Slashdot Log In
The Dark Side of the PlayStation 3 Launch
Posted by
Zonk
on Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:24 AM
from the nothing-nice-to-say dept.
from the nothing-nice-to-say dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Kotaku is running an article prompted by an email from a foreign student in Japan. The reader unveils the sad reality of the modern gaming industry. Japanese businessmen made ample use of homeless people and Chinese nationals to obtain PS3s for re-sale. There was also a large amount of pushing and shoving, some fights, and almost no police presence at the most crowded stores." From the article: "Based on my observations of the first twenty PS3s sold at Bic Camera, they were all purchased by Chinese nationals, none of whom bought any software. After making their purchase, television crews asked for interviews but all were declined. These temporary owners of PS3s would then make their way down the street where their bosses waited. After several minutes, a dozen PS3s were rounded up, as their Japanese business manager paid out cash to those who waited in line for them. I witnessed a homeless-looking Chinese man, in his sixties or seventies get paid 20,000 yen for his services and was then sent away." Update: 11/12 05:40 GMT by Z : You're right. Sony only shares a portion of the blame here. Offsides on my part.
Related Stories
[+]
Playstation 3 Sells Out At Japanese Launch 250 comments
s31523 writes "With its high price tag and stiff competition the PS3 was a gamble. Based on the reaction in Japan to the game console's release, there might be a new hot toy on everyone's Christmas list here in the states. According to the article there were 100,000 units [Z: actually, only 80,000 units] available and all were sold out in record time. There are 2 configurations currently offered, a 60GB WiFi enabled box and a 20GB non-WiFi box. The Japanese price for the lower end system is considerably discounted vs. the system to be released in the States." For a look at launch day, Kotaku has photos taken by Sony's Phil Harrison on the streets of Tokyo.
[+]
Hardware: PS3 Opened For Pictures 219 comments
An anonymous reader writes "As all of you surely know by now, the PS3 has just been released in Japan. What you might find interesting, however, is that among those 80 000 happy PS3 owners (or self-appointed resellers) was at least one who decided it was his or her sacred mission to crack this puppy open for a peek inside. About the article, it is in Japanese. Someone who knows enough of this fabled language of wonder well enough would do well to offer some translations, although I don't really suspect that the story is the most important thing here..."
[+]
The PlayStation 3 Launches In the U.S. 578 comments
Sony's next-gen console has officially launched in the states, complete with an NYC launch party, and a giant line in San Francisco. While many gamers went home happy, the night was not without incident. There was also some ugliness, with individuals being hired to stand in line, as was done in Japan earlier this week. Overall, though, the news is positive for the hundreds of gamers who waited through the night for their new console. "As midnight approached, the first person in line, New York native Angel Paredes, was escorted into the SonyStyle Store where he was handed the first North American PS3 by Hirai and Stringer. The console's box also included a personal autographed message from Hirai. Paredes, his voice hoarse from interviews and arms tired from repeatedly hoisting the console, was a good sport, standing still for the multitude of photographers and offering a few words for anyone who asked. The first three gamers in line were comped their PS3s. Once the media buzz died down, the rest of the attendees were ushered in to get what they had been waiting for all week. Though the consoles' next destinations were unknown — many are expected to be posted on eBay for a quick profit — the next destinations of the new PS3 owners was clear — go home and get some rest. " Any readers spend the night in lines, and want to share about it? Did you eBay the thing, or are you just taking a break from Resistance? Let us know how things went, and what the system is like.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Sony is supposed to do what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sony is supposed to do what? (Score:5, Insightful)
In any limited supply launch and it does not have to be a console you are always going to get people who will take advantage of the situation. Normally we call these people "scalpers" and some not so nice names as well, but in reality it is supply and demand. Basically there are people who will pay ridicules prices for something because they are normally too lazy to stand in-line and this is what these people are counting on.
To blame Sony for this is just plain stupid. If people did not want this machine then it would not sell and we know that is not true. What is actually good for Sony here is the fact that the IMHO "idiot" who will pay well over the market rate will most likely have the money to pay for games which is how Games Manufacturers makes money.
I think we can call this a "win" (queue sitter US$170), "win" (scalper US$???? - US$170), "win and loose" (the idiot who buys US$????) and "win" (games - approx US$30 to US$60) and "win" (Sony - percentage of games sold).
