Thursday; Playstation 3. A stabbing, some stampeded consumers and a shooting. Limited supply = greater demand... supply-side economics at their most evil (said with emphasis on the 'i' as an 'eeee' sound).
Sunday; Nintendo Wii. Some unruly people were told to calm down outside one store.
The reason why two systems that are equal in many ways could launch and yet only one has such fervor and even some violence surrounding said launch; availability. Sony did it again; they either haven't learned their lesson or simply don't care to. The PS2 was the same story; limited supply announced to be even further limited days before launch causing line-ups around store-blocks as fan(atic)s camped out for days just to be able to say;
"I GOT IT FIRST!"
When speaking to my friend Dean I found one of his comments quite funny. Forgive me for paraphrasing, as my memory for quoting is terrible, but his comment was something along the lines of; "Yeah, they waited for days and days to get a system that has - like - one game." He couldn't be more right. While I have always been a 'Playstation-man' myself, I can't help but wonder why people would put themselves through that sort of pain to get something that has such a weak launch. The only title of any note is 'Resistance; Fall of man' and - frankly - Gears of War (XBox 360) looks a lot better.
Maybe if I were younger... a teenager or even in my early twenties... the temptation to 'camp out for a PS3' would've been hard to resist. But now, from my oh-so-aged perspective at the ripe 27th annum of my existence, the thought of camping out for ANYTHING doesn't cross my mind.
My thoughts on the 'Next (now: current) Generation' of console gaming?
PS3 looks powerful and will probably have a massive library of titles that will appeal to me. In a year, or more, when the price is more reasonable and the launch-bugs have been worked out, I'll pick one up.
The Wii looks like an almost ridiculously fun little system that I could see myself playing at home with my Girlfriend... a system - much like the old N64 - that I could envision being the reason to have some friends over to my place for beers and gaming... something that hasn't happened in years! With it's low pricetag it will be a purchase very early in the new year.
The XBox 360 - while impressing me more than it's predecessor - still doesn't impress me enough to make me think of purchasing one. There seem to be about 3 games I'd want for it... and after a year of market-time, only three games is not confidence-inspiring. I don't doubt that it's a great system, I just don't think I'm in its demographic.
And as for camping out for any video game console, movie, concert or other such thing... I don't see it happening. Common sense wins out over my desire to 'have it first'.
