PS3 Launch Japan - A Riot?
Well not actually, but certainly more than the usual level of impoliteness as limited supply meets unlimited demand.
Ken Kutaragi
Image courtesy: www.redereport.com.br
Image courtesy: www.redereport.com.br
With only 100,000 units of the PlayStation3 available to consumers at the Japanese launch, stocks were bound to sell out within hours. But what no-one anticipated was the extent of the hustle and bustle that broke out as eager costomers became aware that they were unlikely to secure a machine. Store managers were threatening to stop sales if injuries occurred within the queuing crowds that snaked through downtown Tokyo today.
While Japan is a culture not noted for its impoliteness, let alone for civil unrest, it is noted for its love of videogames and of the Sony Corporation. With PS3 units in such short supply - compared to the PS2 launch, which moved a million machines into gamers’ eager hands in the first three days - but people demanding them numbering millions, the culture clash of demand over etiquette was bound to result in some crowdly niggles. See the scenes in the video below.
As expected, all available stock sold out in the first few hours bringing a relieved reaction from Sony’s beleaguered head of games, Ken Kutaragi, who made an impromptu speech to crowds at Tokyo’s Bic Camera store.
"I'm grateful that so many people are waiting for the PS3 ... I hope you will enjoy the next-generation entertainment to your heart's content,” spake the man know as ‘The Father of the PlayStation’.
He’s got to be a grateful dad too. Ballooning development costs, the impending launch of rival, Nintendo’s, Wii console in big numbers, and the knowledge among locals that four-times the number of PS3s available to local fans will be going on sale in the United States on November 17th, have all meant a difficult birth.
The PlayStation’s 70% market share against an apparently moribund Nintendo and the upstart Microsoft once appeared unassailable. Now it is up to Kutaragi’s baby to grow up fast and recoup some of the goodwill its elder siblings generated, and that Sony has lost of late - and also the costs it has incurred leading up to this less than overpowering launch.
Whether the euphoria generated at the Tokyo-timed 07:00am launch, in rain and cold, can hope to carry the embattled Sony through delayed games, accusations of arrogance, and and indifferent press and pubic reaction, and into 2007 as contenders, let alone the out-and-out champions can only be speculated upon right now.
Stay at SPOnG for the latest reports from the streets of Shinjuku and Akihabara
While Japan is a culture not noted for its impoliteness, let alone for civil unrest, it is noted for its love of videogames and of the Sony Corporation. With PS3 units in such short supply - compared to the PS2 launch, which moved a million machines into gamers’ eager hands in the first three days - but people demanding them numbering millions, the culture clash of demand over etiquette was bound to result in some crowdly niggles. See the scenes in the video below.
As expected, all available stock sold out in the first few hours bringing a relieved reaction from Sony’s beleaguered head of games, Ken Kutaragi, who made an impromptu speech to crowds at Tokyo’s Bic Camera store.
"I'm grateful that so many people are waiting for the PS3 ... I hope you will enjoy the next-generation entertainment to your heart's content,” spake the man know as ‘The Father of the PlayStation’.
He’s got to be a grateful dad too. Ballooning development costs, the impending launch of rival, Nintendo’s, Wii console in big numbers, and the knowledge among locals that four-times the number of PS3s available to local fans will be going on sale in the United States on November 17th, have all meant a difficult birth.
The PlayStation’s 70% market share against an apparently moribund Nintendo and the upstart Microsoft once appeared unassailable. Now it is up to Kutaragi’s baby to grow up fast and recoup some of the goodwill its elder siblings generated, and that Sony has lost of late - and also the costs it has incurred leading up to this less than overpowering launch.
Whether the euphoria generated at the Tokyo-timed 07:00am launch, in rain and cold, can hope to carry the embattled Sony through delayed games, accusations of arrogance, and and indifferent press and pubic reaction, and into 2007 as contenders, let alone the out-and-out champions can only be speculated upon right now.
Stay at SPOnG for the latest reports from the streets of Shinjuku and Akihabara
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Comments
king skins 13 Nov 2006 10:41
1/3
hasn't most of the bad press been in the West and not in Japan?
and isn't this the first lunch that has not been greeted by a Fastest Selling Ever headline...?
and isn't this the first lunch that has not been greeted by a Fastest Selling Ever headline...?
DoctorDee 13 Nov 2006 12:07
2/3
king skins wrote:
and isn't this the first lunch that has not been greeted by a Fastest Selling Ever headline...?
Not really hard to sell out in minutes when the stock on had is so pitifully low though, is it?
We are, typically, Sony enthusiasts. But the PS3 launch has been poor - late, low numbers in USA, and pathetically so in Japan. A no show for Europe. They're clearly not ready to launch, but they have to do something before Christmas, Why would it get positive coverage?
king skins 13 Nov 2006 12:21
3/3
DoctorDee wrote:
king skins wrote:
and isn't this the first lunch that has not been greeted by a Fastest Selling Ever headline...?
Not really hard to sell out in minutes when the stock on had is so pitifully low though, is it?
We are, typically, Sony enthusiasts. But the PS3 launch has been poor - late, low numbers in USA, and pathetically so in Japan. A no show for Europe. They're clearly not ready to launch, but they have to do something before Christmas, Why would it get positive coverage?
Bit of mistake on my part... It was supposed to say Highest Selling and not fastest.
Its just a little odd to see a console released and then not seeing headlines on Monday morning telling us how its sold more than any other console on launch day/weekend/week ever. This launch seams very subdued.
But I suppose that is why the US is getting the greatest quantity, then Sony US can turn around a say we out sold the 360 on day one.
Its amazing that they are still not ready... but they are still saying they will get to 6million by March. Hopefully they can step up production or we will not be seeing the PS3 here until September.