Bloody PS3s

posted on: 2006-11-17 at 9:14:00 PM

All right...

People are going ape-shit over the Playstation 3. I'm sure most of you have already read the news – but for those who haven't, let's catch you up:

Sony releases a game system about once every five years (Playstation 1 on September 1st, 1995, Playstation 2 on October 26th, 2001 and the Playstation 3 today, November 17th, 2006). As with most new technology hardware, production is limited at first, as chip-makers and factories are still working out kinks in their designs and manufacturing applications. With limited supplies at the onset, many gamers are left without their coveted Playstations, and many parents are left disgruntled with the video game industry. This has been the case since the very first machines came on the market in the late 1970s.

Sony has been especially bad with system launches. At release, on average, there is about 1 system available to every 50 cash-in-hand buyers. But Sony knows how to work the system: Generate hype via extremely expensive mass-marketing and "viral" advertising, sue the pants off of any competition that they can afford (usually, smaller niche companies which pose little threat, but have a good, intelligent customer base), and then release their hardware before the final designs are finished, and while the factories are still being developed.

During the first two releases (PS1 and PS2), the hype was, for the most part, legitimate -- and the lack of supply was due to an overwhelmingly high demand because the machines were cutting-edge, well-priced home video game consoles that rightfully deserved a spot in most U.S. homes. They still released the systems too early, and they still denied the customers the service and support that other video game companies have always delivered (Nintendo and Sega, for example), but the Playstations 1 and 2 were revolutionary, and the $300 initial investment was worth it for both.

At the turn of the century, with the wide-spread use of the Internet and online auctions, video game console releases took a very strange turn. Entrepreneurs (and mind you, I use that term VERY loosely) realized that the lack of supply for Sony's machines meant that they could scalp them for thousands of dollars. If the formula holds true (1 machine for every 50 cash-in-hand buyers), then the laws of statistics, and the average income of game buyers (and Sony's ability to pump millions of dollars into advertising and lawsuits to drown-out the competition) meant that a few of those buyers would be willing to pay upwards of 5 to 10 times more than the system is worth.

Some people call this "supply and demand." I call this SCALPING.

At the launch of PS2 in 2001, about half of the available systems were actually never sold to the consumers at launch. Instead, they were held in auction for weeks, while the middle-men sellers wrung-out potential buyers for thousands of dollars per system. Most of the auctions' final bids were retracted or were never sold because the hype was so intense, bidders didn't realize what they got themselves into and buyer's remorse set in. This created a vicious cycle of sellers relisting and lowering the price to attempt to close a sale before the artificially inflated price dropped below their "reserve" prices.

Of course, many systems did sell at the insanely inflated prices, but it wasn't because of simple "supply and demand," it was because some selfish, wealthy people artificially stopped-up the supply-chain of decent, well-priced product. The truly sad thing is that most of those entrepreneurial buyers and sellers ended up only making $50 - $100 after waiting for weeks for their first successful auction – and even some lost their entire investment!

Some people call this "supply and demand." I call this YOU ARE ALL FUCKING STUPID.

Microsoft's XBox-360 launch in 2005 was little different. There were more machines available at launch, and the amount of systems that actually sold for considerably higher than the retail price were very small (only a few hundred ever successfully sold on Ebay for more than $100 over their sicker price, and only a few dozen for over twice as much as the sticker price). Another difference about the XBox-360 launch was that six people got shot, and two people died over a disputed sale (but that was in North Dakota where apparently it's o.k. to bring guns into Wal-Mart).

Now, the Playstation 3 is launching. Some people have camped out for over four days. Sony has gone to extremes by not only releasing an impossibly small amount of machines at launch (around 200,000 units in the U.S.), but also inflating their own price to $600 for the machine plus one controller. Not only has Sony screwed the general public out of a console because of their botched launch, but what they have to offer SUCKS DONKEY DICKS. The Playstation 3 lacks many of the features that their competition has to offer (for a lower price, even). About the only thing that Sony can honestly lay claim in is having the fastest processor on the market (and even that could be argued to some degree). Their controller is flimsy and offers nothing new, their console is bulky and overly-priced, and you basically have to already own, or be currently purchasing an HDTV to read the on-screen displays. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't see that as being something worthy of purchasing for the "average" gamer.

But as I've said already, Sony are masters of deception. They've marketed the balls of their PS3, and the online-auctioning has started. Some estimates are tallying that up to 90% of all PS3s being sold at launch are going straight to auction, which makes sense considering Ebay currently has about 9000 PS3s – and they haven't even been released yet.

GOOD LUCK SELLERS.

It's good to know that there are still good companies out there, and that there are still decent people who would rather walk into a store, spend their hard earned money on a real tangible piece of hardware that they will enjoy the same day (all without cheating someone else out of theirs).

I am going to very much enjoy my Nintendo Wii this Sunday.

Labels: ebay, PS3

posted by Carl | 0 Comments | Leave a comment

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