Not for me.
So, today’s the day. The Playstation 3 comes out in Japan today. The nation’s gamers stand ready to take their plunge into next-gen gaming. (Sure the Xbox 360’s been out for nearly a year, but very few here have taken that particular plunge.)
Lines began forming yesterday afternoon as the die-hard did what they could to try and secure a PS3 of their own. That’s no so unusual. Lines form for most every big game and system release here. I did the PSP line-up two years ago, and did the same for the DS Lite on three separate occasions. (One for a friend in the US, one for me and one for Miyoko.) What makes the PS3 lines special isn’t the amout of people lining up (shitloads), or the amount they’re going to spend (Â¥62,000 or more – most likely much more, adding in games and extras like cables and controllers). What makes these lines extra insane is the amount of systems that will be available today. 80,000.
For the entire country….
Almost sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? Sony’s the king of gaming (for now) in Japan and they’re launching a new system with so few units? What the hell are they thinking?
Sure, the lines and crowds will make for good PR. “See how much people want the PS3? Don’t you want one too?” The truth of it is, the people lining up know it’s going to be tough to get one, so lining up is the only way to get a system on launch day.
And probably the only way to get one for a while.
I can’t imagine any PS3s being on store shelves anytime soon. The DS Lite launched with tons more units, and it’s still tough to find – even after being out for 8 months.
I swung through Ueno on my way home last night, mostly to go to the bank, but also to see how much of a line had already formed (by 7PM) at the Yodobashi Camera there. About 20-30 people had already queued up, and the first guy in line was a foreigner. I talked to him for a bit and he said he’d gotten there about 3:30 that afternoon. He wasn’t getting the system for himself, though.
He was going to Ebay that sucker.
I don’t blame him. The Ebay markup (or Yahoo Auctions markup, for Japanese buyers) on the PS3 is going to be crazy. The system’s high price, coupled with the seriously low supply is going to make online sellers very, very happy.
$1,500 is not an unreasonable amount to expect the systems to go for.
The weird thing about the lineup in Ueno was that the staff at Yodobashi were telling people not to line up. O.o
Now, the Ueno store is on a main street, and it doesn’t have it’s own plaza like the big Yodobashi in Akihabara, so I can see how they wouldn’t want people blocking the sidewalk and getting the shop in trouble, but still. With the supply/demand ratio for the PS3, there’s no way people aren’t going to line up. The store staff were telling people they wouldn’t consider any line to be official until 6AM, but that’s just crazy.
The guy I talked to said the line was just going to police itself, and everybody would sort shit out when 6AM rolled around. That makes sense, and I figured it’d work out okay. Even so, I wouldn’t feel good lining up for something so long in advance with the store tellling me that my place in line didn’t really count.
Okay, I wrote the first part of this about 7 this morning, slightly hung over and getting charged up on coffee. The day since then has been spent hanging out with Miyoko, meeting up with her sister to get her set up with an M3 for her DS Lite, and reading tons of PS3 launch news online, mostly from 2chan and Kotaku. What follows are the thoughts that have emerged from the day’s “research.”
New thoughts.
One – I totally could’ve gotten a PS3. Even if I’d gone back to Ueno when I woke up at 5:30 (no, I don’t know why I got up that early), I could’ve snagged one there. Had I grabbed the first train to Akiba and lined up at Yodobashi, I’d probably have gotten one there too. They had 1,800 systems and I don’t think that many people lined up during the night – though their crowd was fucking massive.
Two – Had I gotten one, it would’ve been on Ebay as soon as I got it home. Either there or Yahoo auctions. At present, there are 1,620 60GB PS3s on Yahoo auctions. Most seem to be going for at least double the original selling price. Not a bad profit for a night spent outside.
Three – The Chinese love the PS3! Well, at least according to the 2chan posters. They seem quite upset that Chinese people are buying PS3s to sell on auction sites. Of course they’re quite happy to be getting PS3s for themselves – and then selling them on auction sites. Do they worry the Chinese guys are depriving J-folk of hard-won auction gains?
Four – For those getting PS3s to actually play – what the fuck are you going to be playing? There are all of six games out right now, none of which are gonna knock anybody’s socks off. This strikes me as the usual “be the first kid on your block” thing that comes out whenever a new system is launched. Yeah, be the first kid on your block to play the same games you’ve played before, but with slightly better graphics. Where do I sign up for that action?
Five – This is not a “sour grapes” post. Sure, bagging a PS3 (and associated auction profits) would’ve been nice, but I had a much better night at home that I would have hanging out with hordes of otaku and homeless guys getting paid to line-sit.
Six – I’m totally camping out in 3 weeks – when the Wii comes out. ^.^