What is sony doing? How hard is it to make memory cards?

For the first time in what seems like months, there is news that sony is doing something wrong.. dear god it happened :eek:

PS2 Memory Cards in Short Supply

Why are retail stores across the nation are depleted of memory cards? When can you buy one? IGN investigates.

March 19, 2002 - According to more than a dozen retail stores across the United States, the supply of official first-party Memory Cards from Sony Computer Entertainment America has run dry. Or at the very least, very short.

While a handful of stores in New York and Chicago haven\'t seen shipments of Memory Cards since February, others stores in haven\'t received them since the end of December 2001. A GameStop located in Atlanta, Georgia has resorted to using a waiting list, which has reached nearly 400 names.

"We have none," said a representative at Electronics Boutique at the Chicago Woodfield Mall. "Sony didn\'t make enough. It takes a long time to make them, and they produced a lot for Christmas-time so that they were able to compete with Xbox and GameCube, but they have run out since then. We have gotten a total of two shipments since Christmas and one shipment had two cards and the other had five. They sold out in less than two hours.

"The Sony rep who came to our store said, \'We\'re working on getting them out there.\' But honestly, we have no idea. We have been told we should get them at the end of March, but it\'s looking more like April."

While SCEA was unable to return calls to IGN prior to deadline, several store managers confirmed that SCEA recently contacted all retail stores via email explaining the shortage. According to the store managers, the email indicated memory cards and controllers would continue to reach full circulation again in April, after Sony revamped production.

At least two managers floated other reasons. An Atlanta, Georgia GameStop manager said that when third-party manufacturers were cut from making official Memory Cards, Sony was unable to meet the huge demand. Another store rep believes Sony was purposely holding back Memory Cards so that consumers would save their money for the Hard Disc Drive. The HDD\'s release date has not been officially announced, but it\'s expected in early 2003.

Other store managers explained that Sony didn\'t anticipate the high sales of cards during Christmas and so they\'re short in supply. Third-party Memory Cards, however, are in full supply.

A retail rep at an Avenue of the Stars EB in New York confirmed they would receive more in April. "It\'s been this way since January. You\'ll have to wait until April. They (Sony) sent us an email about the shortage. Sony sent us and other retailers email with an explanation saying that we\'ll get more memory cards and controllers in April. For some reason they haven\'t shipped out these products."

The region receiving the most memory cards in the US is the South West. GameStop stores in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico told IGN that they have received as many as five to 10 cards a week. Some retailers, including a handful of GameStop stores in Hawaii, have resorted to importing Japanese Memory Cards, presumably at a small loss.

Oddly enough, the Metreon PlayStation Store in San Francisco, Ca. continues to receive a decent supply of Memory Cards. "The other stores, well, there are a lot of politics involved. The main thing is tie ratios with games. Whoever sells the best ratio of games to cards gets the biggest allotment. We also do get sold out, too. But we just got another shipment, and we have them right now."

As of today, Tuesday, March 19, PS2 Memory Cards, which regularly sell for $34.99, are selling on E-Bay in the $50-$60 range.

IGN suspects that retail stores will continue to receive a steady supply first-party Memory Cards come this April, after Sony\'s fiscal quarter ends.

Well, I must laugh at the gamestop guy.. lol
withholding memory cards to sell the HDD?
ROFL

But, anyway
What is sony doing.. they are 8mb magic gate cards..
it can\'t be THAT hard to make them..

is there that much of a demand?

Who knows?.. It\'s all fvcked up.


Hopefully this is solved. It\'s a pretty stupid problem too...

i swear, IGN is the nazi propaganda leaders of the new age

As of today, Tuesday, March 19, PS2 Memory Cards, which regularly sell for $34.99, are selling on E-Bay in the $50-$60 range

thats BS.  take a look on ebay and see what you find.  mem cards selling for $30-34, THATS LESS THAN RETAIL!  granted you gotta throw a few bucks in for shipping, BUT yer not paying tax and not paying for auto costs to go get one.

mem cards NEVER got that high on ebay.  i know cause i sell them occasionaly on ebay and WISH i would get $50-60 apiece  AND why the hell is IGN reporting from a frickin month ago?  march 19th?

way to go IGN, nice news reporting  :rolleyes:
i could send clyde down there to do a better job, and he\'ll only work for nanners

I hate to disagree with you MM:rolleyes: , but here in South East there isn\'t a memory card to be found.  It is NOT propaganda.  Not only are there no Sony ones, but no 3rd party ones as well.  This has been a problem for 2 months now and I have to agree with Chrono, how freaking hard is it to make an 8mb memory card?  I have a Nyko one, but that is getting close to being full and have been looking since January for another card.  About the only card to be found is that Interact Memory Manager POS, which I refuse to buy.  

Come on Sony, make some damn memory cards!!!  Or better yet, start sending them to other parts of the country - not just the southwest.

plenty of mem cards here in my city

i get mine off ebay tho, like i said, they go for about $34 + a few bucks for shipping.  yer not paying tax or travel cost, since they cost 35$ retail

SO, stop whining guys and go here to get a sony brand memory card for about $40 after shipping.  

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=playstation+memory+card

Lets just see what the auctions end at.  Anything over $30 is a rip after you add shipping.  My point is, I should be able to walk into a store and just pick one up.  Sony did drop the ball on this one - they aren\'t perfect.  

If only the PS2 came with a HD I would have no need for these stupid pieces of $35 plastic.  If an HD is a gimmick, its one I love

anything over 30$ a rip?

you go into best buy and pay $34.99 + tax [7% here = $37.44 ] PLUS the petrol cost to drive there [ or bus fare] another $3-4

there\'s a reason why i keep repeating myself when it comes to this

the long and short of it is, there\'s places to get memory cards

Im on my 2nd Memory card..

I have the DVD upgrade there and a few MGS2 saves.
Got about 400kb left on my first card. (I got 17 games)

Originally posted by Chrono

Well, I must laugh at the gamestop guy.. lol
withholding memory cards to sell the HDD?
ROFL

What\'s so funny? I came to the same conclusion a few weeks ago when this topic came up on the main forum. Okay, I admit it\'s pretty silly and far fetched :o but think about it for a sec...  control supply by cutting off third party licenses, firmly plant the idea not having new memory cards handy is a bad thing, leading to the notion the HD is more of a practical need than a want- roll out low budget 10gigHD+internet and overnight they\'ve got another feeding frenzy going.

Could happen

Anyway, what\'s this with being online in 03? I heard Japan starts in a month or so with NA to follow at the end of summer this year. More delays?

Anyway, what\'s this with being online in 03? I heard Japan starts in a month or so with NA to follow at the end of summer this year. More delays?

Nobody said online was delayed till 03, their are rumors that the HDD may be.. but its already been officaly stated that the BB/56k all in one adaptor comes out in august with 10 online games

Originally posted by Chrono


Nobody said online was delayed till 03, their are rumors that the HDD may be.. but its already been officaly stated that the BB/56k all in one adaptor comes out in august with 10 online games

Hmm... never thought they might release one without the other. Seems screwy for an off the shelf part unless software to go with it is the hold up. Not that I\'m worried about it:confused: