Sony's next-gen console has official 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.
That was supposed to be funny! How many of us remember being kids and your "friends" at school would invite you over just so you could watch them play Nintendo?
The buyer is probably just out to screw over scalpers by making bids they won't pay. When you exhaust all avenues stipulated on ebay for time until you have to pay vs. the relatively small penalties for canceling a bid, this could force the seller to delay selling it to a time when the hype dies down so they're paid less and have to wait longer.
Neat strategy -- but your ebay account won't do too well.
It's simple supply and demand. Right now there's only 400k of them in the country, much much fewer than rabid Sony fanboys and hardcore gamers. That drives the price up (in an open market such as ebay, anyway).
Once Sony gets the production issues worked out, the supply/demand won't be in their favor anymore - supply will go up and demand will go down as the fanboys get their console. Once it gets to the point that anyone who wants a PS3 can get one at retail, then we'll find out if the $600 is above what the market will bear.
And we won't even know that for several years. Console price drops are just a form of market segmentation. Sony will sell every PS3 it can to the people who are willing to shell out $600 for it, then drop the price and sell it to everyone willing to pay at that level, then do it again, and again, and again, etc.
There's other factors involved besides price, like the size and quality of the game library at a given point in time, and the age of the console... but what you might find is that there's a big spike in sales when the console finally hits that "sweet spot", which my guess is around $300, the same price range that most every successful console launches at.
It looks like the going rate is anywhere from $3000-$5000...
The first three gamers in line were comped their PS3s.
now, THAT would have made for a decent profit for a week's worth of waiting in line... imagine if the first 3 people lived together and sold off 2 of them. goddamn. think of what they'd fetch for the autographed system.
At $3000, that's about five times the retail price and significantly more than my monthly mortgage payment. Supposing I did have $3000 in surplus cash, were I to use those funds to pay down principal on my mortgage instead of buying that PS3 I would shave a bit more than a years worth of mortgage payments from the end of the loan. Thus, to pay five times retail for a toy would incur a long term loss in excess of $24,000.
where thinking about the longer-term consequences of your actions isn't just overlooked, it's actively ignored. If you mention "opportunity cost" to the average credit card user out there, you're going to get a look of ignorance that's almost bovine in its nescience.
Funny thing is, I used to be in pretty much that same frame of mind until I got married. I just never thought more than a couple of months ahead... probably mostly because I got in the habit of living paycheck-to-paycheck when I was in the Army (talk about low pay!) and while I was a college student, I was just living month-to-month on my GI Bill money. My wife (who is brilliant and a 4.0 math major) started pointing out all the things that we were doing that involved long-term tradeoffs and I was totally amazed at the amount of money we were spending on "unnecessaries." Working together, we were able to get ahead of the curve and eventually, we bought both our cars for cash and our house with a nice down payment. We haven't paid interest on a credit card in about five years, and the last time I was out of work, we had enough cash to tide us over. We still spend money on "fun" stuff, but we're always careful to think about the tradeoffs so that we're making informed decisions.
The moral of my story: if you're not a financial genius, marry someone who is:-)
I'm actually reasonably disturbed by the Chaos that has been created by greed...
How is reselling a PS3 greed? To label this greed you need to know what financial situation these people are in.
Are they standing in line to afford a luxury item or is this a rare opportunity to make 2 months rent in a day?
Ticket/Event/Product Scalping [wikipedia.org] ( reselling ) is not always illegal and many legitimate business do it. Tickmaster at least at one point aunctioned tickets to popular events.
Finally, who is being hurt by the PS3 resellers? The gamers who have to wait an extra week to get their hands on a PS3?
I'm actually reasonably disturbed by the Chaos that has been created by greed...
How is reselling a PS3 greed? To label this greed you need to know what financial situation these people are in.
Are they standing in line to afford a luxury item or is this a rare opportunity to make 2 months rent in a day?
