"Extremely limited stock" selling out at
brick-and-mortar stores; online retailers currently shipping units;
hardware hackers get how-to guide.
When it was first announced last week at GamesCom in Germany,
the PlayStation 3 Slim was given a September 1 release date. That
appears to have fallen by the wayside, though, with both
brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers already offering the $299
120GB console.
Calls to several San Francisco Bay Area retailers found that not only
is the PS3 currently on sale, but it's often sold out. Employees at
several GameStop locations said that they had received "extremely
limited stock" of the console on Tuesday, all of which were instantly
scooped up by customers who had reserved a unit.
"I think Sony's probably trying to keep supply tight, so it will be in
high demand like the Wii and the PS3 were at launch," one GameStop
employee told GameSpot. "We had less than a week's warning it was
coming. We had reserves only open for two to three days, and the
shipment only had 12 to 13 consoles. We don't know when we'll be
getting our next batch."
Meanwhile, GameStop's online store and Amazon.com are already listing the PS3 slim as shipping within 24 hours. Meanwhile, Best Buy's online store
says the console is already back-ordered one to two weeks and not
available for store pickup. However, calls to San Francisco-area Best
Buy locations found that the PS3 Slim is currently both on sale and in
stock. "We've got about a dozen on the store floor right now, enough to
hold one if you'd like," said an employee.
For its part, Sony says that the launch date announced at GamesCom was
more of a guideline for would-be purchasers. "September 1 isn't an
official street date," a rep told GameSpot. "We expect most retailers
to have 120GB PS3s by then."
Meanwhile, hardware hackers who have already acquired a PS3
Slim now have a step-by-step guide on how to tear it apart. The repair
guide and anti-eWaste site Ifixit.com
has posted a four-page, 27-step guide on how to completely disassemble
the new console, which offers some insights into how Sony is cutting
production costs. Besides the new 45nm-process chipset, the PS3 Slim
teardown reveals the "new cooling system," which Sony Computer Entertainment America hardware marketing chief John Koller revealed last week--namely, a gigantic fan.
To see Ifixit.com's PS3 Slim teardown in action, check out the photo-montage video below:
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