http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment.cfm?id=1405972004 Game over in race for PS2s at Christmas Suez Canal closure holds up supplies bound for city JANE BRADLEY SHOPS across the Capital have run out of the world’s most popular games console, leaving hundreds of young gaming fans facing disappointment this Christmas. Retailers today admitted they didn’t know when fresh supplies of the PlayStation2 would arrive, with one high street chain warning parents not to expect any before December 25. The chronic shortage has been caused by a temporary closure of the Suez Canal, which held up a giant UK-bound container ship laden with tens of thousands of consoles made at manufacturer Sony’s factory in China. The canal was closed when a Russian oil tanker became grounded, severely disrupting other ships waiting to pass through. Sony admitted it had suffered "some problems with the supply chain", but claimed they had been overcome and that deliveries had restarted. But, 17 days before Christmas, shops today said they had been given no indication when the consoles would arrive, leaving parents with a nervous wait. A slimline version of the console, launched in November, was set to make this Christmas one of Sony’s biggest years, combined with the release of top games Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Killzone. Half the size of the original, it retails at around £99.99, while the older version costs around £79.99. The global shortage is such that secondhand machines are selling on internet auction site eBay for almost double the retail price. Mark Scott, deputy manager of Curry’s at Hermiston Gate, said a shipment of around 20 consoles delivered last week had not even made it to the shop’s shelves. "There was only enough to cover half of our orders, and we had none left over to put up for general sale," he said. "We’ve had to tell people it doesn’t look like they’ll get them for Christmas." A spokeswoman for Game, which has outlets in the St James Centre, Frederick Street, Cameron Toll, Princes Street and the Gyle, said: "We had the last delivery last week and most of our shops are out of them now." A spokesman for Dixons on Princes Street said the store had no PlayStation2s left. "We got a delivery last week, but they went straight away," he said. An assistant at Games and Movies, on Dalry Road, said the shop had not had any PlayStation2s on sale for a number of weeks. Carol Leslie searched for a PlayStation2 for her six-year-old son, Jack, for three weeks without success. "I thought it would just be a case of walking straight into a shop and picking one up, but nowhere had one," she said. But her sister-in-law, who was also looking for a console for her ten-year-old son, managed to bag a couple at Argos. "Last weekend, she heard Argos had a delivery of about 15 PlayStation2s and she rushed down there. They were actually restricting sales to one per customer because there were so few of them, so her dad had to buy the extra one for me," said Ms Leslie, 43 of Cousland. Scott Hamilton, 23, who works at Scottish Widows, said he had tried almost every shop in Edinburgh to get his hands on a PlayStation2. "I was told there would be no chance of getting one," said Mr Hamilton, of Leslie Place, Stockbridge. "I’ve looked on eBay and they’re just flying. I saw one second-hand machine go for £200." A spokesman for Sony said: "We have had some problems with the supply chain, but the problem has been solved and we are making deliveries now."
hmmmm thanks for the heads up. I might have to sell mine......is it legal to sell it with a modchip in it? It must be since there are companies out there that sell them with them in the PS2's.
Hmm...you might want to check on that, maybe see if there are modded PS2s on Ebay or something. A place got busted a few weeks ago for selling modded XBOXes...of course, they also had preloaded software on there as well, so that might have been the kicker but who knows.
This reminds me that a friend of mine sold his PS2 for like $120 even though it didn't even really work. I thought that was a pretty good deal, but maybe he could have gotten a little more, considering how some of these PS2's sale for. The thought did cross my mind to check out some stores in my area to see if they had any on sale so that I could ebay them off. (can ebay be a verb now?) Sounds like Sony screwed up big time. They try to create some demand for the PStwo by slowing production of the nornmal PS2, but then they underestimate demands for the console and now they're having to work hard to get as many consoles into stores as possible to meet demand. Now, they're faced with this problem and, IIRC, they decided to fly the shipments out from the canal, which can't be cheap. Had they not had a shortage and planned this a little better, this could have been a much better holiday season for them and others. However, I believe I also read that the Xbox has had similar shortages in some areas, leaving the Gamecube as the only real choice, so maybe Sony isn't the only one underestimating how much demand there is for their console.
