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Games Entertainment

Playstation 2 U.S. Release Scaled Back 65

A reader submitted: "Sony has set back the release of the Playstation 2 due to component shortages. The Europe release date has been reset to Nov. 24th, but a US date has not been confirmed." We've been seeing a lot of conflicting submissions over the last few days -- and conflicting information from Sony. But what it looks like now is that the initial release, for the U.S., is set for Oct. 26th, and the number of the machines to be shipped has been scaled back by half.
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Playstation 2 US Release Scaled Back

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  • by Anonymous Coward
    Has inferiour hardware - uk/us will have better dvd support (hardware, not software)
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Remember how popular Buzz Lightyear toys were when they were in short supply? Since then "Shortages" have been a lot more common.

    I think the marketing people have realised that people who want one will still buy one if they have to wait.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    That's the beauty of it. He's complaining that whoever posted this story should have read slashdot and known not to post it again.

    That would mean that when he posted this comment, he should have read the comments and known someone else had already posted a comment about this. His comment was therefore redundant.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Are you all fucking lamers..??

    Sony is making 1 PS2 every damn 6 seconds, and thats damn not easy to make production like that!!!

    Sony will make more PS2s in 3months, than DCs made in 18months.

    You think its easy just to manufactor everything so fast?

    To all those people who say, "Sony screwed up" get a life, you morons, you dont know the business and logisitics, no one else has made as much consoles as sony, so fuck off!

    Sony has made more machines than all consoles put together.

    I suppose if Redhat couldt burn 500000 CDs a month, you would call them lame???

    I mean not even apple makes as much machines as PS's, or even compaq
  • by Anonymous Coward
    -1, Redundant you Ignorant Fuck
  • by Anonymous Coward
    The guy is just whining about a double-posting and you mark it "Underrated"!? WTF? Are you guys getting an extra serving of $3 crack with every Playstation 2 story?
  • let the "this was already fuckin posted!"'s begin.
  • I think you missed the point of that post.. the post wasn't a jab at your number of readers.. it was a jab at slashdot posting it MORE than you have ;) Pretty funny..
  • If you had read slashdot, you would have realized that your partner already posted this. Wake up, have some more caffeine or something... please...

    yack0

  • Between Hemos and Taco, I think we know who's the faster typist.:).
  • Most likely, it IS an old joke....

    *Sigh* /. Was such a nice place before it became fanboy/girl heaven

    Moderators, learn your roots. Cherish them. Don't waste moderation points on Trolls, Flamers, or jokes you just don't get, save them for people that deserve them. Ignore the trolls, and they will go away and we can have a nice forum finally.
  • Oh this is cute. I try to intersperse a little bit of humor into a comment field littered with WTF type posts, and I get modded down. Cute. And I wondered why I hardly ever posted.

  • The problem is that I'm bored and (even on a good day) fairly argumentative. So I don't consider it a waste. Especially since this thread will quickly plunge to new depths (-5 here I come) :P

  • Wow, I'm so bored @work today...

    Are you supa-l337 now that you've pointed it out to everyone?

    Nope, although I did make a slightly funnier comment than some. My goal was to be the first to point it out, thus saving everyone else the trouble. I seem to have failed, however.

    If you can do a better job, take the Slash code, register a domain, and do it. Seems to have worked for kuro5hin.

    I'm not sure if I could do a better job at running /. I do know that if I had a bunch of VA/Andover's money, I could write a perl script to detect duplicate headlines (which has been going on, as you pointed out, for years) in about a half an hour. Better yet, I could look through the story queue before posting.

    I'm sick and tired of the pseudo-superior dimwits who complain about every spelling goof, grammatical error, and minor mistake Rob and Co. make. Big-time establishment media makes screw-ups too, they just don't have the cajones or integrity to apologize for them.

    Although big media does try not to repeat their mistakes. In the spirit of open software, I'm happy to point out such a mistake, on the theory that calling more attention to such a simple but noticeable bug may cause it to be fixed more quickly. Sounds like somebody's a little sensitive about user feedback...

