Following the claims about uncertainties in terms of PlayStation 3 (PS3) shipments goals, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has reportedly cut the number of the consoles to be available in Japan by 20%. It is unclear whether the same is going to happen in the United States, but given that Japan was about to receive four times less PS3s, the information is somewhat alarming.

“Because part production is late, domestic shipment at the beginning is restricted to approximately 80 thousand of units. The sense of shortage is spreading among the retail stores,” a short report by Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reads.

Sony earlier said it would only be able to ship 400 thousand of PlayStation 3 game consoles to the U.S. and 100 thousand to Japan for the launch in November, 2006. During the whole calendar year 2006 the company aims to distribute, according to news reports, two million new-generation consoles, two times less than anticipated.

Earlier Sony expressed uncertainty about shipping two million of PlayStation 3 game consoles this year and claimed that the figure was more of a target rather than ability or capability. But despite of the expected shortages and potential inability of Sony to supply the significant amount of consoles at once, there are loads of gamers anticipating the console. It was previously reported that all online pre-orders for the PS3 end in minutes, as users book the allocated amount of game machines very rapidly.

Sony PlayStation 3 console is based on the Cell processor developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, the RSX graphics chip by Nvidia Corp. and will be equipped with Blu-ray optical disk drive, a hardware part, which is merely available today.