Gamers foaming at the mouth for PS3
New system competing with Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 this holiday season
Little Johnny's Christmas list is about to get a whole lot more expensive.
In less than a week, the Playstation 3, Sony Computer Entertainment's successor to the massively successful Playstation and Playstation 2, will hit shelves across the nation, if only just for a few hours.
The $600 video game system-$500 for the "low end" model that comes with a 20 gigabyte hard drive instead of a 60 gig drive-is the Holy Grail of this year's holiday shopping season.
Some gamers, like 20-year-old Mike Biel, an English major from Boston College, are less than excited about the PS3.
"It's far too expensive, and just a vehicle for Sony to distribute Blu-ray," Biel said. "I have no need for risky media that might not even catch on."
Biel is more interested in the Nintendo Wii, scheduled to come out Nov. 14. The Wii is priced a bit more competitively at $250, but won't boast the hardware power of the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3. Its biggest selling point is the classic Nintendo franchises, like Super Smash Bros.
All this competition has Midway Games' director of Public Relations Reilly Brennan in an upbeat mood about the young industry.
"This will easily be the biggest year yet for videogames," Brennan said.
Regardless of the strengths of the Wii, the Playstation 3 has plenty going for it as well. From the improved graphics and an online gaming network similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live to being the first console to support a high definition DVD format, there are a number of reasons kids and adults alike can't wait to get their hands on one. The only question is, will they actually be able to?
While the Playstation 3 will officially go on sale on Nov. 17, several stores, including GameStop Inc., which operates both GameStop and EB Games stores all across the country, stopped taking reservations for the system nearly a month ago.
GameStop and other retailers with similar reservation programs won't have any systems to sell to customers who weren't lucky enough to make a reservation.
GameStop Inc. spokesman Chris Olivera recently broke down the company's exact reservation figures in an interview with Reuters. Olivera said that of the 400,000 PS3 systems available in the U.S. on Nov. 17, each of GameStop's 3,600 stores has been allotted between eight and 13 systems, and every single one of them is spoken for.
Stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City have not taken reservations for it, although Bestbuy.com took reservations momentarily before rescinding the offer and opting to sell the systems on a first -come-first-served basis.
While approximately 20 games will be available for the launch, Chicago's Midway Games isn't responsible for a single title, but that's not due to a lack of enthusiasm on the company's part.
"[The launch of a new console] causes a ton of excitement," Brennan said. "It gets people very fired up to see the latest and greatest stuff. It's a huge milestone for the industry."
Regardless of the anticipation from Midway Games, the company has chosen to wait until the first quarter of 2007 to release its first PS3 title, "Stranglehold," an action game created with the help of famed director John Woo, in order to reach more users than it would be able to by putting a title out during the launch.
There is, however, one set of Playstation 3 customers who are glad to hear about the scarcity of the system: eBay users.
As has been the case before in the eBay era, many of those who reserved a Playstation 3 will be rushing off to the online auction house to sell the system at a tremendous markup without a second thought.
Twenty-year-old Chad Zurek has been playing video games for as long as he can remember. He has also been using eBay for the past several years to sell brand new videogame consoles for a profit.
Following the success of his Xbox 360 auction which sold for twice what the system goes for at retail outlets, it's no surprise that he was one of the first eight people in line to reserve a Playstation 3, and chances are he won't even open the box.
“I'm curious to see if it's any good, but I really don 't think it's going to be anything near what Sony is making it out to be," Zurek said. "I've thought about [selling the system on Ebay]. I bought the [Xbox 360] at launch and there isn't really the best selection of games at first anyway."
The allure for Zurek and many other consumers is the huge cash payout awaiting them if they decide to sell. A quick search on eBay reveals that the $600 systems are selling for anywhere from $1,200 all the way to $2,200. That kind of profit could be hard to resist, even for avid garners like Zurek.
Whether through reservations, camping out or overpaying on eBay, it seems clear that Sony has captured the attention of the videogame world, and on Nov. 17,the Playstation 3 frenzy will be out in full force.