    As far as your "bet", most readers probably have better things to worry about than how many PS2s Sony can produce. Thank you for using your low user-id arrogance to speak for everyone, though.

    Hmmm. Well, the previous story about the PS2 shortage garnered about the average number of posts for a /. story, so it would appear that you are incorrect. Apparently many people are interested in the PS2 (such as yourself, of course, or otherwise you wouldn't be reading this story). I don't recall claiming to speak for everyone, although since the majority of posts to this story will be of like flavor to mine, I think it's reasonable to say that I summed up the popular sentiment quite well.

    Yes. It's a duplicate story. You noticed it. Whoopie. Would you like a bowl of hot grits for noticing it?

    Hmmm. A well-reasoned and well-intentioned humorous poke at one of /.'s many foibles posted by a registered user, versus a mean-spirited and humorless response by an AC. I wonder which is really the more troll-like?

  • Are you guys getting an extra serving of $3 crack with every Playstation 2 story?

    BWAAAAH HAA HA! Oh, if only I could shift the two "Funny" moderations from my post onto yours, I would.

  • Deja Vous all over again...
  • ...The UK has known about the delay for ages now. It was ;an nounced [playstation-europe.com] at the beginning of August...
  • I can't wait to pay good money for a proprietary platform supported by a huge multinational who wants to ban Napster, on which I will play my DVDs without the need for DeCSS! I mean, they use Linux for development and will be competing with Microsoft's X-Box, so they must be the good guys, right?
  • Wake the fuck up buddy. The moderation system is not to gratify you every time you squeeze your soul into a post to grab for all the karma you can get your hands on. It is to weed the good from the bad. If your post really is all that, then it will be in turn moderated back up by a moderator who appreciates it. You are not justified to bitch and complain every time someone with moderator access makes a choice you would not. You are not a benchmark for moderators to base their opinions on.
    Are you here to contribute to a discussion, or are you just here for the pissing contest?
  • How bout we have a new slashdot interview with Hemos to find out what is up with all the double postings lately ;-) (And other assorted questions... that tend to be repeated over and over...)

    I'd like to see a interview for the Slashdot team ! Post your questions below....

    Question 1. What's going on with the moderation scheme here at Slashdot? Anybody working on changes/improvements?
  • Soo desu nee! Amerika-jin wa atama ga warui demo Sulashudoto no hito bakayaro da!
  • oh yes, pointing out that a story is redundant is obviously grounds for the poster himself being modded down as redundant...

    *sigh*

  • You're absolutely correct. Sony cut the number in half (from 1 million to 500,000) for the US.
    Interestingly, Sony isn't the only company lately to have problems supplying the demand for their product; every company seems to be having supply problems lately.
    Let's all blame mobile phones.

    --
    Hit any user to continue
  • Is there a rejected article bin? I wouldn't mind reading some of those rejected articles.
    --
  • Ah, touche... If only we had the reader base of /. I can't criticize /. folks too much, afterall, Bottomquark [bottomquark.com] does run on ye ol'e slashcode.


    You like science?
  • Now the real question is, is it for real or because they weren't getting enough preorders to guarantee selling out making them look like great sellers? I am going with the lack of components. I work for a cell phone company and I know we have tremendous problems getting the components we need usually. We have a plant in Mexico right now that has not produced antything in like 3 weeks due to material shortages. You can plan all you want but one little glitch can cause huge production problems. Well now to see if anyone else agrees its not a conspiracy.
  • Japanese people are WEIRD.
    ---
  • sony may have screwed up its own planning. I dont think the ever made sure the component supply could keep up with the demand. THe dreamcast will come out on top this holiday due to its already strong pressence
  • by .sig ( 180877 )
    Does this mean that they haven't gotten enough pre-orders yet, or are they simply trying to build up some hype for the PS2?
    I think I'll head to the mall when this things finally ships just to watch all the people get in line for something that hey're convinced that they just have to get. Maybe I'll buy one the next week when they're selling for $20US
  • I guarantee that they'll make christmas...
  • ok, this may shed tears... for me it did:

    "Sep. 28, 2000,
    Young Vanguard read some disturbing news - which incidentally was posted over-and-over-and-over again in order to taunt young Vanguard - involving Sony's long-awaited PS2 release. It seems the media giant is only releasing HALF of their originally published number of systems to the U.S market.