Ticket/Event/Product Scalping ( reselling ) is not always illegal and many legitimate business do it. Tickmaster at least at one point aunctioned tickets to popular events.
Finally, who is being hurt by the PS3 resellers? The gamers who have to wait an extra week to get their hands on a PS3?
I (personally) see nothing wrong with the act of scalping a product in order to make a decent profit; I do however see a problem with trampling people to get a product in order to sell it online for a decent profit. Regardless of whether your use of your windfall is a noble cause or not, when you callously disregard the wellbeing of your fellow person in order to make the money it becomes an immoral act.
In practically every interview I have seen the reporter is talking to someone who intends to sell the PS3 for massive profit; in one case a man was talking about how he was going to make $2000 in one days work.
I was discussing this last night with a former manager of a Gamestop. We came to the conclusion that only people that were buying PS3s now were going to sell it on Ebay.
But the amount of people willing to pay more than $1,000 is very small. So a handful of people will make money, but since Ebay is being flooded with PS3s there is a high chance that many of these Ebayers are going to be sorely disappointed.
Secondly... Most of those $9,000 bids are just fake bids of people who have no intention of actually buying it.
And that's not an exaggeration. When they came out to announce that they only had 30 PS3s, people went nuts. Trashing stuff, punching random people, it was crazy. They had to call a bunch of cops to get things under control.
It Is Just A Fucking Game, Damn It! I wish everyone would grow the fuck up.
Read [sega.com] - 10 to 12 people robbed in PS3 line (dubious, but possible). [Via Digg [digg.com]]
Read [cbs2.com] - Sheriffs shut down another California store for rowdy behavior.
Read [playboy.com] - Police break up NY SonyStyle store fight.
Read [todaystmj4.com] - Brawl breaks out at another Wally when manager plays musical PlayStation chairs. Seriously, what an idiot. [Thanks Kyle D. [kyledrake.com]]
Read [cheapassgamer.com] - Shots were apparently fired at a Texas Wally. Pics here [photobucket.com] and here [photobucket.com] of the 5-0. [Thanks, Jason]
Read [ktvz.com] - Two armed, masked robbers overtook a customer in Springfield. [Thanks, Jason]
Watch [youtube.com] - North Fresno / Merced had stampede-riot insanity. [Thanks, Jonathan]
And they even have a link to our very own lovable Senator Jonathon Edwards [prnewswire.com] contacting Wal-Mart for one PS3.
It's clear that some people are just so into the giving spirit that they will do anything for the perfect gift.
That story was posted this Tuesday, the 14th. The "Friday afternoon" in question was *last* Friday, the 10th. The story also says the people had already been waiting in line for about four days.
But with the prices I'm hearing on Ebay, I'm beginning to wish I had. A night on a long line isn't too bad if you're pulling in four to eight grand profit.
There was also some ugliness, with individuals being hired to stand in line, as was done in Japan earlier this week
Why is that ugly? Seems like capitalism at its finest. If someone is willing to pay for a service and someone is willing to perform that service, whats ugly about that?
Lazy maybe, but hardly ugly
I don't really follow games, what are the most anticipated titles besides the generic football games?
"A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it... gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself."
Why is that ugly? Seems like capitalism at its finest.
You do know your rebuttle has absolutely nothing to do with the comment you're responding to. Capitalism is not considered, by the majority of people I know, to be a superb thing of beauty that is beyond ugliness. Quite the reverse indeed.
Greed and excessive, gratuitous, shows of wealth are rarely beautiful. Show me a hundred thousand people with jobs because someone was able to invest in a new technology, and I'll agree that's capitalism at its finest. Show me people paying to get an advantage in a line for an already over-priced luxury item, and you'll be showing me capitalism at its most facile.
3 S's, and the main reason why i didn't stand out in the farking cold. Kudos to those people who stand out in the cold like that. Whether you're reselling it for profit or playing in your pajamas, those people either have no lives or are dedicated to playing the newest first.
