EA on Wed. said that sales for Sony Corp.’s Playstation 3 are at half of its initial launch target.
The PS3 dropped to U.S. retail on Nov. 17.
EA CEO Larry Probst told Reuters that only about 200,000 PS3 units were sold at U.S. retail stores, down from Sony’s original 400,000-unit launch target.
He expects Sony to ship between 500,000 to 800,000 units in the states.
Sony in Sept. cut shipment forecasts for the PS3 to 2 million from 4 million after a delay in production on a key machine component.
The launch shortage caused a frenzy in the U.S. as consumers queued for days and sparked incidents of shootings, thefts, injuries and robberies at retail.
Third-parties are cautious of PS3 game sales due to short availability at retail. Japanese publisher Namco Bandai said this week that it must sell 500,000 copies of a game for the PS3 in order to break even.
In Nov. 2005, EA encountered a similar situation when Microsoft’s Xbox 360 dropped to retail in limited quantities. As a result, EA’s profit slipped on slow-selling current-generation game titles and less-than-expected sales of next-generation titles for the console.
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