Gaming Consoles expected to remain scarce until March

With the year near its closing end, gaming fans are visiting retail stores to get to lay their hands on one of the two recently launched gaming consoles: Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. Marking impressive beginnings both consoles sold out completely at their launches and have been running under shortage ever since.

According to analysts, the scarcity of these gaming consoles is not expected to ease until March next year.

Meanwhile, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 are both available, anticipated to serve well as substitutes for the short-supplied machines. Consumers are also spending on portable gaming consoles like the Nintendo DS Lite and Sony Playstation Portable.

An employee at a Target store said the retailer issues a memo a couple of days in advance of Wii and PS3 shipments and passes the information on to shoppers, as the next-generation consoles get snatched wherever they sell and shoppers rush to line up sometimes before the store opens to get their prized booty.

The number of PlayStations reported to be shipped worldwide in November was around 383,000, significantly less than the 500,000 that Sony assured to make available at the launch. However, Sony is up to the challenge, making all endeavors to balance its demand/supply ratio.

Nintendo Wii is also high in demand with rumors around that some PS3 users want to trade their powerful console with the cheaper but more popular console designed by Nintendo. Nintendo hopes to sell its target 4 million units until the end of the year and 6 million consoles until March 2007.

The top seller this season is expected to be Sony's PS2, which has sold more than 106 million units globally.