Alright, who here participated in the madness of this past week’s launch of the Sony PS3 and the Nintendo Wii?
Did you snag one (or both)? How was your experience and how are you liking your new console(s)?
Discuss!
FWIW, I snagged a Wii at Midnight (more like 2am by the time I checked out at the register) at a Toys ‘R’ Us. I have a friend who lives a couple blocks away and at 5:30pm on Saturday, he told me there were 12 people in line. We knew that this store would have 200 units. I arrived there later with another friend at 7pm and there were already 150 people in line! So, we jumped into line and patiently waited. We were smart to bring folding chairs and blankets since it was a pretty cold night (well, cold for Southern California). The DS and DS Lites were out in full effect and you could hear the sound of Mario Kart and Pictochat going on. It was quite funny to hear someone way down the line cursing your name as you repeated tormented them in Mario Kart.
At any rate, Toys ‘R’ Us handled the whole line in a very organized and friendly manner. They had employees outside constantly providing information to the crowd and even the managers came outside to make sure everyone was “ok”. They came out with flyers that had the pricing of the Wii and passed out Toys ‘R’ Us “big books” to help people pass time. They were also quite informative to exactly how much stock they had. I think they had around 300 units. 90 were pre-orders, 200 were for sale and 10 were NOT being sold. The manager told us that they were keeping 10 units as “exchange” units just in case people get a defective system. Of course, these were for people who have purchased the special Toys ‘R’ Us Extended Warranty Plan.
What they got right was using a numbered voucher (one per household) system so that people would be assured a unit and keep the crowd content. Non-voucher people were told that they should go home since they would not be able to get a system (i.e. there was no extra units). Once midnight rolled around, they started letting in people around 10-20 at a time. They had reorganized the game area so that you had to follow this path. Along the path they had special tables setup for you to get accessories and game titles. At the end of the path were the registers with stacks of Wiis. They had 300 copies of Zelda along with some of the other launch titles. Obviously, some of the launch titles were weak and they had deals on the “lesser” titles where you got $30 off if you bought 3 of them. Nice try TRU!
I was wondering when someone on here would post about PS3 or Wii. Well, unfortunately I still do not have any of the consoles. I am more interested in getting PS3 and frankly it has been a nightmare to get one. I am sure a lot of you have read some horror stories and success stories. It was a sucky launch on Sony’s side. But it is a different story.
I am not in a hurry and once it becomes available to me, I will snatch one. I did play on PS3 and really love their XMB GUI. It simply rocks!
I will share more once I get my hands on one…
Later!
:wink:
I got tired playing games in PS2, it’s about time that they make consoles that requires half of your body to work out (or as a whole like playing golf). Not by just sitting for hours and only your fingers are the ones working out, not to mention your mind.
In the summary of it, Wii can be an exercise gadget/game console
I can’t actually play boxing with a PS3 controller or golf. But on a Wii console yes. Best part I heard those are free games in Wii console. Weeeee!
I’ll wait till Nintendo make the decision of putting DVD playback on it. I mean geesh come on Nintendo!
Eventually, I plan on getting all three systems but I’m waiting for the compelling games first. Lost Planet is likely a XBOX360 system seller for me…that or Assassin’s Creed. I love me my 3rd action titles!
I think I’m getting too old for these console launches; camped out 8 hours before the store opened in 2000 for a PS2 and no one else arrived until 6, but for the PS3 people were out 2 1/2 days in advance. I just gave a friend $150 to wait in line and pick me up a 60GB PS3, much better than braving the crowds. It’s a cool piece of hardware for sure, but like with the PS2 launch the initial software lineup isn’t anything spectacular. I’ll pick up a Wii once I can just walk into a store and find them, hopefully the Wii Sports pack-in isn’t a limited time deal.
I pre-ordered the PS3…when I got home I looked at my 360 and saw that its getting old and tired…seriously, I never use it anymore (not a fan of Gears of War). Put it up on ebay and sold it for $380…figure in tax and such and I lost about $50 in a year…not bad at all (I don’t pay shipping).
When I noticed how much PS3 pre-orders were going for on ebay I put mine up and it sold for $1,600. I’m more then happy with my $100/hr for waiting online outside a few weeks ago.
At this point I don’t have time to play as much as I used to. I think the PSP and the PC will be it from now on (PS2 still collecting dust, not worth selling).
I find it interesting that a large number of people who were trying to get PS3 weren’t planning on keeping the system whereas most people who were getting a Wii had no intention of selling it. One would think hardcore Sony-lovers wouldn’t dare parting with their system.
