The L.A. Times Are Reporting That PS3 Stock Shortages Could Hinder God Of War III's Performance.

March: officially the biggest month in Playstation 3’s history. Not only has the month already seen the arrival of Final Fantasy XIII, a traditionally Playstation franchise, but it’s also about to witness the arrival of one of Playstation’s biggest exclusive franchises: God Of War III.

Sadly, there’s a hitch. While Sony have two of the biggest games possible this month, they’re also struggling to meet stock demands in America – arguably where the region they simply need to be delivering in.

The L.A. Times notes that depleted stock across America (both retail and online) could hinder God Of War III’s potential performance for the month of March.

“It’s not ideal, I won’t kid you,” Sony’s Jack Tretton said of the situation. “But I firmly believe we’ll get our hardware back in stock and keep selling God of War III for a long time.”

Still, stock shortages in a month where Playstation 3 should be ripping the competition to threads are a little concerning. But then – it’s a concern Sony will be pleased to have, considering the slow start the system had in the US.

“We ultimately don’t make investments on a product-by-product or month-by-month basis, but rather we invest in our platform,” Tretton said, explaining Sonny’s marketing and support strategy.

“This game will pay off for us with the people who own a PlayStation 3 and the ones who will buy one in the future.”

If you’re in America and want a Playstation 3, we insist you get phoning around stores right about now.

The Hardware Charts For February Paint A Pretty Picture For All Three Hardware Manufacturers.

Despite losing out to the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii and XBOX 360, there are very positive signs for the industry in general in February’s NPD. Namely that every major piece of hardware sold pretty well, with just 62,000 units between the XBOX 360 and the Playstation 3.

Sony shifted 360,100 units for the month of February, a pretty impressive statistic considering the time of the year. The PSP and PS2 also managed a further 230k between them.

Most pleasing is that Quantic Dream’s ambitious thriller Heavy Rain managed to climb into the top ten. It was only on-sale for five days in February. Congrats all around.

Full hardware charts are after the jump.

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Finally, The Console War Actually Starts.

After a successful six months or so for Playstation 3, Sony are feeling pretty buoyant. It’s a mood emphasised by Sony’s VP of Publisher Relations Rob Dyer, as he talks 360 in a recent interview with IndustryGamers.

“We do better for our publishing community than 360 does,” the SCEA man said. “As our installed base starts catching up and gaining on 360, you’re going to see the publisher side much quicker get to par than even if we had the same number of [360 hardware] units.”“So for instance, with a title like Madden, I think the index was 1.4 to 1.0, which meant we way oversold on PS3 versus 360, given the installed base. That’s only going to get better and better as the installed base continues to grow.”

Rob also had a thing or two to say about Microsoft’s first-party development studios.

“They have very few first-party studios at Microsoft. Bungie’s next Halo is the last one, Rare rarely puts out anything, you’ve got Peter Molyneux with his Fable stuff… but they don’t have first-party development studios inside at Redmond or anywhere for that matter. We do. So rather than putting their money behind that, they’ve been going to Epic or Valve or BioWare to do what they did with Mass Effect, and that’s where they throw their dollars.

“Candidly, we’re not going to compete with Microsoft on that front, but what we have is a global business here. Our global business is bigger than 360’s and will continue to get bigger than 360, and people are seeing that. We passed them in Europe and they don’t even exist in Japan, and we’re going to catch them and pass them here in the U.S. as well.”

Oh snap. The console war just got proper real folks. Proper real.

Playstation 3 Hardware May Be Flying Off The Shelves A Little Too Quickly.

Sony’s warned that Playstation 3 stock will be tight over the coming months. SCEA’s director of communications, Patrick Seybold explained the company are working hard to ensure stock is available for everyone. “We’re working very hard with our retail partners to meet consumer interest, but the demand is tremendously high for the PS3 and we expect tight inventory in the coming months,” Seybold noted in a statement.

Seybold told Joystiq that the tight stock situation may have been a reason for the slightly lower NPD sales this month. “Yes. The strong demand carrying through the holidays was evident and early in the month we [knew] there was going to be limited supply of the PS3 at retail in January. We’re working closely with the retail channel to meet this demand, but expect tight supply for the coming months.”

We’ve heard a few rumblings regarding stock situation. Hopefully Sony can sort that out as they’re on the verge of releasing arguably two of the biggest titles in the Playstation’s history, Heavy Rain and God Of War III.

Playstation 3 Fared Well This January, Lost Out To Microsoft & Nintendo.

Despite a decent month for January in the US, Sony’s PS3 lost out to both the XBOX 360 and Nintendo Wii for the month of January, according to the NPDs. Sony shifted 276.9k units during the month, a respectable number, but they were some way off Microsoft’s 332.8k tally.

Regardless, both Sony and Microsoft fell to the might power of Nintendo once again, with the DS and Wii shifting almost 900k units between them.

PSP  managed just 100.1k with the PS2 still rolling along at 41.6k.

Overall January trade was down 13% in the US, with hardware dropping by a whopping 21% year on year.

Michael Pachter Reckons Playstation 3's January Sales Will Be Up Big Time YoY.

Everyone’s favourite video games analyst Michael Pachter has come away from the glitz of his GameTrailers TV spot to talk hardware sales, and most importantly the Playstation 3’s performance this January. Pachter reckons it’s looking pretty good.

In his pre-NPD report, the analyst cited that he reckons the PS3 will be up 62 percent over January 2009, scoring approximately 330k console sales for the month. According to Pachter, that’ll put it within touching distance of the XBOX 360, which he reckons will score 340k sales for the month.

The NPD report is due this Thursday.

Playstation 3 Is Likely To Have Had A Strong January.

Hardly a surprising revelation, but one analyst believes that Playstation 3 will see the greatest YoY growth in next week’s January NPD report.

Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee reckons that the PS3 will keep its momentum throughout January and “will have the best year-over-year growth in January among all consoles.”

This is on the back of the PS3 Slim’s release, and some much stronger marketing presence from Sony in the American region.