PlayStation fans who have eagerly awaited Sony's newest console, the PlayStation 2, may be disappointed this Christmas as the company has cut the number of consoles it is providing to retail outlets in the UK from 200,000 to 165,000.

The company claims that it intends to honour existing pre-orders, but the 17.5 per cent cut means that there may be a shortage of the £300 games consoles. The Japanese giant is also proving elusive and appears unwilling to give information on how long customers will have to wait for the next consignment.

Sony hit snags while manufacturing the second generation of PlayStation, with its much prized DVD capabilities, early on in production when it decided to upgrade its Nagasaki chip production facility.

It went from using 0.25 micron chips to 0.18 micron chips. This shift in production capabilities involved the implementation of significant changes to the plant, which in turn meant that production of the PlayStation 2's graphics chip was adversely affected.

Production shortfalls have left the company relying on other chip manufacturers to try to make up its numbers, but it has not been able to source enough chips to meet its anticipated targets.

One of the first indications that something was amiss occurred at September's Live 2000 trade fair, where no PlayStation 2s were exhibited.