Disclaimer. It is my opinion that a person who buys a product way over the its market rate is either very wealthy and an idiot or just a plain idiot. Still without these people scalpers would not exist.
Parent
Re:Sony is supposed to do what? (Score:5, Informative)
Not always. They (evidenced by paying $1500+ as other /.ers cited), have very high reservation prices (that is the max price they are willing to pay). If you make the rough equivalent of $500/hour (ask about rates at your local corporate law firm if you don't believe that number), then standing in line for 4 hours would be worth $2000 of opportunity cost to you. Paying $1500 for the scalped version is a savings of about $1100 for this hypothetical person ($2000 opportunity cost + $600 console price) - $1500. Or they could wait for demand to settle down and buy it later, but then there is an opportunity cost of waiting (in lost gaming time / bragging rights), which they price at over $900 ($1500 scalper price - $600 retail price).
Not saying this applies to most people, just people with insane amounts of either money or utility derived from gaming. Still, it is perfectly possible for a rational person to buy a scalped console, and really have that be the best value for them.
And yes IAAES (I am an economics student)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
More likely, that $500/hr rate is a billed-out rate, which us consumers / plebs / potential litigants pay. Unless it's their own practice (let's say it's not), a portion of that will return to the lawyer as salary (... pfff, about $75-100/hr, he said sticking a finger in the air and guessing), with the rest going to the law firm itself to pay for legal pads, crayons, mind control devices and dinner parties for the partners.
The law firm would in theory lose $500/hr for each potentially billable hour the th
Re:Sony is supposed to do what? (Score:4, Insightful)
F.U.D.
If Sony produced enough then the same poster will whine about it being released a few months later than it should, and end off with a "Think of the eBay resellers!!!!!111".
If anything blame capitalism, that's right. If the whole world were communist, free standard issued Mao Ze Dong PS3 for each family! No such issues!
Parent
Communism (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, I really don't know where to begin with your post.
The Cell chip is expensive and difficult to manufacture. (Although each cell die has 7 cores, 8 are manufactured on each die in the expectation that one will fail. Post-manufacture testing finds the broken core and disables it, finds no broken cores and disables one anyway, or finds the whole chip ruined and scraps it.) That, and the expensive Blu-Ray drives are difficult to make, too.
They sell at $600 a pop. They'll go on eBay for much more than
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah. There'd only be Tetris.
I think you need to go back to FUD school. People in Cuba aren't exactly starving, and Chavez was elected president (twice, in fact) in a democratic election. There was an attempted coup d'etat against Chavez - which was prevented by the people of Venezuela! Meanwhile, lots of people in the USA still don't have health care. But at least they aren't w
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Communism (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Communism (Score:5, Insightful)
Is NOT ok for a foreign person to hire a homeless guy to wait in line for a PS3.
I feel sick right about now.
Parent
Re:Corporate vs. Personal Responsibili (Score:5, Insightful)
WTF is uncivilized about hiring people who are homeless?
Man, you people have some fucked up values.
Parent
Re:Corporate vs. Personal Responsibili (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Corporate vs. Personal Responsibili (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it greed and exploitation and such a bad thing to you when non-homeless people get jobs?
WTF.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Or free food at all.
And that charity thing. That just has to stop.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Since they actually have to do something for the money I guess it is obvious why your statement is simply stupid?
Exploitation? Hardly. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sony is supposed to do what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Not just Sony's fault (Score:4, Insightful)
The end users who buy from these middlemen are *every bit* as guilty as Sony or the middlemen. If it weren't for these buyers, there would be no market for the middlemen.
Waitasec (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is to say, guilty of exactly nothing. Guilty of giving a little bit of paying work to homeless people. Anybody thought to ask the homeless people what they thought of the deal? No that would make too much sense.
What a stupid troll article, the only interesting thing is how many responders took the bait uncritically.
Parent
Why is Everyone Missing the Point!? MATERIALISM (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, this story is screwed up, but no one seems to realize why. Sony launches the PS3, much later than they initially hoped, and with too few units to really call it a proper launch. The scarcity drives up demand, which drives up the price... which generates artificial demand in the form of middlemen who hire homeless people to snatch them up at launch.
This should strike you as wrong somehow.
I think everyone can be forgiven for not being able to quite put their finger on why, exactly. Zonk's kneejerk was to blame Sony for something, but what are they doing? Well, they're making the same mistake they made with the PS2 (i.e. launching before they can satisfy demand), but clearly by the state of the PS2 it wasn't the kind of mistake that kills a product... on the contrary, it generates artificial "SOLD OUT" hype.
