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Quote:Nov 17, 9:16 AM (ET)
By ANICK JESDANUN
(AP) Ralph Cleary, center, who was the first in line, holds up a box of Sony PlayStation 3 game console...
Full Image
NEW YORK (AP) - Days of waiting paid off for Sergio Rodriguez, one of the relatively few able to buy Sony's PlayStation 3 when the coveted console went on sale early Friday.
He was among the die-hard gamers and entrepreneurs across the country who braved foul weather and heckling by passers-by all week for the chance to shell out $500 or more for the sleek PS3, plus about $60 per game.
With shortages resulting from production problems, many had camped out for days without knowing if they'd be going home empty-handed. At some stores, the crowds got rowdy and stampeded for the shelves, injuring a man in Wisconsin and forcing authorities to shut down a Wal-Mart store in California.
In Connecticut, two armed thugs who got wise to the PS3's high price and tried to rob a line of people waiting outside a Putnam Wal-Mart store at 3 a.m. One person who refused to give up the money was shot, state police said. In Lexington, Ky., four people waiting outside a Best Buy were hit by BB pellets, though none was seriously injured, according to WKYT, whose own reporter was hit as she interviewed buyers.
Rodriguez had been waiting outside the New York Circuit City store since Sunday for the a midnight launch event, and he was the first to walk away with the PS3 as people still standing in line outside the store cheered.
"This is the best game ever. It's so worth the wait," the 25-year-old graphics designer said. "Some people may call me crazy, but I really love to play."
With Sony promising only 400,000 systems for the nationwide launch, the chance of disappointment was high. While retailers tried to keep expectations low, lines snaked around the block at many stores - even those that weren't going to begin sales until later Friday.
Saby Madrigal, an 18-year-old college student who worked for a month at a liquor store to save for a PS3, waited in line outside the Circuit City for 24 hours without success. Still, she vowed to keep looking.
"For the work we had to do to get all the money to get the stupid system, I'm going to search every single store in town," she said.
Nathaniel Lord, who camped out for three nights at a Best Buy in West Hollywood, Calif., spent more than $700 on a console and a game.
"I thought about going home to shower first because I haven't showered in three days, but I think I'm just going to get another energy drink, log on and get started," said Lord, a recent graduate of California Institute of the Arts.
Sony, which has contended with laptop battery recalls and trails rivals in key products such as music players and liquid crystal displays, is counting on the PS3 to maintain and build its market lead in consoles.
Some customers were buying PS3 machines for themselves or as gifts, but many were hoping to resell them at a profit. Units were fetching several thousand dollars early Friday at the eBay Inc. (EBAY) auction site.
Edgar Alcala, 18, who grabbed one of the first spots in line at San Francisco's Sony Metreon Mall on Wednesday morning, said he was looking forward to a warm, dry bed and a hefty profit.
"When I get home, I'm going to take a quick picture of it, slap it on eBay and go to sleep," Alcala said minutes before the store's doors opened at midnight Friday.
Potential customers braved freezing temperatures in Fargo, N.D., and heavy rain and winds in Baltimore and other East Coast locales.
Even a volunteer for former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina asked for help in getting a PS3 - from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), which the potential 2008 presidential candidate frequently criticizes.
Edwards said the volunteer "feels terrible" about seeking the console from Wal-Mart a day after his boss criticized the giant retailer, saying it doesn't treat its employees fairly. Wal-Mart accused Edwards, the Democrats' 2004 vice presidential candidate, of not wanting to wait his turn.
Short supplies and strong demand were feared to be a formula for trouble as the PS3 hit store shelves, a half-year late because of problems completing work on the console's built-in, next-generation DVD player.
Sony promised the 400,000 machines in the United States for Friday's launch and about 1 million by year's end. Worldwide, it was expecting 2 million this year, half its original projections.
Jack Tretton, executive vice president at Sony Computer Entertainment America, said retailers will be receiving new PlayStations daily - expedited by plane rather than ships.
"At some point we want to get to some degree of normalcy, but that remains to be seen," Tretton told The Associated Press, adding that seeing all the people camped out and lined up for the console "kind of makes all the effort worth it."
Enthusiasm for the PlayStation 3 wasn't dampened by its high price tag - $500 for the basic model with a 20-gigabyte hard drive and $600 for the 60-gigabyte version, which also has built-in wireless.
By contrast, Nintendo Co.'s Wii, which goes on sale Sunday in the U.S., retails for $250. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Xbox 360, which had a year's head start over rivals, sells for $300 to $400.
Sony crammed the PlayStation 3 with the very latest in cutting-edge technology, and it dominated the previous generation of consoles with 70 percent of the global market.
notice the second bold point..
they did the same thing with the PS2. I just went to my guy the next morning, and got one off the pallette. No big deal! I think this time, I might actually wait until I can afford the new TV as well. By then prices of both will have hopefully gone down...
