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Playstation 3 Sells Out At Japanese Launch
s31523 writes "With its high price tag and stiff competition the PS3 was a gamble. Based on the reaction in Japan to the game console's release, there might be a new hot toy on everyone's Christmas list here in the states. According to the article there were 100,000 units [Z: actually, only 80,000 units] available and all were sold out in record time. There are 2 configurations currently offered, a 60GB WiFi enabled box and a 20GB non-WiFi box. The Japanese price for the lower end system is considerably discounted vs. the system to be released in the States." For a look at launch day, Kotaku has photos taken by Sony's Phil Harrison on the streets of Tokyo.
.. how come only one of them seems to have had the sense to bring along a portable console to play with while waiting? God only knows what it'll be like when the store I work at gets these in. When the 360's came in, we had people qeueing in the dark from 9PM to 9AM in the morning - just to get core consoles!
Maslow's "hierarchy" of needs is, presumably, long-term. I often skip meals if I've got better things to do. My body can go several days without food, as can most people's, especially in the West/North.
(And as any knowledge worker will tell you, for any data problem, there's a hierarchical representation that is simple, clear, practical and wrong. Essentially any time you see a neat hierarchy, something is being over-simplified.)
the opposite of genuine demand, ie: the buzz around wii. nintendo didnt have to chop down the amount of launch units to a miniscule portion to get people hyped up about their system, sony did, hence this article and my reply. sony did this same thing with PS2 launch and even with smaller launches like the PS2 network adapter. just a cheap way of creating, what i consider (if its alright with you...) 'fraudulent demand'
Some users are already reporting PS3 games freezing during play and some other technical issues. Makes sense, they cut supplies because they can't get good yields of usable components. That being the case, Sony probably sets the quality control bar as to what consittues a good usnit low as they can so they can have as many as possible. With all the noise made over the 360 overheating problems, I hope for Sony's sake these reports are premature. Because if they freeze or have other technical issues there are some 7 million Xbox 360 owners just wating to make a big deal out of it. I bet ya' everybody and there brother interested in concole gaming is just waiting to take a picture/video of a frozen PS3 and gain YouTube fame.
Lowered supply in itself has no effect on demand. This is basic economics, which, unlike psychology, is actually relevant to the argument at hand. Certainly a lowered supply combined with a fixed price will increase sales, but this is because the fixed price is well below the ideal price point, not because of an increased demand.
Rob
1. The precise reason why people demand diamonds so much is because they're scarce; the scarcity enhances their beauty, and the purpose of a diamond is to look pretty. This doesn't apply to the PS3; very few people would buy one simply because not many of them exist. Especially since there's a near-guarantee that there will be more made available soon.
2. People would still demand diamonds, they just wouldn't demand them at current prices.
Now, I will admit that demand has been boosted somewhat, but not to any great extent, and not by the scarcity of the PS3. Instead, demand has been boosted by the media hyping up the scarcity of the PS3. And unless Sony is paying news networks to hype up the PS3 in their reports, there's nothing fraudulent about it.
Rob
EVERY console made by a Japanese company sells out at launch in Japan. The fucking VisualBoy sold out in Japan.
I'm interested, how big is Japan in the big picture? First or Second? We all know (if even just by how the companies treat them) that Europe is third most important. Anywhere other than North America, Japan, or Europe is rarely even heard in the news. But is Japan the bigger battlefield than the US? If we look at the launch numbers, Sony and Nintendo are both putting more emphasis on the US. Sony's US Launch day is scheduled to have 400,000 PS3 units, about 4x the number of their Japanese launch. Nintendo is planning a US launch day of 1,000,000 Wii units. Meanwhile I can't even find Nintendo's Japan launch day units; they don't even release in Japan until December, after the November US launch. So, the companies seem to indicate that in the big picture, the US is the bigger prize. Launching two days apart, with more units (assumed for Wii Japan) will make a much more useful comparison than a 23-day apart Japan launch with relativly fewer units.
It may also be interesting to see how Sony's launch titles did, since they need games and accessories to pull up the difference. Some of the games present on Sony's Japan launch list also appear on the Wii's. Depending on quantities of these sold compared to the number of units sold in proportion to other games per unit sold may tell us if there are customers prepared to buy the Wii as well and plan on buying those games for the Wii instead. While it would have to be a large difference to overcome the large margin of error such a comparison welcomes, it may still provide some insite into the minds of the buyers and give us a rough idea how the big US launch will go for Sony or Nintendo.