And how about these greedy middlemen? Well, scalpers are jerks, they make it harder for people who actually want to play a PS3 to get one at a reasonable price; they actually generate demand that might not be there if they weren't snatching up units, which in turn drives the hype machine. But they're giving homeless people money, so even though we'll be cursing their names come Christmas, it's hard to fault them in this story.
And no one is going to tell the homeless guy to "get a real job." Clearly they've done no wrong here.
So we squabble back and forth over just how much Sony is "at fault" and whether there's anything to be upset about over capitalistic impulses of scalping businessmen, Sony Nintendo Microsoft flamewars, on and on and on. But you can't help feeling like something is wrong here...
Because there is. The PlayStation 3 is a toy! It's Tickle-Me-Elmo, Cabbage Patch Dolls, whatever. As long as you want to buy one, Sony is happy to sell you one... heck, even if you don't want one. No one who can afford the PS3's retail value will miss out! They're not a limited run, heck, the first batch will probably be the lowest quality batch released. But there is this sense of urgency, this sense of "must have now" whether it's for spoiled, demanding brats or some misguided need to be on the cutting edge of technology and play every game for every system the day it comes out... this need for the next big toy, now. Is Sony to blame? Sure, them and every other luxury-peddling company in the world.
Imagine how much better off these homeless guys would be if, instead of spending $2000 on a PS3, you waited until March--that's three and a half months--and gave $1000 to charity. You'd have saved $400 over rough eBay price. And you'd be a whopping three months behind on the latest games.
I'm not going to say that's some kind of ethical duty. I like my video games. I see no need to preach; every $50 game I buy is $50 I could give to charity or what have you, I know. But we're talking about paying middlemen a thousand plus dollars for an opportunity to have a particular luxury three months before everyone else, and that's just messed up no matter what luxury we're talking about. The story is messed up, because our materialism, especially near Christmas, has become an absolute farce. I'm glad Zonk posted the story, blaming Sony was the wrong reaction, but he recognized that something was just wrong about the story.
Parent
Re:Not just Sony's fault (Score:5, Insightful)
Person A is willing to spend X dollars on a system, but not the time waiting in line.
Person B is willing to spend the time waiting in line to buy a system at Y to sell for X.
End result: both parties satisfied.
The only flaw is that Sony should be taking the profit for this instead of letting third parties do it. Imagine if they used an auction-like system (hey, if google ipo can do it) then the people who value the PS3 most get one, and sony keeps all the profits.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the best solution would be one like the Gamespot solution of reserving Xbox 360s for extremely expensive (and profitable) bundles. You could filter the people without money, and still provide value other than just the value of having one of the limited amount of consoles.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I always thought it would be smart and nice for items with high demand on launch and not enough supply to do something like what you suggested. Auction the items off to the highest bidders. However, only take a cut of what the retail price will be and do
Re:Not just Sony's fault (Score:5, Interesting)
This is not Sony's fault in the least, and it REALLY shows how anti-Sony these boards are with people actually claiming that it is.
Parent
How's that guy in the mirror, Zonk? (Score:5, Insightful)
Heaven forbid we blame the scalpers... or the people willing to buy a PS3 at a premium from the scalpers. Why would we do that when there is a giant corporation we can blame for the ills of society? Damn that holiday season, we are helpless against the dynamic duo: Christmas and Sony. Won't somebody think of the children (especially those who will be deprived of a PS3 this christmas?)
Problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? (Score:4, Insightful)
Blaming Sony is ridiculous (Score:5, Insightful)
- float the price high enough to stifle demand (almost there already!)
- somehow make a PS3 un-transferrable (can you imagine the screams?)
- magically come up with more PS3s
- wait until the factories are running full-bore before starting to release any PS3s
Now, concert and sport ticket scalping is another story, but not I think relevant here.
Anyhow IMO blaming Sony for this -- or even really considering it to be a problem -- is pretty mistaken.
Some homeless guys don't get to play with their new PS3s... I'm crying my little heart out here.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That would most likely backfire. If you raised the price enough to match what the early adopters (a very small market) will pay - it would totally kill the buzz, and turn the majority of the market off your product - even if you lowered prices later. End result, raising the price, even if only temporarily, results in less profit. Worst case, your company's n
What's with the Sony put-down? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, so Sony makes a product, a lot of people want it, some resort to unscrupulous tactics to get them, and somehow that's Sony's fault?