Otherwise, i still think the PS3 is a great buy if you're into the whole high def DVD thing: by the time you buy a 360 and the HD-DVD add on you're better off buying a PS3 if you want high def.
Personally, I'm waiting for 2 reasons:
1) First batch hardware from Sony is almost always shoddy.
2) Metal Gear Solid.
When the system actually has over 1 million units produced and the bugs are worked out, then the real battle starts. Not having as many exclusives (Assassins Creed, Grand Theft Auto) might bring the PS3 to a real head on fight with X360.
Of course I couldn't live without the PS3 and call myself a gamer, so I will own one exentually. It's just a matter of getting quality releases.
I've enjoyed this LOLer coaster of a ride: Hirai's and Kutaragi's comments, shortages, BD v. Hd disc battles, lack of rumble. *sniff* I'm so sad to see it go.
Alwell, it's on to the PS4, Xbox 720, and the Nintendo Ballz!
My biggest problem with the PS3 isin't the $600 price tag. It isin't the forced Blu-ray player. It's the SixAxis. From what I've read, the SixAxis sounds like what happened when Sony looked at the DualShock and figured out you couldn't put any more buttons on it. It just acts like another analog stick (Resistance, Project8, Warhawk), or more buttons (Madden, Resistance). All it seems to do is just make games MORE complex. And no, I'm not a total Nintendo fanboy (playing outrun2 on xbox 1 right now, addicted)
Canada... usually.... well at least when the 360 was like that.. Ottawa had a surplus. IM going up there this afternoon for the weekend. if they have em my e-bay id is..:)
Associated Press (CNN [cnn.com], Yahoo [yahoo.com]), is reporting that masked, armed thugs robbed people waiting in line at a Putnam, Connecticut Wal-Mart for PS3, and shot one person who wouldn't hand over their money.
Penny Arcade has pretty much nailed [penny-arcade.com] the idiocy of this launch, as usual.
"and shot one person who wouldn't hand over their money."
And all the people behind the shooting victim worked hard to contain their glee at being able to move up a spot, no doubt.
Seriously, the only people who own a PS3 right now are those who literally have more money than brains. I don't know if this is a sign of the susceptability of young people to marketing/groupthink or what, but there is no rational reason to put up with this nonsense for something that will likely continue to be manufactured and sold for years ("one night only," maybe, but not the launch of a flagship product). If nothing else, the high price of the console is is made all the more unaffordable due to the missed hours of work spent standing in line.
Here's a litmus test: is standing in line for a PS3 something you would be proud to tell your children about a decade from now?
My wife works in the Sony building, so I strolled past it last night.
One one side of the Sony building were the dedicated or avaricious would-be-purchasers waiting to buy at midnight, but on the other side of the building there were externally visible screens showing PS3 games being played by people in one of the Sony stores. A preview reel looked awesome, but was simply a video of lots of game clips. The only games I saw being played were : some kind of off-road racing game and Madden 2007. Neither would blow my mind if I saw them on my PS2. There was little to no sign of mindboggling performance, in fact the off-road racing game seemed a bit slow.
I'm a big fan of PS2, having completed several games, but I'm going to wait for my PS3 until a) I can buy one for normal retail price without hassle and b) I see the mind-blowing graphics we're all expecting
No, I can't get one any earlier because I know an employee. In fact they haven't heard whether there will be any available for staff at all. There might be a raffle for 3, something like that.
It seems to me that geeks would rather play on a PC, where you can hack the game if you don't like it. What is the allure of consoles? I don't get it. I bought an Xbox, but I never play games on the thing - I'd rather be on a PC.
I got tired of spending the big bucks to maintain a killer PC. Soon I will build a fairly pissed off PC but I'm not spending my money on graphics hardware but on memory and storage because I want to be doing 3d modeling/rendering and video editing. It's nice to have a kick-ass 3D card for your 3d work, but frankly it is not a necessity and a $100 card today beats the living shit out of the sexiest stuff from back in the day - which has always been true but the point is that today even a pile of crap computer is pretty badass.
