The shortage of available PS3 machines has caused an avalanche of requests for the scarce machine on various online sites offering PS3s for sale. Costco.com, which announced that a very limited supply would be available on Friday morning, had so many website hits for a PS3 bundle that the server system crashed at 8am and remained disabled until past noon.
Industry watchers were foreseeing shortages of Sony,s PS3 on launch day, with many doubtful that the expected 400,000 units promised could be met. Estimates that production shortages would be up to less than half of the expected quantity were offered. While the shortfall has panned out as anticipated, Sony has maintained that the numbers are not as low as forecasted by the analysts.
Jack Tretton, co-chief operating officer at Sony Computer Entertainment America said that there would be "tens of thousands’ fewer PS3s than originally thought. His statement, while somewhat vague in nature about how many actual units Sony would come up short with shows that he too, is somewhat miffed at the situation. He pointed to the various problems with Blu-ray DVD manufacturing and other issues and said, "This is not a perfect science manufacturing this device."