    The story really begins in MAY of 2000 when young Vanguard reserved AND PAID FOR his PS2 system at his local Software Etc. store. Upon reading the frettful news, Vanguard placed a call to the store where his "Christmas in October" dreams were resting, and was told the following:

    "We're sorry, but due to this unfortunate news, you have been pushed down onto list 2."
    "What the hell does that mean?" replied an irate Vanguard
    "Well, list 1 should still recieve their PS2 system in October, however, the newly created list 2 is only guarenteed a 'before Christmas' delivery"

    Well, needless to say, young Vanguard IS %#^@&&!% PISSED!!!!" [EOF]

    ----

    ok. resistance members, it is time to rise up. now is the time to feel the empowerment....

    ./vanguard/is/pissed
  • Ironically, we also had the PS2 story before Slashdot had it.

    But be fair. They had it MORE than you.

  • I certainly don't think this comment is redundant, but perhaps overrated?

    It should be fairly evident that things can get mixed up. Say, two people look over the list of stories, comment about that PSX2 delay being relevant, and come out of the conversation thinking that they are the ones to approve and post the story...

    So what happens is that both get stories into the queue, and don't realize that the other has already submitted/authorized it.

    It's not like there's a synchronized list of events anywhere, right?

    The nick is a joke! Really!
  • everyone's talking. no one's listening.

    This marks a whole week of redundant and recycled posts. It's difficult to keep up with "the outside world" revolves around you.

    don't go here. [ridiculopathy.com]

  • sony announced the delay was caused by the need to firewall napster in all products. walkmans are currently being recalled for firewalling

    ____
    sony is currently developing firewall:IT (tm) technology to firewall audio cds. sony, inc. based in japan is dedicated to consumer products and is a world leader in firewall technology
  • I think there might be a rift at the Geek Compound(tm). After all, if C.T. and Hemos are no longer on speaking terms (how ELSE can you explain the 'oversight'?) what else might the future hold?

    Will we see Karmic fluctuations on a daily basis, with everyone getting bitchslapped and reset every few minutes? Will JonKatz become UN-filterable? Will the two waring factions delete each-other's stories, leaving us to ponder only those posted by HeUnique and timothy?

    The REAL jabber has the /. user id: 13196

  • That really sucks I like sony a lot. I don't know if anyone remembers though that the playstation 2 almost didn't make it over here. Supposedly they used Missle guidence technology in it somehow. Because of that the govenment was about to say NO. Anyway it is going to be released in the states so everyone is happy. I already paid in full for mine so all you out there who didn't better do so soon. This system is going to rock.
  • What am i going to do now? Playstation 2 is my life! Shall I venture Outside? Maybe See the "Day Star".

    Hold on brb.

    AHH! what was that glowing thing in the sky!? It burned my pale white skin! Must seek soft warm glow of monitor.

  • Got to agree with this guy. His post was funny and just exposes the ridiculous hypocrisy recurring here. I'd give you some points buddy but I don't think they'll ever log me on as a moderator..
  • Go by a Japanese version. The're more expensive, but at least you can hold of one. Mod chips will be around soon after release to give US/European support.
  • They are making one hell of a debut. Please wait till both PS/2 threads have completed and start counting the number of different users that have spent valuable time and effort on the topic.
  • I work for an out-source callcenter and a lot of our customers seem to be suffering from the same kind of problems, so you probably have a point there. On the other hand, it could be that Sony is just manipulating the laws of supply and demand a little bit...
  • Shame on you Hemos!
  • Ok so now not only do we have troll bots posting random messages to the various threads but it appears that Hemos has also been replaced by one that reposts earlier stories.

