GameStop has recently been giving 50% extra trade in credit on used games. Regardless of how you personally feel about that offer, I was able to scrounge up some old games (like
Jak II and
Lego Star Wars for GameCube) to trade. I also brought in five of my Xbox 360 games. It left me with about $145 worth of credit that I could put toward a PS3.
The problem is,
every GameStop in Columbus, OH is sold out of PlayStation 3. Saturday I stopped by our local store and asked them to check around town. No success. I thought, maybe they didn't look at all of the locations so I called 10 more stores when I got home. No success. OK, maybe GameStop.com will have one that I can order and use this store credit?
No success! They are back ordered online, too.
Looking online for reasons behind the elusive PS3 yielded interesting results. It's not just GameStop, but rather many retailers that are running low on (or out of) PS3s. Some blame Sony for "making the shortage" to increase demand. Others blame a strong game lineup causing an increase in sales. Many sites (some quoting
PS3news.com) suggest that it's a change in manufacturer or supplier that required Sony to push the units through the FCC for approval again.
Whatever the root cause, this has put a cramp in my console gaming. At least I've got time to give my PC some gaming love. Have you noticed a shortage where you live?
