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Friday, November 17, 2006
PlayStation 3 madness: blame Sony
I've been following the steady stream of stories having to do with today's release of the PlayStation 3 video game system by Sony. Remember the good ol' days when nerds used to line up outside of Radio Shack for the midnight release of Windows 95? Not any more. Since early this morning people have been shot with BB guns, real guns, trampled over, robbed, beaten, and assualted. Ex-senator from North Carolina John Edwards had a volunteer drop his name at a local Wal-Mart so his kids could have one. The problem? Edwards has been a vocal critic of Wal-Mart in the past. And I've just learned that a student was beaten and robbed on the campus of my undergrad school, UNC-Wilmington (also see StarNewsOnline.com)
Consumers going crazy over a new product are nothing new-we've seen it with basketball shoes, computer software, and wedding dresses. But I can't remember so much violence over a single item and all because of the limited availability of the product. Obviously the stores aren't to blame. They stock what Sony ships to them. The individuals who were shot, beaten, robbed, and assaulted are only partially to blame. The real culprit in my opinion is the Sony Corporation for obviously manufacturing demand and not having the foresight to see such a fiasco coming. Clearly Sony could have produced thousands of more PlayStations than they already have, but instead they wanted to create the sense that these things were in such demand that fans were camping out in front of stores and getting into fights. It makes for nice public interest news stories and is free advertising for Sony. Yet another glaring example of corporate irresponsibility.
From CNN.com:
Ralph Clearly celebrates with his new PlayStation 3 after waiting in line for three days at a Best Buy store in Los Angeles, California.
Clearly and many others across the country -- some die-hard gamers and some planning to re-sell the coveted units -- began lining up days ahead of the release of Sony's newest video game console. In addition to being a platform for video games, PS3 is a high-definition DVD player.
The PS3, which retails for $500 or $600, depending on how large its hard drive is, went on sale Friday morning. Some stores held special midnight sales.
Update: from the folks who brought us the classic SmashMyiPod.com comes the following video on YouTube, via SmashMyPS3.com:
Quite refreshing to see people taking their PS3 agression out on an actual unit rather than someone's face.
Posted by Will at November 17, 2006 02:41 PM in Culture | In the News