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Playstation 3 Sells Out At Japanese Launch
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Nov 11, 2006 01:46 PM
from the deeply-shocking dept.
from the deeply-shocking dept.
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.
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PS3 Japanese Estimates Down, No 360 Price Drop 84 comments
There are unhappy gamers on a couple sides of the console wars today. IGN is reporting that Japan's allotment of 100,000 PS3 units will actually be more like 80,000. From that article: "The lack of digits in that number is even more staggering when you consider that the PS2 sold out of nearly a million units when it launched back in March of 2000. Having lived through a few weeks of attempting to obtain a PS3 pre-order, we're not too surprised by the lowered shipping numbers. Allocations disappeared quickly at online retailers that were brave enough to start pre-order programs. The online arm of media retailer Tsutaya ran out of units in 6 minutes according to Nikkei (it felt more like 1 minute to us)." Meanwhile, the Seattle PI reports that Microsoft has once again denied the possibility of a 360 price drop any time soon.
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The Dark Side of the PlayStation 3 Launch 505 comments
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.
[+]
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..."
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Playstation 3 Sells Out At Japanese Launch
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The very definition of "hardcore" (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org???? | Last Journal: Saturday August 12 2006, @03:06AM)
Well, I guess that shows who Sony's demographics are, 41 year old men who put gaming ahead of basic biological function. Take that Maslow!
Re:The very definition of "hardcore" (Score:4, Funny)
Apparently one of the campers called in sick (for two weeks?), and had to postpone his engagement to divert the ring fund to a PlayStation 3, while another guy quit his job altogether.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/10/ps3-hopefuls-pa rt-ii/ [engadget.com]
Re:The very definition of "hardcore" (Score:5, Insightful)
since Sony has messed about with the European launch date, I have flown all the way to Japan to get my hands on one.
To myself I think - it must be nice to be able to afford to buy a PS3. Must be nice to be able to afford to go to Japan. Lots of things to see there like districts in Tokyo, shrines, Japanese food. Yeah, interesting that you'd just fly to Japan, get a PS3 then fly home. I'd probably sell the thing, but if you have enough money to fly to Japan for no reason other than to buy a game console, you obviously don't need the money!
Re:The very definition of "hardcore" (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The very definition of "hardcore" (Score:5, Funny)
Sony's Strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
No further comment needed
Sony Rhetoric (Score:2, Insightful)
(http://lookproductive.blogspot.com/)
Re:Sony Rhetoric (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Saturday August 18 2001, @11:04AM)
(It is pretty good though. I love the auction in the background of the second-to-last panel.)
If they're so technology hungry.. (Score:3, Interesting)
I am not surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
Too Bad You Can't Get It (Score:3, Informative)
Is there anyone who ever doubted that the PS3 would be sold out until Spring? I assumed that with all of the stories about people planning to sell it for $3,000 on eBay that this was common knowledge by now.
Of course they sold out. (Score:1, Redundant)
(Last Journal: Tuesday March 09 2004, @01:55AM)
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212 [vgcats.com]
Big freakin' deal. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.fuckjackthompson.com/)
The Super Nintendo sold out 300,000 units.
Sony provide less than a hundred thousand to an amazingly gadget hungry market and it's now headlines that it sells out?
And in terms of all system sales... (Score:5, Insightful)
Notice the amount of hardware sold... in a week... in Japan. The DS completely dominates with more than 100,000 sold in a WEEK. This is months after it has launched, while the PS3 has only 80,000 to sell. Now yes, the DS costs much less, but notice that Nintendo probably makes a profit on it rather than a loss, AND this amount of units allows them to sell more software.
How much software is going to move for the PS3 when it's launch is only 80,000? Most of those best seller games are in the area of several 100 thousand to several million units sold. That isn't going to happen for a while. So yes the PS3 sold out, but we can't call it any kind of success yet with this few sold. Maybe if they pushed out 1 million units and sold them all, then we can say they were a success.
How is this a success? (Score:2)
Of course this will just drum up buzz and people will pay some lucky bastard on eBay 5 times the retail price for one.
Of course it sold out (Score:2)
(http://blocklevel.com/)
I'd like to see a breakdown of High end-vs-Low end units. Does anyone have those numbers?
I'm Big in Japan (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.xanga.com/rhesuspieces00)
dot dot dot... (Score:2)
Man, who would have thought that japanese would buy out 80000 consoles. No way!
haha (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Wednesday September 20 2006, @10:30AM)
The Big picture (Score:4, Interesting)
It may also be interesting to see how Sony's launch titles did, since they need games and accessories to pull up the difference. Some of the games present on Sony's Japan launch list [1up.com] also appear on the Wii's. Depending on quantities of these sold compared to the number of units sold in proportion to other games per unit sold may tell us if there are customers prepared to buy the Wii as well and plan on buying those games for the Wii instead. While it would have to be a large difference to overcome the large margin of error such a comparison welcomes, it may still provide some insite into the minds of the buyers and give us a rough idea how the big US launch will go for Sony or Nintendo.
80,000 total units sold... (Score:1)
(http://sam991.blogspot.com/)
Insane. (Score:1)
Wow they sold 80,000..... so? (Score:2)
Selling out at launch isn't hard. It's even easier if you only ship a fraction of what the competition is selling. Which is betterin the Wii selling out over 400,000 units in japan (which is almost definate) or the Ps3 selling out 100,000 units?
I just have one question? Why is this news?
