The aftermath: PS3 launch and first impressions

notice how about only like 5 people out of 96 comments have said anything about their ps3 impressions and i don't even think they were positive comments =/

#97 ---- you are correct, I should have clarified by saying initial launch numbers in teh US... thanks for keeping me straight!

XMastaCrackaX --- is your gamertag the same? i go by devi8i91 on live. What time you going to be on? and what do you want to play Gears?

Temporary 30-day registration from MVA??

Just picked up my 2 PS3s @ EB Games.

But the real story comes from me trying to get a 3rd last night/this morning.

My local Best Buy is on private property. Meaning - no camping allowed. So the deal was, you're allowed in front of the store at 5am. At 7am, vouchers will be handed out. 30 systems total. The store would then open at 8am.

http://www.Cooterpunch.com !!

So I headed to Best Buy at 4am. The entrance to the shopping center was completely blocked off by police cars, security guards, cones, yellow tape, etc. There were 300-500 people all standing across the street. So for a while, I joined them. Then I noticed about 100 yards down, there were people sort of scattered on the shopping center parking lot near the Target store, and weren't being kicked off. Looked like a great chance to get a head start on the mad rush, so I joined them. Not even figuring Target was selling them. But there was talk of anywhere between 6 and 60 systems. And with 80% less people near Target than Best Buy, I figured that was my best shot.

I was standing there for about 5 minutes until cops caught on and told everyone to get across the street. Fair enough. But as soon as we start heading across the street, someone yells - "Oh sh*t, everyone's running!" And sure enough, there was a mad dash not only to the front of Target, but also down at Best Buy! I felt like I was in the Running of the Bulls. Running faster as a white boy possibly can. It was pure chaos and the cops couldn't do a damn thing.

So I ended up 19th in line at Target. I figured my chances were decent, but wasn't really expecting to score. People were passed out around me, gasping for air, one dude was even throwing up. Good times.

After some pushing, shoving and a few people being tossed off the property by the cops - I notice people coming out from everywhere. There were dudes covered from head to toe in mud. They said they were hiding out behind the store in a marshy, muddy area, so the cops wouldn't see them. Other people were hiding in between cars in the parking lot. It was nuts.

At 5am'ish, the Target manager comes out and tells us they only have 12 systems. So the first 12 people were pretty stoked! EXCEPT for the fact some slick dudes started a SECOND line right next to the first line!! Well the idea worked. The mgr. gave 6 vouchers to the 1st six in the first line and six vouchers to the people in the 2nd line. CHAOS DEFINITELY ENSUED. Some of the kids in front of me in the 1st line were close to tears. They were yelling at the cops, yelling at the managers, threatening class action lawsuits, etc. It was a show.

http://www.COOTERPUNCH.com !!

So I made my way down to the Best Buy line where there were still about 300 people. There was some drama with that line too, but I won't get into it. But Baltimore news crews were there filming the mess and people were getting rowdy. And as much as I wanted to stay around and watch the cops bring out the barking German Sheppards in the truck, I was dead freakin tired and headed home instead. Obviously I'm not THAT tired since I'm typing this novel.

It was definitely an experience and I can hardly complain. I'll be tuning into the noon newscast to check out the aftermath of this morning's events though!

EDIT - EVERYONE I talked to in line, was there to buy a PS3 and sell it on Ebay, including all the dudes in the Best Buy line.

http://www.COOTERPUNCH.com !!

@Matt

Yeah, that's exactly what we need, the gov'ment regulating system launches. You must be kidding.

DOH! Don't know what that "MVA" stuff is doing at the top of my post. Sorry!

Many people have commented that Sony rules or Xbox rules or Wii rules. They have pointed comments at the leaders of these companies getting back at the others or "sticking their tongues at Bill Gates". They are incorrectly assuming that the high ebay prices are a reflection of the worth or demand of the system. If Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo really want to get at the other systems, they should sell all their stock on ebay themselves.

In Sony's situation, costs (to ebay and paypal rather than simply shipping to brick and mortar stores) could be greater for them that way, but they would most likely have a much better chance of making money on each console instead of losing $240-300 bucks on each console.

Let the supply dictate the price, then Sony can make money instead of the 6000 people that are making money on the system for waiting in line. Yeah, Sony would have to employ a lot of people to take care of all the ebay shipments and accounts, and what not, but to make money (even if it is only $1 per console) is better than losing $200+ per console when all is said and done.

I managed to secure a PS3 at my local Game Crazy (Hollywood videos video game retail chain) a couple of weeks ago. I didn't wait in one single line or need to buy a bundle. All I had to do was preorder a couple of games and booyah a fresh, new 60 gig PS3 was waiting for me at midnight. I did luck out though as they only received ONE unit. 1 down, now 1 more to go!

devi8i

Your comment couldn't be further from the truth. Let me break it down for you.

When the 360 went on sale some people started selling it on ebay making lots of money from it. By the time the 360 was available in large quantities the ebay demand was over. Now a year later everybody remembers what happened with the 360 so now EVERYBODY is attempting to make an easy buck off the PS3. It has nothing to do with people wanting it. It's all about trying to cash in on it. Right now eBay has almost 8000 PS3's for sale. Do you really think all of them are gonna go for 2000 dollars plus?