Obviously, it’s an issue of demand/supply issue that’s part of the reason for this. The weak launch line up for the PS3 also adds to the problem too. Hardcore gamers are willing to sell the system for a profit since they really wouldn’t be using the system anyways until the good titles come out. I think the Wii’s launch line-up is a little weak too but they have the Wii Sports which more or less attracts their new market audience and they have Zelda (a system seller) to attract the fanboys who won’t sell it. I have this other weird theory…I also think “real” hardcore PS fanboys know that version 1.0 Playstation hardware tends to have kinks that need to be ironed out. Why not make a few hundred or thousand(s) of dollars profit selling the system now (since there’s no games either) and waiting for the next batch of systems (1.x and above) to come out? It makes perfect sense. :wink:
[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]I find it interesting that a large number of people who were trying to get PS3 weren’t planning on keeping the system whereas most people who were getting a Wii had no intention of selling it. One would think hardcore Sony-lovers wouldn’t dare parting with their system.
Obviously, it’s an issue of demand/supply issue that’s part of the reason for this. The weak launch line up for the PS3 also adds to the problem too. Hardcore gamers are willing to sell the system for a profit since they really wouldn’t be using the system anyways until the good titles come out. I think the Wii’s launch line-up is a little weak too but they have the Wii Sports which more or less attracts their new market audience and they have Zelda (a system seller) to attract the fanboys who won’t sell it. I have this other weird theory…I also think “real” hardcore PS fanboys know that version 1.0 Playstation hardware tends to have kinks that need to be ironed out. Why not make a few hundred or thousand(s) of dollars profit selling the system now (since there’s no games either) and waiting for the next batch of systems (1.x and above) to come out? It makes perfect sense. :wink:
I just got my 20GB PS3 tonight! It was really luck that brought me to Target before going home for Turkey Day break. I decided to visit the GameStop next door and checked it out. There were two PS3 boxes sitting behind the register. I asked if those were for filling the remaining preorders, but one of the workers said no, they were actually up for sale.
I rushed back to the car to get my moneys (I saved up some cash for the launch, but didn’t make it at launch - I don’t like carrying “large sums of cash with me every where I go) and came back just in time when a couple got to the register before me and talked about buying one of the PS3s. I got to the other register and bought the other 20GB PS3 - the guy said they just got the units 30 minutes ago before I came in! WOW, talk about being in the right place at the right time!
Well I got another PS3, a 60GB one, waiting to be shipped ....today! Ordered through SonyStyle.com (actually “e-camped” for it Friday night, and was able to order at approx. 1:03am CST November 18 ).
You can imagine my heart racing, pounding, and my hands shaking, scrambling for my card info - and you can imagine how I must have felt about seeing this in my Inbox:
So far, the 20GB version has been a very impressive machine. I’m probably going to do the same as tifosiv, and list the 60GB machine up on eBay. Right now, I’m downloading Fedora Linux so I can load it up on my PS3 when it’s ready. If you guys haven’t heard about it, look it up! See the YouTube video of Fedora on PS3 - it’s awesome! I’ll post pics and impressions shortly :wink:
Hey Concura,
Congrats!!! I actually scored one PS3 60 gig version today as well from Best Buy. I could not believe my ears and eyes when I heard that they actually had some in stock!!! I took the rest of the day off and been playing ever since. The XMB interface rocks on my Qualia 005 TV. HD movie trailers and demos are stunning! I’ve never experienced such a joy. BluRay movie the Ice Age: The Meltdown blew me away with its graphics.
I also paired it up with my PSP (updated to ver. 3.01) and tested its Remote Play function… pretty cool feature!
There is a huge potential behind PS3 in the future thanks to firmware updates.
P.S. my wife picked up another PS3 60 gig for me as a X-mas present so I ended up with 2. :wink: I will be listing it for sale I guess….
Congrats on your lucky acquisitions, VAIOfreak. PS3 is one heck of a system :wink:
I haven’t got a game for mine yet, but I dl-ed R:FOM and it was pretty good. Just been tinkering with the functions lately, and played that Talladega Nights Blu Ray movie that came included. My 60GB got delayed, so it’ll probably arrive sometime this week (I hope!).
But it’s undeniably a gorgeous system the system. Maybe we’ll end up online sometime ha ha
What is your PS3 handle? Mine is VAIOfreak (of course), so feel free to add me. I wanna test out the voice chat and video function on that baby.
I read on Engadget that you can get skins for it, after checking them out, I think I might get one, they look pretty cool on PS3. Check them out
I decided to visit the GameStop next door and checked it out. There were two PS3 boxes sitting behind the register. I asked if those were for filling the remaining preorders, but one of the workers said no, they were actually up for sale. 
© 2003-2007 siliconpopculture.com
