Kotaku has an incredible (in terms of the reportage and the video footage) post up about the launch of the Sony PS3 in Tokyo. One of the people in line, a foreigner in Japan, reported that the first 20 people in line were either Japanese homeless paid by the yakuza or Chinese nationals who were paid to stand in line as their PS3s were then taken away to be sold on the grey market overseas. The reporter, a Dirk Benedict, does not fault the people who received money to stand in line, he faults both the retailer, Bic Camera, for not properly preparing for the situation, and Sony for not producing enough units and thus creating this intense demand.
This is the true face of the PlayStation 3 debut in Japan. Hardcore gamers are not here waiting in line overnight, buying a first-run PS3, and running home to play some good old next-gen gaming. Rather, opportunistic Japanese businessmen have the largest presence, hiring poor Chinese men and women to wait in line for a PS3, one which will later be sold on web auctions to wealthy gamers around the world for exorbitant amounts of money.
While this kind of news may not make the mainstream media in Japan, it will get back to Sony as Sony executives certainly read Kotaku.
yeah. that was my first rioting experience ever. the videos didn't show what happened after the line broke. i was towards the front, and had nowhere to go. all i could do was watch the wave come towards me and wait to be crushed. and then for the next hour and half i had to stand still in the rain, packed like a rush-hour train.
never going back to Yurakucho.
Console launches are all hype anyways. The launch-day sellout has become such a vital part of the marketing that the main driver of release dates seems to be to ensure that it happens early enough in production to ensure demand will not be met on day one.
There are good things about this system: the alternative would be to delay the release until the supply was consistently there, which in the case of the PS3 would probably be next March. At least this way the most desperate early adopters can either line up or buy from the speculators, while everyone else waits for the "real" release next year, or until the first price cut, or whatever.
Of more interest are the ongoing shortages of DS Lites in Japan, where I understand that it is rare to find a store that actually has any in stock even now.
The situation in North America is much better, for some reason.
Nintendo is promising that they will have lots of Wiis.
I have a couple of comments:
1) Dirk Benedict? Are you kidding? If not, then I must say, I do love it when a plan comes together. Wow. I hope he was in some exotic disguise. Was Mr. T there with him to help with the story?
2) PS3 and XBox 360, to me, don't quite qualify as "next gen" just yet.
PS2 and XBox are so good, that the leap just isn't all that dramatic. They are prettier etc. but unless game design takes advantage of the theoretical power of the systems, you just end up with window dressing on basically the same style of games.
Wii took an interesting approach with the alternative controller; we shall see over time how this plays out.
With respect to launch, Sony has been pretty good about communicating the lack of availability of units. The physical specification of the device, despite my little bash above, is pretty amazing, and they've had significant production / development issues with all of that fancy technology. Blu-Ray and the cell processor have both presented fairly substantial challenges.
The cell processor, for example, is shipped knowing that at least one of the processing units on board is likely bad (i.e., there are n processing units theoretically, but the manufacturing is so dodgy that they specify only n-1 for actual use). And the Blu-Ray issues are well established.
cdg
It's honestly no different than in the U.S. PS3's on eBay are going in upwards of US$3000. Where are these units coming from? Opportunists standing in line.
Ultimately, anyone can purchase any item, and use that item any way, even if it means reselling for profit. The wonders of capitalism.
How is it Sony's fault? They can only make so many, and every unit they're selling is already at a ~$300 loss.