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It's an amazing feat; almost exactly a year after launch, the Nintendo Wii is still hard to find in most areas. The demand will become even greater as we near the holiday season, and games like Super Mario Galaxy will do much to make sure that supplies remain constrained in stores as gamers quickly buy every shipment. There is one company that isn't sad to see the shortages, though. Sony has a lot to celebrate: its $400 40GB system is taking off. The company is reporting sales of 75,000 pieces of hardware for the week of October 29, and it surpassed the 100,000 mark the week after; both figures are well above the typical sales of 30,000 to 40,000. A lower-priced system and a sold-out main competitor seems to be just what Sony needed to jumpstart its sales.

"Obviously, we've taken so much heat over the year on PS3," Sony CEO Howard Stringer told the AP. "Finally, the turning point has been passed."

The $400 system—which lacks the ability to play PlayStation 2 games—features a 40GB hard drive and a high-quality Blu-ray drive for movies. With games like Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Heavenly Sword already available for the system, and the upcoming release of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune gathering an increasing amount of buzz, the gaming side of the equation has never been stronger for the PS3. The system also boasts an interesting experiment in the oddly compelling videogame-slash-collectible card game Eye of Judgment, an exclusive that's unlike anything else on the competing systems.

View: Full Story @ ArtsTechnica