If you want to get your PS3 Slim before September, you'd better order it now. According to Engadget, Amazon is reporting shortages of the PS3 Slim. These supply issues apparently range across the US, and Amazon has started limiting customers here to only one slim per person as a result.

Over in Europe, the situation is much less dire. Customers have only been limited to 5 Slims per person (who on earth needs five Slims?) and Sony has assured European stores that they have truckloads of Slims just waiting to be unloaded. Now, for the big question on everyone's mind; is this a real shortage, or an artificially induced one? Is the Slim really more popular than Sony anticipated, or are they just trying to build up demand by creating scarcity?

We won't really know until they release sales statistics. If they don't put out any sales stats within the next couple of months, I'm leaning towards this being an engineered shortage. Sony is going to brag at length if the Slim sells like hotcakes, and keep things quiet if the numbers aren't as impressive as they'd hoped. Whatever the truth is, it'll become obvious by the holiday season.