Intentless, are you talking about how the way people were buying 360 to smash it on the ground after they walked out, the site even posted picks of the faces of ppl, i thought that was hilarious, not for the console, thats justa waste of a good machine, but the looks and reactions ppls had during and after the event on video, they were soooo pissed, lmao. Dun even know where the site is, completly forgotten, saw it on Gamespot over a year ago, wonder if they are doing it for all consoles, or was it just 360 :S

PS3 fans cannot buy thier PS3s because idiot sellers are taking up the whole line, I'd laugh if only a few of em got sales and the rest get stuck with it, cos those sellers will have to add a heck of a lot of extra stuff to make a sale over all the other ppl selling as well.

Can you believe, that even after all this time, and so many games added and so many fanboys persuading me to buy and hyping it, there is still only 1 (Was 2, was Halo 3, but saw pics, doesn't look to be better then GoW) game I'm interested in, and thats Gears of war, theres is not even anything I've heard about in future that sparks my interest, its like after Halo 3, there is a big black space where a fantastic game should have been :S

The only thing else I can think of is Halo 4....god....of Gears of War 2, which could be pretty awesome. The rest I can get on either PC or PS3. :S

I went around to some of the lines last night just to see what was up. One thing that struck me was the surly tone of a lot of hte folks out there. It used to be that you stood inline to ge a system first because you really wanted the system and the whole thing was sort of fun. The fact that so many folks could care less about gaming and are just doing this to flip the system on Ebay makes for a very different crowd.

Curently I don't have any interest in the system -- it doesn't do anything I care about that I can't already with my 360. When a few more games that look good come out, and the price drops, I might consider it.

That said, I hope all you folks who braved the weather that crowds managed to get systems and that you have a great time with them.

Ahh, heres the article, must agree with IGN, they are iddiots, lol:

http://xbox360.qj.net/Idiot-Smashes-Xbox-360-In-Front-of-Best-Buy-with-Sledgehammer-/pg/49/aid/4060

What is espcially funny about this one, is that there is little or not fanboys there to see it as all the sellers have taken up the qs, so quite franky, its a waste of time and money, lol:

http://www.smashmyps3.com/

Paying $600 just to smash it :S, they have serious money to waste :)

Was first in line at wal-mart and got one. One guy threatened to shoot up the place if he didn't get his "premium" and one guy ran from a cop when he pulled his cuffs out to arrest him. haha, people ask me what i did the whole time, but i didn't need to do anything but watch the chaos that ensued. What a time! I can't wait for the ps4!

And they are planning on smashing Wii too, considering there will be many a Wii fanboy, it may hurt more.

Went to Wal-Mart at 5:30pm on Wednesday for the midnight launch in Fishkill, NY. They said they were getting 10 and I was number 11. I stayed for 33 hours (outside in the NY thunderstorm no less) even though the store managers and everyone else said we're getting nothing and wasting out time. In the end, being a human spounge from the rain, I was one (out of 4) who got a ticket guranteeing me the first to get a 60GB for the next shipment. Totally worth it.

The horror stories crack me up...I work LP at a Best Buy store and we had about 50 people camped outside of our store since wednesday. The people braved torrential rain and hurricane force winds to get their hands on the PS3. Exit polls however confirmed a vast majority of the 34 my store recieved and passing GO and heading directly to ebay. Capitolism at it's finest. As for the event, it went off without a hitch we ran a tight ship. And I truley believe the thought of us booting the whole line if one person acted up caused the majority of people to police themselves.

Actually, I think they should treat these eBay sellers like ticket scalpers. Just make a law that says that within 60 days of Christmas, you may not sell any item currently available in retail stores (whether or not sold out) for any more than the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price). This would not apply to items no longer being produced (so as not to impact the collectibles markets), but would apply to items in limited supply.

Anyone caught selling the item over the MSRP would be guilty of scalping. Call it "Holiday scalping" or something like that. The penalty would be similar to that for scalping event tickets.

This way, the ARTIFICIAL demand would no longer be created by the profiteers, as they'd have no incentive to rush out and buy up all the Teddy Ruxpins, Tickle Me Elmos, and videogame consoles. The ARTIFICIAL aftermarket inflation would be discouraged, and people could return to just walking into a store to buy their item of choice for the retail price.

No more injuries, no more deaths, no more people spending their life savings, no more stupid profiteers getting pneumonia... It would fix the whole damned thing.

Oops. Sorry about the space at the end on my entry. `Forgot to remove them from the end.

1. PS3 on Ebay SOLD for $6300.99 WOOOOOOOTTTT im rich Bytch!!!!!! HONK HONK!!! Theres so many people id like to thank but i dont have the time, thank you sony I hate you and you made me rich.....Im going to Disneyland!!!!!!!


And dont blame me i didnt have "buy it now" I started the bid at 1.00 like i always do and people drove it up, So stop stop whining about people making money when if given the chance you wouldve (or shouldve) done the same thing. My Mom would be so proud That i legally made that much money within 24hours in a honest way

Tysons corner ps3 launch was a joke!!!! so many people got screw!!!!