My roommates ps2 broke so he through it out thinking it wouldn't be worth it to fix it. So I go with him to Best Buy to get a new one but they are out of them. So i convinced him to get an xbox, he did and loves it. smooth move sony.
First of all, that article only addresses PS2 shipments to the UK not here. Second, the only real shortage is for the new PSPs - the portable equivalents to the PS1. Third, anyone still paying for a new PS2 - when they can buy an Xbox foir the same price - is insane.
Yeah, I believe that this problem in particular only really affects the UK, but there have been shortages of PS2's just about everywhere. The UK does seem to be the hardest hit though. I guess you could say there are shortages of PSP's, but it isn't quite a big deal since it has only just recently launched in Japan only, with only like 200K units shipped. Actually, I believe I read somewhere that the PS2 shortage meant that fewer PSP's would be shipped, due to them both using the same factories. Considering Sony would make more money of the PS2 than the PSP, it is a good choice, although it would have been better for Sony had they tried to meet demand better with the PS2 while they were cutting back on shipments earlier in the year. Of course, they'd end up losing money on the additional PSP's they made, but at least they could meet demand (or close to it) in both areas rather than failing to get close on each, especially with Christmas coming up. Not trying to really nitpick, but the PSP is closer to the PS2 than the PS1 (although it isn't on that level either; more like maybe Dreamcast level graphics). Some of the early games do seem PS1-like in graphics though, most likely due to concerns on battery life. I read somewhere that Ridge Racers, a pretty graphically intensive game, got around 6 hours of battery life on medium brightness, so maybe some cautious developers can try to push the system a little more towards the PS2 side of things instead of the PS1 side. Wow, that was mightily off-topic. I always do this when it comes to video games. Darn my wandering video game mind.
That's because Sony always short-ships its products, turning them into 'hot items' and increasing demand. But hey, it works, so there you go...
That thought did cross my mind, but I'm thinking Sony just screwed up on this one. No doubt, they do seem to cause some shortages (they've been cutting back on the PS2 to create buzz for the slim one), but this seems like it could bite them in the butt. With a launch PS2 or a launch PSP, it would make some sense to do this since not many people have them, not to mention Sony would be losing money on every one of these units sold. In this case, the PS2 is already pretty saturated in the market (75+ million units worldwide). I would guess that most of the people wanting to get a PS2 don't really care so much about it. Sony can't really create that much more demand as they have right now, with the slim design and price being enough, IMO. If the PS2 isn't available, people will just go ahead and get a DS, Xbox or Gamecube (or a Nintendo Xbox as I read in an article recently ), especially with Christmas creeping up. Additionally, I believe Sony has made it so the new slim PS2, and maybe even the regular PS2's, are profitable by themselves. Any risk of not meeting demands during Christmas, a good selling period, would just seem to hurt Sony. I doubt they would do any better selling PS2's in January or February, unless some people want to give it to their Valentine. Hehe...maybe a pink heart shaped PS2 is on the way.
Sorry, I think it was just a typo or something in an article about the shortages I read about a week or so ago. I can't find the article anymore, but it isn't really necessary, unless you want to see, "Nintendo Xbox" in an actual website article... and if that is the case... I guess you're screwed. A Nintendo-Microsoft alliance would be interesting (although it has already been rumored to death already). Combine the great 1st party titles, name and innovations (wonder if Microsoft knows what those are ) of Nintendo with Microsoft, who also has good 1st party titles, but good 3rd party relationships as well, not to mention a good online-play structure. Of course, I think Nintendo would rather go bankrupt than side with Microsoft, but it would be interesting. Oops..mind wandering again... I didn't expect demand for the system to be this high either. When Sony unveiled the new design of the PS2, I thought that it looked nice, but I didn't really think too many people would get them since everybody who wanted a PS2 probably already had a PS2. Maybe Sony thought the same thing. Kind of feels like deja vu to see PS2's on Ebay selling at high prices, sort of like how it did when it launched. Of course, the PS1 seemed to sell pretty well, despite the PS2 and other current-gen (back then, next-gen) consoles being in the market. I believe there were several times where it outsold the Xbox in Japan. I guess Sony just knows how to sell its products.