    I hope CmdrTaco gets a handle on this thing before it picks up on the Katz stories and goes into a recursive loop posting nothing but Katz all day!

    kc.
  • Wow, can you send me some of that wacky weed you must be smoking. You think you're going to go to the store a week after release and get a PS2? I'm assuming you meant for $200, not $20...
    Even still, you must be on crack.

    With the initial shipment cut in half, I'll be lucky to get my pre-ordered PS2. The existing ones at stores will be gone the first day.

    DJ Dr. Evil
    "Crack and Web surfing don't mix."
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Sony is scaling back shipments on PS2 and I submitted it 900 times today and so far it's only been posted twice today! WTF! Why is Slashdot ignoring this story?!
  • by Anonymous Coward
    The other half of this post will ship on or before christmas
  • When the Dreamcast came out, and there were massive hardware shortages and general release niggles (faulty GDs, etc.) the media had a bit of a field day. I hope they give Sony the same treatment: a console launch is fraught with difficulty, but Sony seem to have been making promises they can't keep.

    Meanwhile, in the UK, anecdotal evidence suggests that preorders are slow, which is a good thing because we're only going to get half the initally promised allotment.
    --
  • One of the local EB's here in Syr. has already gotten in excess of 1500 preorders - only about 100-250 are paid off thusfar (mine is one of 'em). They are expecting to get 150 to the store on release day.

    If Sony only takes into account the fully paid preorders, they are getting a LOT less than what the demand actually is.

    A lot of people were waiting to pay them off, or were paying them off slowly over time. Chances are they won't get one until well after the launch, if the figures I'm seeing here are correct.
  • Especially since the PS/2 isn't exactly cutting edge technology. Come on! IBM quit making them YEARS ago. What makes Sony think they can bring them back to overwhelming demand?

    OS/2 for PS/2, Half an operating system for half a computer.
  • I think this is a good move. It's better to have the release date slip then to release to few units. Sony doesnt want them selling on EBAY for 10 grand a pop.
  • This is interesting, I would have thought Sony would make a BIG debut for the holiday season. You know pump out lots of machines, advertise like mad, and generally saturate the minds of the populace with PS2.

    Even with the so-called "scaled back" launch, the PS2 is still going to be the biggest console introduction ever. This is mentioned in most of the articles talking about the scaled back launch. 1.3 million consoles by Christmas as 3 million in six months is not something I'd call a botched launch, you know?
  • Why would Sony give a fuck about how much they sell for on eBay? What they want is a focused marketing campaign to kick in right in time for Christmas. Creating an early panic because demand is low is gonna spike the customer's interest, as well as generate a whole lot of publicity by showing people panicking for a PS2 on the news. Free publicity, and the sheeps are throwing themselves at the Toys'R'Us: instant Christmas time frenzy. This is gonna be a Pokemon craze for adults.
  • Nah, it started long before that. Remember when Coleco had "shortage problems" with the Cabbage Patch dolls? Other popular toys had the same effects, driven by the increadible force of kids whining for stuff. But hey, at least I got a complete set of He-man figures out of the deal :)

  • From the articles I've read (Yahoo, etc) the US date isn't changing, only the machines to be shipped initially.
  • Must be some newbie moderators who weren't around back in the days of the IBM PS/2 or something.

    Yeesh.
  • This is interesting, I would have thought Sony would make a BIG debut for the holiday season. You know pump out lots of machines, advertise like mad, and generally saturate the minds of the populace with PS2.
    I think the trick is to keep within the tolerance levels, hold a little back in reserver in case something goes horrible wrong. On one hand they have this incredible machine that people have been drooling over for years now I have no doubt in my mind that people will snatch them up like they are going out of style. On the other hand what if they ship with a bug, or faulty hardware? Then have a bad rap for releasing a buggy machine, or in the worst case scenario they will have to recall all of the machines, and that could be an expensive proposition.
    Or maybe they are having troubles scaling up the demand, and the supply cannot meet the demand.. like the problem that Apple was having with there Motorala chips.

