Wall Street, store retailers and consumers have all marveled at the overstock of PS3s sitting quietly (and unsold) on store shelves. The situation has caused market analysts to become concerned over the sluggish sales of Sony’s new game console and has cast a shadow over the company and its ability to make the PS3 successful in the tightly contested three-way console race. But according to a Reuters interview with SCEA President Jack Tretton, the bulk of PS3s we see on store shelves is a good thing.
Tretton provided his massive spin on the situation by stating, "It’s a testament to the fact that we’ve been able to manufacture and ship units on a greater pace than any previous console. Our goal is to fill shelves across the United States. Our goal is not to have empty shelves; it’s to have full shelves."
If anyone believes this line of logic, we can also rest assured that the Easter Bunny is real and that Martians have landed in our backyards. Tretton continued his leap of logic by saying, "If we have [an] empty [shelf] that’s one less consumer who could have bought a PlayStation 3."
eBay, which has long served as an informal barometer of what the consumer is willing to pay for popular items, has seen a tremendous downturn in the price of PS3s, while the demand for Nintendo’s Wii remains high. On one hand, Nintendo is selling every Wii as soon as it reaches store shelves; on the other, Sony’s PS3 is now a common sight at many retailer locations. Whether this sudden steady supply of units is due to Sony’s increased manufacturing of the system or is simply because people aren’t buying them depends upon whose point of view you take–Sony’s or the general public’s.
