for one. Recent prices on eBay show that PS3s have dropped in average winning bids from $1000 to $900, while the Wii has gone up from $450 to $470. The PS3 and Wii retail for $600 and $250, respectively.
The scarcity of both next-gen consoles may help the third contestant in the console wars, Microsoft. Heavy advertising is already jamming the airwaves for the Xbox 360 in anticipation that frustrated shoppers who cannot get a Sony or Nintendo game console will opt for the readily available 360. However, out of all three major game machine manufacturers, Nintendo and Microsoft stand to gain the largest share of holiday traffic due to having more units available for sale. Microsoft’s Bill Gates stated that the outcome of the console wars wouldn’t be known until Christmas 2007, when all three systems would be freed from production constraints. But if the Xbox 360 and Wii gain substantial sales leads over the PS3 during this holiday season, Sony will have to redouble their efforts to maintain their dominance in the home game console market.
