Dubai; Many retailers are facing out of stock issue on Sony’s new gaming console – PlayStation 4 – on the launch day itself.
“Sales were fabulous and we are completely sold out. We will not have stocks until Christmas,” Kishan Palija, managing director of games retailer Geekay Group MEA, told Gulf News.
He said pre-ordered customers are still coming in and we cannot sell their units over the counter.
Across the region, Geekay sold close to 2,000 units apart from the more than 1,500 pre-orders.
Sony had allocated enough units for each region and “our initial allocation and demand was very high and Sony has production limitations.”
Emax, Jacky’s, Geekay, Jumbo and Virgin Megastore sales have outstripped supply.
Apart from the console sales, gamers were buying at least two games as the device is not backward compatible.
Many of the retailers had opened their shops at 12AM on Thursday to cater to the more than 4,300 pre-orders for the fourth-generation device.
Ashish Panjabi, chief operating officer of Jacky’s Electronics, said that many people will not get a PS4 in time for Christmas.
“We did not do any pre-bookings by knowing the situation. What came were sold out,” he said.
The supply shortage is due to Sony releasing more consoles in the US and European markets for Christmas. “We are competing with them and the priority is for the West. Even if we get the quantity it would not be enough to meet the demand,” he said.
“The crowd was much bigger than we had anticipated across all our five stores,” Nadeem Khanzadah, head of retail at Jumbo Electronics, said.
He said stocks are completely sold out. So for walking customers there is nothing left.
Khanzadah said, “We have received 1,000 pre-orders and would have easily crossed 5,000 had we not capped pre-bookings.”
He said the GCC will further contribute to the global sales figures that have so far surpassed 2.1 million units, meeting and possibly surpassing initial Sony predictions of selling 3 million units globally by year’s end.
He said the next shipment date is around December 23 or 24 currently given by Sony and another shipment in the middle of Dubai Shopping Festival.
“No backward compatibly is forcing gamers to purchase new games with the device and some are buying more than two games and a additional controller also,” Khanzadah said.
He said PS4 sales will exceed PS3 as retailers have not seen the response when PS3 was launched. One reason for the big PS4 demand is due to the short launch gap between the US and the UAE.
He said the general trend among the people is to buy gadgets compared to seven years ago when PS3 was launched. The gaming market will be a boost this year and next year due to launch of PS4 and Xbox One.
There will be 33 games available on PS4 in 2013, including blockbusters such as Call of Duty-Ghosts, FIFA ‘14, Assassin’s Creed-Black Flag, Infamous, Drive Club, Watchdog, Battlefield 4, Killzone-Shadow Fall, and Knack.
Alongside these huge games, there will be a large selection of innovative and fun Indie games.
The standalone console costs Dh1,699 and PS4+Killzone game bundle for Dh1,899 in the UAE. Apart from the console there would be 10 games and accessories available for the entertainment of the gamers. The controller is Dh269, camera is Dh299 and a game is Dh299.