All this Sony bashing is getting ri-goddamned-diculous.
20,000 yen (Score:4, Informative)
Re:20,000 yen (Score:4, Funny)
In canadian dollars?
Parent
What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong, Sony has done a lot of bad shit, and has been very arrogant when it comes to the PS3, but this kind of behavior should be attributed expressly to the consumers. Okay, one might argue that Sony created an artificial shortage (blue laser conspiracy?), but that's no reason someone has to be an asshole. It isn't a necessary product, so the fault lies almost entirely on the consumers.
Come on, Zonk. I'm pretty anti-Sony, too, but you don't need to redirect blame for something like this. There's lots of other stuff Sony has done to be called on.
From an economist... (Score:4, Insightful)
Blame for what? (Score:3, Insightful)
I should care why exactly? (Score:3, Funny)
This Is Getting Boring (Score:5, Funny)
Giving Work To The Homeless (Score:5, Insightful)
The free market and whatnot (Score:3, Interesting)
What surprises me is that businessmen are getting into it. Even though they can probably quickly double or triple their investment selling the PS3s, there's a limited supply and lots of competition to get the units. Even if they make $1000 per unit they're spending a considerable amount of time to turn over a limited number of units. It seems to me they could make more money in the same amount of time trading stocks/bonds/commodities because the process is more streamlined and the volumes are higher. So for some kid looking for quick money it would surely be a good investment, I'm just surprised that it's worth the time of rich dudes.
are you fucking kidding me? (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, they only share a portion of the blame? That's awfully magnanimous of you, but just exactly why should they take any blame? What should they have done? NOT sold a PS3 to someone because they looked shabby? Should they have insisted on some sort of contract that the customer signs that promises to not resell it?
This is just shameful. Honestly, did Zonk's mom used to beat him with a playstation or something? The constant Sony-bashing is just insane. And it's not like you have to look real far to find something they actually DID that was wrong.
Artificial Scarcity (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:are you fucking kidding me? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Nice (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony have taken a lot of flak lately, and it's probably been mostly justified. This, however, is the shittiest smear-job I've ever had the misfortune to read on this site. I won't be returning to the site after this post, at least once this story has run its course (so if there's any replies to this I'll answer)
How in the name of Zeus's butthole does Sony bear any responsibility whatsoever for the actions of people who aren't Sony employees? Did Sony direct these people to hire the homeless? Did Sony force anyone into doing anything, in any way? If a guy kills another guy so he can steal his PS3, will it be Sony's fault for making it? Of course not, all of these suggestions are absurd. So why attempt to shoehorn Sony into this, trying to heap more hate and blame on a company which already has so much you can fairly criticize it for?
Criticize us about rootkits, about batteries, about E3 presentations or too much hype, about perceived arrogance or copying Nintendo or making PS3 too expensive or not having enough of them, or about the quality of our hardware or software. You don't even have to make it constructive criticism, if you don't want to. But please, for the love of whatever, criticize us for those things we're at least partly responsible for! The actions of completely unrelated third parties aren't our bloody fault!
Anyway, enough from me. I've had a
Yes, Sony is to blame (Score:4, Interesting)
Just like Microsoft did with the 360, Sony is releasing a very small amount of consoles at a price far below the market value. Sony isn't making money now. The reason is to make the PS3 seems desirable and popular for when they release the big batch just before the hollidays. Sony _wants_ headlines about PS3s selling out quickly. And what better way to get media attention than violence?
No, I'm not saying that this is all Sony's fault, or that they are juridically responsible. But I think it is a problem when companies plan for and profit from violence at product releases.
Re:That's just despicable (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Funny to see fanbois run to Sony's rescue (Score:5, Insightful)
Fanboys? How about people who just think that it's absolutely ridiculous and nonsensical to blame the company? It wasn't Microsoft's fault, it's not Sony's fault, and it won't be Nintendo's fault at the Wii launch.
You can blame both companies for just not making enough supply to meet demand
Er, no, you can't blame the companies. They are/were pumping them out as quickly as they can/could. The blame here (if there is any in the first place) lies solely with the people doing it. Honestly, what are the companies supposed to do? Only begin to sell them once they have enough for EVERYONE IN THE WORLD who wants one to buy one?
Parent