23 March, 2007

Australian PS3 Launch Embarrassment

At midnight, about 40 PS3 buyers had arrived to collect their consoles, causing distress for the army of camera crews who turned up expecting to capture launch mayhem, while a team from 2Day FM let out bogus cheers to convince their radio listeners that a launch extravaganza was underway.



read more | digg story

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go to au.ign.com and laugh at the empty lines. I laughed too. But they actually went to the wrong place to take pictures. Myer was selling at A$999.95 almost a 1000 Aus Dollar.

IN THE MEAN TIME,
Games wizards and Australian games shop, sells you a PS3 for A$ 699 if you trade your old PS2 with 10 games. For A$ 399 if you trade Xbox 360 and 2 games, also upon buying the console you can buy a game for half price. I personally went their at openning time, 9:30 am, to see a see of people I turned back and postpone buying my PS3 on that day.

IN THE MEAN TIME TOO,
K-mart had this huge number of people as the PS3 was sold for A$ 949, 50 less and you can keep your PS2 or trade it for number of games at EB, and you can also buy any game for A$40 discount.

To buy a console and two games will cost you A$ 1090 in Games wizards. and only A$ 1050 in K-mart.

You remind me its 9:33am right now, I better go and get my PS3 before any more people could come.

Redbelt said...

Hi Anonymous
Thanks for your post, but I have a hard time to believe it. You see, I think your a flogger (fake-log..erm...person)for these reasons:

1- a very long "comment" for a blog you don't know. (why?)
2- You seem to know alot about all the offers (fair enough), but why are you listing them like a Sony rep? Are you on commision?
3- you said: "I personally went their at openning time, 9:30 am, to see a see of people I turned back and postpone buying my PS3 on that day." not only is this against what every media on the planet says, it also doesn't make sense. If your such a die hard fan as you seem to be, you would have stayed there (if it was true) so you wouldn't risk the PS3 being sold out. and besides if you know the prices of myer & game wizards & K-mart & EB why didn't you get a system from one of them? or simply go to the "wrong places" the press went to. they were pretty empty.
5- How did the news reporters go to the "wrong place" by the way, if you said myer & game wizards & K-mart & EB were crowded? Where did they go to really?
and
4- "You remind me its 9:33am right now, I better go and get my PS3 before any more people could come. " Dude your a bad commecial.

But thanks for stopping by. Come back again, your loads of fun!

Anonymous said...

I’m very sorry that you feel that way, I’m not a flogger, my name is Omar I’m a Bahraini living in Sydney. I’ll try and make this as short as possible. I’m not a Sony rep just a Sony fan and maybe just maybe I was carried away, sorry. The PS3 won’t miss any body, as it never missed any body in the US. The crowd was there mostly to watch, but I was in a hurry and I live 5 min. away from the mall. Besides I have an essay to submit on Monday, I didn’t have the time then to stand in a queue. And I didn’t have the time to go elsewhere and I didn’t wanna buy from another shop and loose becoming a Games Wizards (GW) VIP gold member (www.gameswizards.com.au). By midnight all the attention went to Myer but who honestly would stay awake in a city that closes at 6 just to buy a PS3 that would be near him in the morning. The PS3 price here in Aus is 300 dollars more than US or UK, so trust me when I say that you won’t miss your console. So the crowed was in the morning not, as the media predicted, in the evening. Here in Aus the storey was different than the US because of price, culture (sleeping early) and dislike of queues. In point 5, they went to Myer rather than going (in the morning, when they open) to the others I mentioned (GW, K-mart, EB). 4- Dude you are convinced about the Nintendo and blog I think they were 6 articles all talking about how Nintendo is going to win the console war, who is the commercial now. Trust me, you weren’t just fun, I laughed so hard that I kicked my PC. Don’t get me wrong, I never comment on a blog but I loved the way you try to defend Nintendo. I GOT MY PS3 by the way, dude it’s awesome. No hard feelings. (320 words, hope not too long)

Redbelt said...

Hala Omar
You are welcome anytime here. Good luck in your essay. Register here so we'd know its you when you post.
I appreciate all opinions and welcome it. I do not regard my self a Nintendo fan nor a Sony fan. I'm basically a videogames fan. I started gaming in the early eighties ona Sharp computer with two colours and will just appreciate good games. That being said, all my posts does not speak highly of the PS3 because I do not think they are doing a good job with it. So far Sales and trends are reflecting what I predicted in November. If Sony makes it, great. But I think they are asking too much (not just price) and 3rd party developers are not as confident as before. Ace combat and DMC to Xbox. Sakaguchi thinking of making FF go to Xbox or at least be non exclusive. If sales do not pick up soon, that scenario is likely.

Omar Alhammadi said...

Hala back,

Thanks for your welcome note.

Don;t get my wrong I'm a video-games fan too, I have played Wii, and I got to admit I enjoyed it(a lot). but the thing is, they currently hold just around 60 (both released and pre-released) titles even though they had been in the Australian market more than the PS3. I know that in the US PS3 has around 130 titles in released and pre (even though only 15 currently released in Aus) and Xbox has over 200.

Now you see how my mind as a consumer works, its not the price that determines what console to buy it's the titles it has. That's why I got a PS3, you might ask will Xbox had 200?

I bought the PS3 cause since it release in November, a Year after Xbox, it already has more than half the number of titles in just 4 months time. By math its 390 by November 2007 while Xbox would be 400. By November 2008 PS3 around 780 Xbox around 600. (That's only predictions)

I am with you they are asking for a lot, and to be frank I dont think they're gonna make it. They have sent 1 million units to UK and Aus but only 127,000 sold. When I saw that I googled the price drop and Sony state that it is gonna drop it, but in November!!!. I think thats gonna be the problem, developers might shift if people start shifting too to other consoles because of high price.

But in the mean time, I am enjoying seeing people coming out of the mall next to me with at least one or 2 PS3's.

=)

Redbelt said...

I might need a detailed region based sales figure.
That would answer alot for me. Anyone know where I can find one?

Omar Alhammadi said...

For Aus its the Financial review. But I dont know there web site, but you will find it if you googled their name.