Sony intentionally delayed the flow of the hardware to create all the hype and I am pretty angry. I am proud gamer who has been non biased towards any platform. Never in any game systems launch since the ColecoVision has had a console manufacture pissed me off. I have always been able to obtain a video game system on day 1 of launch that I have been interested in. Yes I had to work a bit at it such as staying over night for the PSX 2 and the XBOX360 but I awarded with a great system each time. I did not put them on E-Bay and I proudly play them to this day. What is sad that I take a hard earned vacation day and arrive in a Best Buy line 20 hours in advance of when the doors open. I am then given the number 56 and find that the 38 people of the 55 people ahead of me are just their to sale the PS3 on e-bay and most of them are the 1st 38. In addition many of them started camping a day two or before and the majority don’t even have jobs so they can do this thing. About 6 hours into my wait the store manager comes out and says we have 44 units to sale. Wow only 6 people will really be appreciative of the real reason the console was created, the others will put it up on E-bay to sale. There is nothing wrong with people making money however what I really would like to see is the store should start a raffle for those in line. That insures that we all get fair chance at launchs. I did manage to go to a few raffles today, and you know what I never won the opportunity to buy the system, but at least it was fair and kept those jobless leeches honest. It was nice to see some gamers or parents buying the systems for their kids, yes I am sure their were a few leeches but you know at least it kept a few more of these units from E-bay. I hope these darn leeches lose their shirts in what they are doing, hopefully Sony will get their act together for the people who matter and that’s the core gamer.

My wife works at the local Target and they had 6 units to sell today. They had about 8 people waiting for the past few days outside in tents and stuff. Target was told to be friendly to them and they took out free popcorn, hot chocolate, etc. while they waited, so it wasn't too bad.

Anyway, late last night a guy showed up and offered $1200 cash to a guy in the line, which the guy took and promptly left. The guy who paid out got lazy and went and fell asleep in his truck and at about 3am this morning, the security manager for the store went out and handed out 6 tickets to the first six people in line. Needless to say, the guy who shelled out $1200 cash was still asleep in his car and missed out, so now he's out $1200 in cash and no PS3.

I bet you the XBOX 360 sells three times the number of units that the PS3 did today. The "Future Shop" chain in Canada, each sold out of a special XBOX 360 bundle they had on sale only for today. Each store carried about 10-15 PS3's, but sold more than 30 of the XBOX bundles....

LOl sony is so screwed...they didn't earn a dime! :)
Wii ftw!

Well, I was one of the lucky 26 standing in front of or local Best Buy store in Upstate NY. We didn’t have any serious injuries, or anyone stabbed, shot or robbed. But the 2 night campout was not without a few “minor” incidents.

On the first night, we experienced a “drive-by” egging. I guess some of local teens were a little bothered by the fact that they waited too long to get in line for their PS3, and decided that around 2am Thursday they were going to drive by and throw eggs at us. Two minor flaws in their plan. Their car was not faster than mine, and some people in line went to school with them, and were able identified them. I jumped in my car and was able to contact the local police, and give them the plate numbers of both cars involved. We didn’t see any need in pressing charges, but wanted to dissuade any further attempts to come back and harass us, and possible cause a scene, resulting in us being removed fro the property.

On Thursday afternoon we ran into major rain and wind. So bad so, that flooding took place in all counties around us…. But just missed flooding in our county! Thank god! The rain was so bad, that there was even a state of emergency declared in 2 of those counties! We dodged a bullet there, as all of the people waiting in front of the Wal-Mart in Vestal NY were all sent home due to flooding of the Wal-Mart.

Well, all in all everything went pretty good. We were all very well organized, and looked out for our fellow campers. No real problems with anyone showing up and trying to rush the store, as we had everything well worked out with the store, and they knew who was in what position in line. We did have 1 lady, and her 2 sons(early 20’s, not kids) that appeared late Thursday night, and wanted to get in line, but got really mad when they explained that there were already 26 people in line, and they would be just outside the cut-off. At that point they went to Target, and the same thing there. Well, she got all mad and wanted to talk to the manager of Best Buy, and then she wanted a phone # to call corporate headquarters. She didn’t get anywhere with them. What she didn’t realize was that while they were inside complaining(and being put on hold), we were lining ourselves up, with big tags on that stated our place in line…. When she came out I think she was even madder, and counted the line about 4-5 times before finally leaving.

I've read the PS3 is supposed to be a "technical masterpiece", since Sony isn't making any profit on it. Could this be true??
http://www.about-electronics.eu/2006/11/17/ps3-an-engineering-masterpiece/

(slightly off-topic, I know - my apologies)

devi8i - You are right, the 360 controller is perfect in every way. My only complaint is that it isn't durable enough. My controller has survived some amazing impacts through the year and so far, the two left bumpers don't make a click sound (but they still work) and my bottom direction d-pad sometimes is slightly dodgy (Second-hand from ebay)

Sure....My son and I would love a PS3.
But we'll wait it out till next year.
It's certainly not worth getting shot over...LOL