But the point is that if I buy a game console, it's cheap, it's replaceable, it's portable, it has good controllers, and there's a huge library of games that I know will work. No fucking with my video drivers. No updating DirectMedia so that I can have out-of-sync streaming video behind my characters in Final Fantasy VII. (Which I do have for both PS1 and PC.) And so on.
I mean, Mechwarrior III can't seem to properly draw its interface on the last system I had, running Windows XP... old games have "issues" working. Update DirectX to play a new game, and the old games don't work.
To hell with it. I'll play console games. It does mean I won't be playing first person shooters (I don't believe in playing them without KB+Mouse) but I can live without that. If nothing else it'll probably stop me from burning out my adrenal gland prematurely.
The PS3 is neat. The Wii is neat. These people are insane.
1) It's a video game console, not a cure for cancer. You don't need to get worked up over it.
2) This isn't the only chance you'll have to get one. If it is, you really don't want one anyway.
3) If you seriously didn't think you could be in the "I waited days in line for this and got nothing" group you need several reality checks.
Frankly, I'm scared that I'm going to walk to my car with my brand new Wii and some nut with a gun is going to try and take it from me. These morons seem desperate enough that they'll actually shoot me for it.
From the Ledger-Enquirer [ledger-enquirer.com] article about the Dentist trying to buy 15 PSPs:
"I only want one, but I know there's other people that are going to want them, too," said Williams, who has a 7-year-old son..."You're using your money and authority to pay people for what you want, and that's wrong."
Wait, using money to pay people is wrong now?! Thank you Cindy Williams of Columbus, Ohio for setting us all straight! I know I'll never make that mistake again. By the way, Cindy, can you further explain what authority a dentist has? I mean, unless he commandeered the store, I'm not really sure what authority he abused.
People with a lot of money can almost always get what they want. It might be unfair, but that's capitalism; deal with it.
I understand why the things are limited, but I don't have to like it. What I want to know is, why release these damn things in the busiest season? The only reason I come up with is everyone wants their little Johnny to have that PS3 xmas or to sell them on eBay plus the fact that alot of people in this country lose their heads all in the name of the almighty money spending holiday called Christmas.
I want a Wii on Sunday, but I'll wait until March. By then, the hype is wore off and a few more games are out.
I was first in line at a local Target. It started around 330pm Wednesday and filled up by 6pm, and since I got to run the line the way I wanted I still got to go to work and others got to take miderms, go to class, etc. Even so, it was stressful to deal with the hordes of people so desperate that, if provoked, would forcefully take someone's place. The potential for profit drove most of the idiocy. Also, everyone in the line was there to make a profit except for possibly myself--I haven't decided yet.
The worst part of it was dealing with the corporate nature of Target. The employees were fine and enthusiastic, but the corporate policies were inane. For instance, no tents while they're open (8am to 10pm) with the lows being ~34F and soaking wet. Along with that, no official rules for the line from Target (read this as ass covering) so no waiting inside and no official list guaranteed even after the known slots had been filled--meaning you have to aggressively yet legally assert your place in line with an onslaught of douchebags trying to take your spot when you get up to take a piss.
Would I do it again? Probably not. Am I glad to have a PS3, HELL YES! After work today is going to be insane!
"The employees were fine and enthusiastic, but the corporate policies were inane. For instance, no tents while they're open"
"Inane?" They're a retail store, not a campground! If anything, you should just be happy that you were allowed to loiter outside the store to begin with, as your presence no doubt had an intimidating effect on the store's more legitimate customers. The people in the lines I saw differed from the people I see on streetcorners holding their cardboard signs only by degree.
"Along with that, no official rules for the line from Target (read this as ass covering) "
No, read it as "Not their fucking job."
