With little change in demand for the console the most plausible reason for decreased stock is an upcoming price cut.

Many rumours claim that Sony are likely to announce a price cut and (possibly) the PS3 slim at Gamescom next week. Despite vast decreases in production costs Sony haven’t cut the price of the PS3 since 2007.

Anonymous spokesmen, representing two of the UK’s leading games retailers, have claimed not to expect new PS3s to replace the already drying up stock until September.

Sourcing PS3 stock has been a challenge for the last two to three weeks. There are obviously lots of rumours flying about as to why that might be. I don’t think it’s to do with demand, though. Sales are low at the moment and have been for a while. We’ve been told not to expect any further hardware deliveries until September.

Personally, I think that if we see anything from Sony regarding price it will go hand-in-hand with the announcement of a revised console. I also suspect that when we do see the PS3 Slim it will be ridiculously overpriced, as per the PSP Go, seen earlier this year. As someone that still does not own a PS3 a price cut may make me consider purchasing a console. However, unless we see a substantial decrease in price I think there will still be many gamers who refuse to buy Sony’s current console.

Via: MCV