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Y'know, maybe its just my cynical, fossilized old brain talking here but why do I have Yogi Berra's famous quote "It's deja vu all over again" running through my head as I read this?
This is the same situation that plagued the PS2 at launch, there were no killer apps and I could only laugh at the people who would stand outside for hours in the hope of getting a unit at launch <_<
It's a game console people, not the cure for cancer :rolleyes:
Hell wait six months to a year and you'll be able to pick the damn thing up at a Costco FFS like the XBox 360 right now (and the model at Costco includes the 20GB HD *&* 2 games besides)
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I'm interested, but I'm not going to move on it till at least February or March.
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Hello?!?!? These people are buying them to sell on ebay before christmas. I'm in Red Deer right now, the Walmart up here is only getting 8...they were all selling them to turn profit. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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11-18-2006, 01:35 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-18-2006, 01:36 AM by dlb.)
residentdud,Nov 17 2006, 03:28 PM Wrote:Hello?!?!?ÃÂ These people are buying them to sell on ebay before christmas. I'm in Red Deer right now, the Walmart up here is only getting 8...they were all selling them to turn profit. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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I agree 95% of the people are re-sellers on E-Bay. And ................. if they get some loser to buy one for a grand or more - all the power to them !! For *uck sakes its a GAME CONSOLE :lol:
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If you're dumb enough to buy it off eBay... :rolleyes:
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Fawk, it was easy pickins last night. 15 year olds waiting in line with $700 cash on em. Great opportunity for us older bullies...err guys.
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It's been hard for me... I'm such a geek at heart, and I so want to be the first on my block with one of these.
But considering the circumstances, I guess it's time I grew up and started being better with my money.. I'll be waiting a while. Maybe even finish a couple more PS2 games I have before moving on...
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darkpuppet,Nov 17 2006, 11:54 AM Wrote:It's been hard for me... I'm such a geek at heart, and I so want to be the first on my block with one of these.
But considering the circumstances, I guess it's time I grew up and started being better with my money.. I'll be waiting a while. Maybe even finish a couple more PS2 games I have before moving on...
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Oh I hear the geek comment there DP, I really do, I mean hell I spent $6K on my TV back in '03 because I wanted the best that $ could buy me :ph34r:
But to camp out the day before the release of a product, to hire people to stand in line for you to get the product, to shoot people over the product? That's not geekiness or loyalty talking, that's INSANITY imo...
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11-18-2006, 05:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-18-2006, 05:35 AM by Drivesthebeast.)
Just the signs of things to come...
Though I DID venture to Walmart 3 days in a row waiting on F&F3 Tokyo Drift....
Yeah yeah, shut up....
:P
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the highest price for PS3 on ebay
US $3,065.00 with 44 bids
u gotta be crazy to pay that much for something like this
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Shoulda lined up at the bestbuy or future shop in richmond hill last nite, a Whopping total of 7 people lined up over nite.. they had 10 in stock, so that left an extra 3 units for grabs
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Uh, why stress it. Just get a 360. :lol:
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I saw a slew of lineups around my area last night... they were almost everywhere, some places had signs up saying that they only had enough for already-sold preorders.
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I think bunny has one for sale. :lol:
It's idiotic.
And another generation of fat-asses are born :rolleyes:
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Why paying 700$+ for a system that doesn't have HDMI cables or a game.Plus the lunch titles are very bad. Also the PS3 will not display 1080i. SONY waited six years to supply us with 100,000+(N.A) systems at lunch day :angry:
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coolsvt,Nov 18 2006, 10:11 PM Wrote:Why paying 700$+ for a system that doesn't have HDMI cables or a game.Plus the lunch titles are very bad. Also the PS3 will not display 1080i. SONY waited six years to supply us with 100,000+(N.A) systems at lunch day :angry:
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launch :D
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coolsvt,Nov 18 2006, 06:11 PM Wrote:Why paying 700$+ for a system that doesn't have HDMI cables or a game.Plus the lunch titles are very bad. Also the PS3 will not display 1080i. SONY waited six years to supply us with 100,000+(N.A) systems at lunch day :angry:
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Sony will display at 1080i, but it won't upsample to 1080i... so if you have a game that renders at 720p, but have a 1080i TV that doesn't accept 720p input (ie, older CRT HDTVs), then it will downsample to the game to 480p.
And the PS2 didn't come with component cables even though it supports up to 1080i...
and an xbox360 with HD DVD costs $700... which is on par with the PS3's price with included blue ray...
but yeah.. they don't have any killer app launch games.. even though Resistance: fall of man is impressive, it's no Gears of War.
but give it time.. I was playing the motorstorm Demo yesterday at Best Buy... it looked pretty darn good.
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