"After work today is going to be insane!"
And after Monday? After next week? Next month? Next year? Will the insanity you participated in still have been worth it once the novelty has worn off?
Here's a question: of all the people who stood in line for a PS3 in the US, how many voted ten days ago?
If Sony really cared about black marketeering, they would have launched with ample supplies. I believe a blogger for Kotaku said he talked to 100 people in lines, and only 1 said he was going to keep it to play. They love the black market sales because that increases hype for the system. People see that it's going for $3,000 on ebay, and they think that it must be worth it.
"wouldn't you want to have a handoff for something like this?"
This already exists. It's called an escrow service.
"what's to say people at ups or fedex aren't scanning boxes with a x-ray machine to identify a box with a ps3 in it...and "lose it"."
The same thing that says people in other professions also should not steal: they'll lose their job and may wind up in jail if caught. That might not stop some FedEx/UPS/USPS employees but I imagine the lion's share of them aren't going to risk their job (all 3 of which have nice benefits and excellent retirement packages though not a flashy payscale) over a $600 game system. And whoever is paying out that insurance is going to be pretty motivated to find the culprit(s).
I'm sure fraud will happen but far more people will conduct perfectly legal transactions than not.
I don't know who will win, but I know a guy who lost! [todaystmj4.com] Well, he lost a PS3 chance, but is probably going to win a few 100 grand in a lawsuit. Seriously, this Wal-Mart manager who thought a 'race' to 10 seats was a good idea should be fired.
I won't expect reviews for a good while (Score:3, Funny)
Seriously, those who have the console now will probably be away for a good week, because who needs friends when you have a PS3?
Re:I won't expect reviews for a good while (Score:5, Funny)
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Mod Parent Up! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I won't expect reviews for a good while (Score:5, Funny)
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eBay (Score:5, Informative)
Re:eBay (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:eBay (Score:5, Informative)
Neat strategy -- but your ebay account won't do too well.
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Re:eBay (Score:4, Insightful)
Once Sony gets the production issues worked out, the supply/demand won't be in their favor anymore - supply will go up and demand will go down as the fanboys get their console. Once it gets to the point that anyone who wants a PS3 can get one at retail, then we'll find out if the $600 is above what the market will bear.
And we won't even know that for several years. Console price drops are just a form of market segmentation. Sony will sell every PS3 it can to the people who are willing to shell out $600 for it, then drop the price and sell it to everyone willing to pay at that level, then do it again, and again, and again, etc.
There's other factors involved besides price, like the size and quality of the game library at a given point in time, and the age of the console... but what you might find is that there's a big spike in sales when the console finally hits that "sweet spot", which my guess is around $300, the same price range that most every successful console launches at.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The first three gamers in line were comped their PS3s.
now, THAT would have made for a decent profit for a week's worth of waiting in line... imagine if the first 3 people lived together and sold off 2 of them. goddamn. think of what they'd fetch for the autographed system.
Re:eBay (Score:5, Funny)
Must...stab...eyes out...
--Rob
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Re:eBay (Score:5, Interesting)
Think about that.
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This is consumer America (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny thing is, I used to be in pretty much that same frame of mind until I got married. I just never thought more than a couple of months ahead... probably mostly because I got in the habit of living paycheck-to-paycheck when I was in the Army (talk about low pay!) and while I was a college student, I was just living month-to-month on my GI Bill money. My wife (who is brilliant and a 4.0 math major) started pointing out all the things that we were doing that involved long-term tradeoffs and I was totally amazed at the amount of money we were spending on "unnecessaries." Working together, we were able to get ahead of the curve and eventually, we bought both our cars for cash and our house with a nice down payment. We haven't paid interest on a credit card in about five years, and the last time I was out of work, we had enough cash to tide us over. We still spend money on "fun" stuff, but we're always careful to think about the tradeoffs so that we're making informed decisions.
