Sony didn’t like NPD Group’s statistics report on how the PS3 was doing, so it did the only thing it could do — release its own statement contradicting the figures.
According to the original statement released by NPD, the game hardware sales figures for March indicated that the PS3 not only came in behind the Wii and the Xbox 360, but also trailed the PSP, PS2, and GBA.
Remarkably, Sony explained that the PS3 was, in fact, the only game console to see an increase in sales during this time. According to Sony, the "PS3 saw a month-over-month increase of 2 percent with sales of 129,638 units, we continued to find ourselves supply constrained in March due primarily to the shift in manufacturing focus to the PS3 PAL version to support the launch of the system in Europe."
Sony is reversing itself on previously claiming that the abundance of PS3s for sale was an indication that it was on track in making sufficient numbers of game consoles for sale, as opposed to the PS3 not selling. Sony now claims that there are "supply constrains" or lack of enough machines for sale because of the production shift to Europe.
Whether there are enough or not enough PS3s for sale is not the issue. The stark numbers indicate that all is not as well as the spin doctors claim it is.
