Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., which slashed its profit forecast yesterday, said it may not reach this year' s shipment target for the PlayStation 3 game console because of a parts shortage in the Blu-ray high-definition disc drive.

Sony plans to ship two million PlayStation 3 players this year to the U.S. and Japan, and six million worldwide by March. The Tokyo-based company said yesterday annual profit would fall 35 percent to its lowest in five years on price cuts of the console in Japan and a recall of 9.6 million computer batteries.

``The honest answer is it' s more of a target' ' for PlayStation 3 shipments, Jack Tretton, co-chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said yesterday in an interview. ``Clearly we' ve had production issues.' '

A shortage of the PlayStation 3 would give Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. a bigger head start in the $20 billion console market when they sell their players next month in time for the year' s biggest sales season. Sony cut the price of the PS3 in Japan after consumers complained it was too expensive compared with Microsoft' s Xbox 360 and Nintendo' s Wii.