The moral of my story: if you're not a financial genius, marry someone who is
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Re:This is consumer America (Score:5, Funny)
Certainly sounds better than my plan, of marrying a lusciously sexy girl with big tits...
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Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
This is possibly the dumbest, saddest thing I've ever seen.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
You're new here, aren't you?
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Moral cost? (Score:5, Insightful)
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What moral cost? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm actually reasonably disturbed by the Chaos that has been created by greed ...
How is reselling a PS3 greed? To label this greed you need to know what financial situation these people are in.
Are they standing in line to afford a luxury item or is this a rare opportunity to make 2 months rent in a day?
Ticket/Event/Product Scalping [wikipedia.org] ( reselling ) is not always illegal and many legitimate business do it. Tickmaster at least at one point aunctioned tickets to popular events.
Finally, who is being hurt by the PS3 resellers? The gamers who have to wait an extra week to get their hands on a PS3?
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Re:What moral cost? (Score:5, Insightful)
How is reselling a PS3 greed? To label this greed you need to know what financial situation these people are in.
Are they standing in line to afford a luxury item or is this a rare opportunity to make 2 months rent in a day?
Ticket/Event/Product Scalping ( reselling ) is not always illegal and many legitimate business do it. Tickmaster at least at one point aunctioned tickets to popular events.
Finally, who is being hurt by the PS3 resellers? The gamers who have to wait an extra week to get their hands on a PS3?
I (personally) see nothing wrong with the act of scalping a product in order to make a decent profit; I do however see a problem with trampling people to get a product in order to sell it online for a decent profit. Regardless of whether your use of your windfall is a noble cause or not, when you callously disregard the wellbeing of your fellow person in order to make the money it becomes an immoral act.
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Re:Chaos (Score:5, Insightful)
I was discussing this last night with a former manager of a Gamestop. We came to the conclusion that only people that were buying PS3s now were going to sell it on Ebay.
But the amount of people willing to pay more than $1,000 is very small. So a handful of people will make money, but since Ebay is being flooded with PS3s there is a high chance that many of these Ebayers are going to be sorely disappointed.
Secondly... Most of those $9,000 bids are just fake bids of people who have no intention of actually buying it.
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Near riot at our Best Buy (Score:5, Interesting)
It Is Just A Fucking Game, Damn It! I wish everyone would grow the fuck up.
PS3 Related Crime (Score:5, Informative)
It's clear that some people are just so into the giving spirit that they will do anything for the perfect gift.
Re:PS3 Related Crime (Score:4, Informative)
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Well, I didn't pre-order one... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ugliness (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is that ugly? Seems like capitalism at its finest. If someone is willing to pay for a service and someone is willing to perform that service, whats ugly about that?
Lazy maybe, but hardly ugly
I don't really follow games, what are the most anticipated titles besides the generic football games?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ugliness (Score:5, Insightful)
You do know your rebuttle has absolutely nothing to do with the comment you're responding to. Capitalism is not considered, by the majority of people I know, to be a superb thing of beauty that is beyond ugliness. Quite the reverse indeed.
Greed and excessive, gratuitous, shows of wealth are rarely beautiful. Show me a hundred thousand people with jobs because someone was able to invest in a new technology, and I'll agree that's capitalism at its finest. Show me people paying to get an advantage in a line for an already over-priced luxury item, and you'll be showing me capitalism at its most facile.
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Hoping for the wii Launch... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hoping for the wii Launch... (Score:5, Funny)
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Shootings, shortages, and selling (Score:4, Informative)
Otherwise, i still think the PS3 is a great buy if you're into the whole high def DVD thing: by the time you buy a 360 and the HD-DVD add on you're better off buying a PS3 if you want high def.
Personally, I'm waiting for 2 reasons:
1) First batch hardware from Sony is almost always shoddy.
2) Metal Gear Solid.
