The Stupid Gamer

Despite feeling quite ill today, I’m still planning on jumping into a line tomorrow to try and score a PlayStation 3 console. I don’t know why I bother though; as of yesterday there were already 5 guys in front of the closest Circuit City store and about 10 in front of the nearest Target.

Who are these people that are able to line up in their makeshift shanty towns for days end end for the chance to buy a $600 videogame console? Don’t they have work, school, or any sort of social life outside of gaming? How am I, a man with a 9 to 5 job and a wife, supposed to compete with these insanely motivated campers?

I guess the answer is that I can’t. The best I can do is try to find a store that won’t allow people to line up until the night before and try my luck there. While that sounds ideal, there are actually already people just wandering these stores and their parking lots to be the first to jump in line the second they are allowed. Essentially they are already in line and ahead of me.

So where does the blame lie? This happens for nearly every console launch and it never seems to change. I think that the console makers themselves need to be a bit more compassionate towards their fans. They need to delay hardware launches until they can provide enough systems to meet the initial demand. I understand that Sony is really happy to get the PS3 out before the holidays, but do they really need to? Does the sellout success of ANY new console depend on capitalizing on the holiday season? The answer is a resounding “NO.”

Sony could roll the PlayStation 3 out in February with 2-3 million consoles availalble and sell every single one. Microsoft could have done the same a year ago. Instead of forcing their fans to battle each other and struggle to get their hands on a system, these console makers should be willing to delay their launches so that their biggest supporters can have an enjoyable launch experience. For me, living in Utah, there’s not going to be anything enjoyable about spending the night in sub-freezing temperatures for the outside chance of getting a PS3; and if I come up empty-handed on Friday morning, you can bet that I’m going to be bitter.

Consoles should launch outside of the holidays unless they are truly prepared to be launched in proper fashion. By releasing consoles after the holiday season, the gamers can focus on the huge lineup of AAA games that appear each November and December and worry about getting their hands on new hardware a couple of months down the line.

While it’s too late to do anything about it this generation, let’s just hope that next time around the console makers can be a bit better prepared to meet the launch day demand or that they can delay their launch until they are.
Good luck PS3 and Wii campers. Dress warm, be courteous, and be safe.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Editorials and Rants, Multiconsole. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.