Sony still thinks the PS3s are selling out. Are they right?

I’m not one to spend my free time visiting stores to check and see if PlayStation 3s are in stock, but if various first-hand reports on the Internet are to be believed (which they probably shouldn’t), then supposedly the system is readily available whenever you can gather enough scratch to buy it. Well, Sony continues to say it’s sold out and that they are trying to meet demand. Is this true? What do our soldiers on the front lines have to say? Here’s what Sony says:

Sony Corp. is on track to ship 2 million PlayStation 3s to North American stores by the end of March, and expects shortages of the video game console to have completely eased by May, a top executive said on Tuesday. “April or May is when we feel like we’re going to catch up to demand and have product fully in stock across North America and stay there,” said Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Asked about widespread reports on video game Web sites that stacks of unsold PlayStation 3s are a common sight in many electronics shops, Tretton told Reuters in an interview that the console was still out of stock in some areas three months after its November launch. “It’s a testament to the fact that we’ve been able to manufacture and ship units on a greater pace than any previous console,” Tretton said. “Our goal is to fill shelves across the United States. Our goal is not to have empty shelves, it’s to have full shelves. If we have empty shelves, that’s one less consumer who could have bought a PlayStation 3,” Tretton said.