When the system actually has over 1 million units produced and the bugs are worked out, then the real battle starts. Not having as many exclusives (Assassins Creed, Grand Theft Auto) might bring the PS3 to a real head on fight with X360.
Of course I couldn't live without the PS3 and call myself a gamer, so I will own one exentually. It's just a matter of getting quality releases.
I've enjoyed this LOLer coaster of a ride: Hirai's and Kutaragi's comments, shortages, BD v. Hd disc battles, lack of rumble. *sniff* I'm so sad to see it go.
Alwell, it's on to the PS4, Xbox 720, and the Nintendo Ballz!
SixAxis (Score:3, Insightful)
Im flying up to Canada (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Im flying up to Canada (Score:4, Informative)
Local stores here got maybe 10-15 each, and lineups were 50+ people long.
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Ugliness? How about shooting? (Score:5, Interesting)
Associated Press (CNN [cnn.com], Yahoo [yahoo.com]), is reporting that masked, armed thugs robbed people waiting in line at a Putnam, Connecticut Wal-Mart for PS3, and shot one person who wouldn't hand over their money.
Penny Arcade has pretty much nailed [penny-arcade.com] the idiocy of this launch, as usual.
Re:Ugliness? How about shooting? (Score:5, Insightful)
And all the people behind the shooting victim worked hard to contain their glee at being able to move up a spot, no doubt.
Seriously, the only people who own a PS3 right now are those who literally have more money than brains. I don't know if this is a sign of the susceptability of young people to marketing/groupthink or what, but there is no rational reason to put up with this nonsense for something that will likely continue to be manufactured and sold for years ("one night only," maybe, but not the launch of a flagship product). If nothing else, the high price of the console is is made all the more unaffordable due to the missed hours of work spent standing in line.
Here's a litmus test: is standing in line for a PS3 something you would be proud to tell your children about a decade from now?
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Free graphics preview - slightly disappointing (Score:5, Informative)
My wife works in the Sony building, so I strolled past it last night.
One one side of the Sony building were the dedicated or avaricious would-be-purchasers waiting to buy at midnight, but on the other side of the building there were externally visible screens showing PS3 games being played by people in one of the Sony stores. A preview reel looked awesome, but was simply a video of lots of game clips. The only games I saw being played were : some kind of off-road racing game and Madden 2007. Neither would blow my mind if I saw them on my PS2. There was little to no sign of mindboggling performance, in fact the off-road racing game seemed a bit slow.
I'm a big fan of PS2, having completed several games, but I'm going to wait for my PS3 until a) I can buy one for normal retail price without hassle and b) I see the mind-blowing graphics we're all expecting
No, I can't get one any earlier because I know an employee. In fact they haven't heard whether there will be any available for staff at all. There might be a raffle for 3, something like that.
Why do geeks buy consoles?? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why do geeks buy consoles?? (Score:5, Insightful)
I got tired of spending the big bucks to maintain a killer PC. Soon I will build a fairly pissed off PC but I'm not spending my money on graphics hardware but on memory and storage because I want to be doing 3d modeling/rendering and video editing. It's nice to have a kick-ass 3D card for your 3d work, but frankly it is not a necessity and a $100 card today beats the living shit out of the sexiest stuff from back in the day - which has always been true but the point is that today even a pile of crap computer is pretty badass.
But the point is that if I buy a game console, it's cheap, it's replaceable, it's portable, it has good controllers, and there's a huge library of games that I know will work. No fucking with my video drivers. No updating DirectMedia so that I can have out-of-sync streaming video behind my characters in Final Fantasy VII. (Which I do have for both PS1 and PC.) And so on.
I mean, Mechwarrior III can't seem to properly draw its interface on the last system I had, running Windows XP... old games have "issues" working. Update DirectX to play a new game, and the old games don't work.
To hell with it. I'll play console games. It does mean I won't be playing first person shooters (I don't believe in playing them without KB+Mouse) but I can live without that. If nothing else it'll probably stop me from burning out my adrenal gland prematurely.
