I'll Trade You A PS3 For A 360? (SNE, MSFT)

It appears that's what is happening. Gamers are getting tired of the ongoing PlayStation Network outage, and as a result, are trading in their PS3's, made by Sony SNE, in favor of Microsoft MSFT Xbox 360s. A source tells the website Edge, “In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades. However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.” The source is a store manager in the U.K. who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Tom Mestdagh, of Belgian indie Gameswap spoke on the record and said, “At the end of each month people come to sell their consoles. People that need money [to pay bills]. What's different this time around is that that they are bringing in PS3s together with all their games and they don't want money, they want an Xbox 360. In every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2." “We're just ten days into the month and already we have an increase of 200 per cent in PS3s coming into the store compared to all of March. Normally we sell them really fast, but not this time. We've only sold 30 to 40 per cent of our inventory right now.” If this outage lasts much longer, this could do some damage to Sony's earnings, as it generates a fair portion of its revenues from its gaming segment. If traders believe that this is going to last for an extended period of time, a pairs trade could be put on here. Going long Microsoft and short Sony could be a potentially profitable short term trade on this thesis.