Sony Shares Tumble in Tokyo: Only Half of PS2s Will Ship to U.S.

TOKYO -- When Sony's (SNE Quote) PlayStation 2 game console hit the shelves in March, kids in Japan thought they had waited long enough: about 24 hours and in the cold. Too bad U.S. consumers are going to have to wait much longer for their own digital delight.

Sony Computer Entertainment America, the company's U.S. unit, said late Wednesday that it would only be able to dole out 500,000 PS2 video game units on its Oct. 26 North American launch date, half of what the firm had expected to ship. The firm said the delay was due to a lack of supply parts for the console, though it did not specify which parts. Sony added, however, that it was still on track to meet its global sales target of 10 million units for fiscal 2001, ending in March.

Shares of Sony traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange tumbled 730 yen, or 6.4%, to 10,640 ($98.97) on the news, pushing prices off about 37% from highs posted in March. Sony's American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) traded on the NYSE Wednesday closed down at $9 5/8, or 8.8%, at $99 3/8. The news came after the market closed in the U.S. ...