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Seriously. (Score:4, Insightful)
1) It's a video game console, not a cure for cancer. You don't need to get worked up over it.
2) This isn't the only chance you'll have to get one. If it is, you really don't want one anyway.
3) If you seriously didn't think you could be in the "I waited days in line for this and got nothing" group you need several reality checks.
Frankly, I'm scared that I'm going to walk to my car with my brand new Wii and some nut with a gun is going to try and take it from me. These morons seem desperate enough that they'll actually shoot me for it.
Re:Seriously. (Score:5, Funny)
Don't worry, you are preaching to the choir here, most people here are used to waiting for years and still getting none.
Parent
Wait, isn't that just capitalism? (Score:4, Insightful)
Wait, using money to pay people is wrong now?! Thank you Cindy Williams of Columbus, Ohio for setting us all straight! I know I'll never make that mistake again. By the way, Cindy, can you further explain what authority a dentist has? I mean, unless he commandeered the store, I'm not really sure what authority he abused.
People with a lot of money can almost always get what they want. It might be unfair, but that's capitalism; deal with it.
I understand why....but I don't have to like it.. (Score:5, Interesting)
I want a Wii on Sunday, but I'll wait until March. By then, the hype is wore off and a few more games are out.
1st in line, was it worth it? (Score:4, Informative)
The worst part of it was dealing with the corporate nature of Target. The employees were fine and enthusiastic, but the corporate policies were inane. For instance, no tents while they're open (8am to 10pm) with the lows being ~34F and soaking wet. Along with that, no official rules for the line from Target (read this as ass covering) so no waiting inside and no official list guaranteed even after the known slots had been filled--meaning you have to aggressively yet legally assert your place in line with an onslaught of douchebags trying to take your spot when you get up to take a piss.
Would I do it again? Probably not. Am I glad to have a PS3, HELL YES! After work today is going to be insane!
Re:1st in line, was it worth it? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Inane?" They're a retail store, not a campground! If anything, you should just be happy that you were allowed to loiter outside the store to begin with, as your presence no doubt had an intimidating effect on the store's more legitimate customers. The people in the lines I saw differed from the people I see on streetcorners holding their cardboard signs only by degree.
"Along with that, no official rules for the line from Target (read this as ass covering) "
No, read it as "Not their fucking job."
"After work today is going to be insane!"
And after Monday? After next week? Next month? Next year? Will the insanity you participated in still have been worth it once the novelty has worn off?
Here's a question: of all the people who stood in line for a PS3 in the US, how many voted ten days ago?
Parent
A sad day. (Score:5, Funny)
More Dollars than What? (Score:4, Funny)
(Hint: Most people have more Cents than Dollars. Usually 100X more.)
I'll bet (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Will it ever be lanuched in India? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:got fraud? (Score:5, Insightful)
This already exists. It's called an escrow service.
"what's to say people at ups or fedex aren't scanning boxes with a x-ray machine to identify a box with a ps3 in it
The same thing that says people in other professions also should not steal: they'll lose their job and may wind up in jail if caught. That might not stop some FedEx/UPS/USPS employees but I imagine the lion's share of them aren't going to risk their job (all 3 of which have nice benefits and excellent retirement packages though not a flashy payscale) over a $600 game system. And whoever is paying out that insurance is going to be pretty motivated to find the culprit(s).
I'm sure fraud will happen but far more people will conduct perfectly legal transactions than not.
Parent
Re:Who will win? (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know who will win, but I know a guy who lost! [todaystmj4.com] Well, he lost a PS3 chance, but is probably going to win a few 100 grand in a lawsuit. Seriously, this Wal-Mart manager who thought a 'race' to 10 seats was a good idea should be fired.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Parent
Re:Does anyone actually *have* one? To play? (Score:5, Funny)
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