More PlayStation 3 And Wii Madness - The Queues And The Consoles

With less than a day left until the PlayStation 3 launches in North America, the situation is becoming increasingly tensioned, the queues are getting longer, and the stench is getting harder to cope with, in front of the stores that barely receive 10-20 consoles for sale. Similar to what happened when the PS3 launched in Japan last week, some unscrupulous opportunists are paying homeless people to stand in line - not only so they can buy more consoles, but also, we suspect, to spread a foul scent that keeps the "competition" away.

Just so you get an idea about how much it sucks to be in such a place right now, here is how somebody (on GI.biz) describes the crowds formed around retail stores like Best Buy or Toys R Us:

"we have people lighting barbeque pits, people defecating in the parking lot, people that are throwing Frisbees... It's not safe"

Sounds familiar? Maybe for rock festivals it does. And if turning the public space into one big toilet wasn't bad enough (not to mention several altercations already being reported), those poor guys will have to face another lousy news tomorrow morning: there won't be even close to 400,000 PS3 consoles in the US! This was the last official figure announced by Sony some time ago (although it used to be even bigger previously), but the reality will be a lot more harsh. Some say that Sony will only be able to supply 300,000 units on launch day, while other analysts are even more pessimistic, predicting between 150,000 and 200,000 PlayStation 3 units. And keep in mind this is still heaven on earth, compared to what is going on in other parts of the world.

In Taiwan, for instance, Sony announced that they will start selling tomorrow a fabulous total of 500 PS3 consoles. Yes, five lousy hundred, from which 150 will sell like white rice at a special launch event in downtown Taipei. As for the other 350... Buddha have mercy!

And to think that one single individual from Japan got his hands on 100 PlayStation 3 consoles, from which he now hopes to make a little fortune. And that, from a total of less than 90,000 PS3s initially available in Japan. Compared to that, Nintendo announced that they will have 400,000 Wii consoles ready for the Japanese launch in early December, and that they remain determined to distribute 4 million Wiis worldwide by the end of 2006. But first, let's see how they do this Sunday with the North American launch...

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)