    It should be interesting to see what there excuse is. I know one thing though. Parents are going to be buying their kids game consoles for the holiday season, and if they cant get a PS2 then "Oh well", they will just pick up a Dreamcast or N64. I hope Sony knows what they are doing.

  • I talked to CmdrTaco one time and Rob said "basically we don't post anything Microsoft-related", unless it's totally incendiary. Positive Microsoft stories (IE 5.5 supporting better DHTML, for example) will "never get posted".
  • by ethereal ( 13958 ) on Thursday September 28, 2000 @07:59AM (#747192) Journal

    Do you ever read /. ? 'Cause those of us that do saw this story a few hours ago.

    I bet most readers would prefer to see twice as many PS2s being produced, and half as many stories about them being late to market :)

  • by Greg@RageNet ( 39860 ) on Thursday September 28, 2000 @08:00AM (#747193) Homepage
    Read your own site much? the playstation delays were announced two days ago, then we've got two stories within two hours of each other here. Perhaps you people paid good money to run this site should read the site before going off to approve stories.

    -- Greg

  • by OldSaxon ( 110153 ) on Thursday September 28, 2000 @11:00AM (#747194) Homepage
    Well, to further the "make a better site" arguement -- I'm trying, but need people to read it. The story you mentioned:

    2000-08-16 01:14:50 Caffeine added to Soda to create addiction? (articles,news) (rejected)

    was posted on [bottomquark.com]www.bottomquark.com [bottomquark.com] on 8-15-00, a day before you submitted it to /.

    If you like these sorts of stories, come on over to Bottomquark. You want articles, we want readers -- a match made in Heaven.

    Ironically, we also had the PS2 story before Slashdot had it.

    Come on Over!

    OldSaxon


    You like science?

  • by crisco ( 4669 ) on Thursday September 28, 2000 @08:05AM (#747195) Homepage
    Abode, duplicate stories, I'd be careful in traffic dude!
  • by apocalypse_now ( 82372 ) on Thursday September 28, 2000 @07:58AM (#747196) Homepage
    ahem [slashdot.org].
    --
    Matt Singerman
  • by Accipiter ( 8228 ) on Thursday September 28, 2000 @10:06AM (#747197)
    What I find disappointing about Slashdot lately, is of the stories that get posted, very few are the quality of "Slashdot-3-years-ago" material.

    Back then, I'd read something on Slashdot that didn't make news anywhere else for at LEAST a day, and the stories were *interesting.*

    These days, stories get repeated, and are usually covered elsewhere A) more in-depth, B) more accurate, and C) earlier.

    Plus, redundant stories get posted, and potentially good stories are left out. Take some of my own submissions:

    2000-07-06 16:24:29 Microsoft SQL Server Benchmarks withdrawn (articles,microsoft) (rejected)
    2000-08-16 01:14:50 Caffeine added to Soda to create addiction? (articles,news) (rejected)
    2000-09-25 17:45:31 Data Loss when shutting down Windows ME, possibly 98 (articles,microsoft) (rejected)
    2000-09-27 19:15:09 Suspected Creator of 'ILOVEYOU' Chats Online (articles,news) (rejected)

    Some of these topics are things that Slashdot readers would want to read about, but were ignored AND not covered at all!

    People can easily say "Well, go to another site! Stop Complaining!" or, "If you can do a better job, make your OWN site! Stop complaining!" If I had the time and the resources to start my own site, I would. And the reason I don't trounce around other sites is because Slashdot compresses them all into one site.

    If I didn't try to help, I wouldn't complain. But I *am* submitting cool stories. They're just getting passed over for redundant stuff like this.

    I used to defend Slashdot against complaints like this....unfortunately now, they're actually substantiated.

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

Real programmers don't bring brown-bag lunches. If the vending machine doesn't sell it, they don't eat it. Vending machines don't sell quiche.

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