Sony has announced that the company is on track to ship 2 million PlayStation 3 consoles to North American stores by the end of March and expects shortages of the console to be over by May.
According to
comments made to Reuters by SCEA chief executive Jack Tretton, “April or May is when we feel like we're going to catch up to demand and have product fully in stock across North America and stay there."
Despite many anecdotal references in the media to an excess of stock of PlayStation 3 consoles in North America, Tretton claimed to Reuters that the console was still out of stock in some areas.
Referring to the reports of stock left on shelves he commented, “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 we have empty shelves, that's one less consumer who could have bought a PlayStation 3”.
The company has also indicated that it will retain its target to ship 6 million PlayStation 3s worldwide by the end of March – taking into account the delayed European launch on March 23rd.
In addition, according to
unconfirmed reports from the Japanese news media, the company has already manufactured, but not necessarily delivered to stores, over 4 million consoles worldwide.