80,000 - at rrp? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.bobpitch.com/)
As usual... (Score:5, Interesting)
Impressions:
- That's one huge cooling fan!
- Why did they use a Seagate drive, when Seagate is known for sucking more power than just about anybody else?
- Not as many components on the MB as you might expect for a first revision.
- The ATI RSX has its video memory on the module, but not in-core.
According to posts on various Japanese sites, there also seem to be a few problems.
- The unit gets hot. Very hot.
- A couple of people reported the unit powering off during the software update, which permanently bricked the unit.
- The browser can't play Flash.
Is anyone really surprised? (Score:3, Interesting)
So, I go to the store, and there's about 3 cars waiting outside of the store. 2 have the geekiest geeks you've ever seen in your life sitting in them, 1 has a couple just kind of hanging out eating snacks. They're all waiting for a PS3 shipment that is apparently late getting to the store.
I walk up to the store and there is a big sign on the front that says "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but we will be getting only 1-3 PS3s, and they will be given out at a first come first serve basis." It was 9pm on launch day, and apparently they still hadn't come yet.
To give you some background of where I live: I live in a town of around 500,000 people. The surrounding area is all farms, so I figure within 20km of me, there are all of 3 stores that are selling PS3s. If each one gets 1-3 machines, that means that if one in 100,000 people decides "hmmm, I would like a PS3.." then they will sell out.
Calling that a victory is just lunacy.
Cheaper in Japan (Score:1)
1) Sony limited production of the unit 2) Sony cut the price of the Ps3 in Japan by 20% before launch
Nothing to make good PR by cutting your made-up price and making very little product, so you can boast about how it sold out, while there are still plenty of people elsewhere unhappy about unit availability and pricepoint.
Both reasons why I personally won't be waiting with bated breath for one. (That and I've been abducted by PC games)
Foolish potatomoto! (Score:1, Redundant)
(http://www.seebs.net/)
"That's right, my toy box three is so popular we're completely out of units after the FIRST BOX. Fastest selling toy ever!"
Chinese people buying the japanese PS3s (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://impulsosolar.cl/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 05 2004, @04:57PM)
Success among the chinese! (Score:1)
one word (Score:1, Interesting)
As of 9:57 pm central time USA on November 11, 2006, with 2 minutes left open for bids, a machine was selling for $2,225.
Worth to wait in line? I suppose it depends on how much you like lying around on a Saturday morning in your pajamas drinking coffee.
Thousands, for hours, in the cold? (Score:1)
I'll wait. Thanks.
Bad for software sales (Score:1)
But does it run Linux ? (Score:2)
(http://lives.sourceforge.net/)
Re:The end of Sony bashing? (Score:2)
(http://www.afn.org/~afn31208 | Last Journal: Saturday January 01 2005, @11:56PM)
Re:The end of Sony bashing? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The end of Sony bashing? (Score:5, Funny)
Kutaragi-san, don't you have better places to be right now than the slashdot forums?! You should be working on production issues, better developer tools, and lack of strong launch titles...
Re:The end of Sony bashing? (Score:2)
Re:Yeah, Hot new Xmas Item... (Score:1, Troll)
(http://wakaba.c3.cx/)
Re:Yeah, Hot new Xmas Item... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Yeah, Hot new Xmas Item... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Playstation 3 won't win... (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Thursday February 16 2006, @06:22PM)
"...we could see worlds that could equal what was in use in the movie Toy Story."
I'm still not buying a PS3, but a Xbox360 may be in my future depending on what the new games look like.
Happy? No... but amused (Score:1, Redundant)
(Also in friendly webcomic format [vgcats.com].)
Re:Playstation 3 won't win... (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 27, @04:36PM)
So. Fucking. Japanese.
Dear Lord, does somebody havea rusty spoon I can borrow? I need to gouge out my own eyeballs after seeing that saccharine hell.
And I actually thought I was an otaku...
Re:So Much For Zonk's Year Long FUD Campaign (Score:2, Troll)
(Last Journal: Saturday November 18 2006, @07:24PM)
Rob
Re:Technical Issues Already (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Yeah, Hot new Xmas Item... (Score:2)
Re:VG Cats Said It Best... (Score:2)
Re:The end of Sony bashing? (Score:2)
Re:wannaBeeNerdGirl re: pre-order PS3 for brother (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Saturday July 23 2005, @11:16PM)
Re:Okay... (Score:2)
Re:The end of Sony bashing? (Score:2)
The average sales for the Nintendo DS Lite in a give week are about 100,000 units
On a good week (when they release a highly popular game) the DS Lite sells about 250,000 units
Claiming that the PS3 won't fail because it sold 80,000 units in its launch week is foolish; hell the XBox 360 sold 55,750 in its first week in Japan
Are you sure it is doing all that well?
Re:wannaBeeNerdGirl re: pre-order PS3 for brother (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Saturday November 11 2006, @02:47PM)
Re:Yeah, Hot new Xmas Item... (Score:2)
(http://www.pobox.com/~meta/ | Last Journal: Sunday February 29 2004, @09:19AM)
Re:Meh... (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://scorch.quickfox.org/)
Re:The end of Sony bashing? (Score:2)
(http://www.pie2k.com/ | Last Journal: Monday June 30 2003, @12:52AM)
Re:Wait... (Score:2)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Yeah, that's what we're saying. The U.S. launch date is 11/17. Put down the blotter paper with the blue stars on it, wait until the walls stop crying and the universe ceases to whisper cheat codes to you, and go back to EB.