The Nikkei Keizai Shimbun morning edition reported this morning that Sony will not hit its mark of 100,000 PlayStation 3 units in Japan. Component shortages have limited the release of the PlayStation 3 to 80,000 units, which will lead to 20,000 more disappointed Japanese gamers. Due to the shortage, many major retailers (as well as major online retailers) in Japan will no longer be taking pre-orders. You can bet that launch day for the PlayStation 3 is going to be absolutely insane in Japan.
I’m going out on a limb on this, but it also feels like Sony is going to announce that it will also miss its mark of 400,000 units in the U.S. If there’s a bigger shortage here, it’s going to make things even more crazy come launch week. I tried to make a pre-order at ToysRUs yesterday, and got there at 7 on Saturday night, and still missed the pre-order (ToysRUs only offered 6 PS3 preorders). People had been camping out since 4am Saturday morning! Hopefully that won’t be the case, and it won’t make things harder for anyone trying to get a PlayStation 3.