One look around the shelves of several Columbus area retailers and it is easy to see that Jack Tretton may have been predicting the future in September when he warned of possible PS3 shortages. After hitting several big box retailers and talking to the staff at each the last couple of days, it is apparent that the 120GB PS3 inventory is coming up a bit on the short side as Christmas approaches.
While the shelves aren’t bare (yet) and more units are arriving daily, the 120GB PS3 slim is running low, where I saw less than 10 available at one store and another that had only 12 (they each usually have a pallet of them out). One culprit is the highly successful Sony/Best Buy Ad campaign which packages a Sony Bravia TV, PS3, game and Blu-Ray disc for a savings of up to $1,100. (Boom!)
The other culprit, as Tretton suggested in September, has been the price drop. For what it is worth, the 250GB PS3 ($50 more) appears to be available without issue, so there is an attractive alternative to the 120GB unit if you don’t mind spending the extra money. So with any popular Christmas gift, don’t wait until the last moment to buy it, as the price isn’t going to drop and you may out-smart yourself if the PS3 continues to run low.