Demented But Determined.
...PC Watch bought one and took it apart.
Impressions:
- That's one huge cooling fan!
- Why did they use a Seagate drive, when Seagate is known for sucking more power than just about anybody else?
- Not as many components on the MB as you might expect for a first revision.
- The ATI RSX has its video memory on the module, but not in-core.
According to posts on various Japanese sites, there also seem to be a few problems.
- The unit gets hot. Very hot.
- A couple of people reported the unit powering off during the software update, which permanently bricked the unit.
- The browser can't play Flash.
So, I decided to go to my local game store (Famicon Jungle) the other night to see the status of the PS3 in Japan (not really giving a crap, as I have my Wii on pre-order, but just to see what games are out and whatnot).
So, I go to the store, and there's about 3 cars waiting outside of the store. 2 have the geekiest geeks you've ever seen in your life sitting in them, 1 has a couple just kind of hanging out eating snacks. They're all waiting for a PS3 shipment that is apparently late getting to the store.
I walk up to the store and there is a big sign on the front that says "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but we will be getting only 1-3 PS3s, and they will be given out at a first come first serve basis." It was 9pm on launch day, and apparently they still hadn't come yet.
To give you some background of where I live: I live in a town of around 500,000 people. The surrounding area is all farms, so I figure within 20km of me, there are all of 3 stores that are selling PS3s. If each one gets 1-3 machines, that means that if one in 100,000 people decides "hmmm, I would like a PS3.." then they will sell out.
Calling that a victory is just lunacy.
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Nothing can be done before the tremendous power!
RabidComics
Kotaku has an interesting report. Apparently, some people hired chinese poor people to stand in the lines and buy PS3s for resale.
eBay
As of 9:57 pm central time USA on November 11, 2006, with 2 minutes left open for bids, a machine was selling for $2,225.
Worth to wait in line? I suppose it depends on how much you like lying around on a Saturday morning in your pajamas drinking coffee.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
300+ people camping out for a console many days in advance, that most people on Digg and Slashdot said wouldn't sell.
:-)
:-)
Selling out ~100k consoles in record time in Japan.
Selling out every preorder in America in record time.
Seeing that people are already camping in the U.S. over a week in advance.
Selling another 100k per week for the rest of the year in Japan.
More than likely selling 400,000 units in American as fast as the stores can process the orders on launch day.
Obviously selling out the second shipment to America ~600k by the end of the year.
Having a launch lineup of around 20+ titles, downloadable demos and music day one.
Seeing that you just sold more BlueRay players in Japan, in one day than all HD-DVD players world wide for the entire year.
Seeing that you will sell 8X as many BlueRay players in America, in one day than all HD-DVD players sold last year world wide, and giving them a "test" movie to help them try out playing movies.
Seeing that a ton of people are willing to pay 2 and even 4 times the list price to get a PS3 on Ebay.
Being able to produce ~6 million consoles by March of 2006, and having a market that looks like it will buy every last one of them.
Having a "last gen" console still continually outsell your competitors "next gen" system month after month.
Providing support for Yellow Dog Linux out of the gate and also helping with OpenGL (setting it as the default for all PS3 games, thus helping out the entire open source community).
Helping to make 1080P a reality in console gaming.
Priceless...
Now I am not going to say that Sony could have done a ton better by getting all 6 million consoles out before Christmas, but their future doesn't look too bad from a lot of peoples perspective. It is very safe to say that Sony will sell 6 million consoles by March of 2007, and then they can decide if they need to do anything about the price.
So, Mr Gates, I realize that you are still stinging from dropping over 4 Billion in the last XBOX and never making a profit, but don't worry I am sure that someone will want a 360 this year. I hear that they are going like "fire", or was that they are actually "on fire"... either way you should get some people that will want to buy/replace one until they can get a PS3. Good luck on the new Xbox 720, I heard that you may release it next Christmas, and I am sure that won't make too many of your customers angry. You obviously have learned a lot from Sega. Their partnership with you has worked out great! Come to think of it, your partnership with every company has worked out great. Well, perhaps not so great for your partners... Oh yeah, one last thing; keep up the point system, people love it! Whatever you do don't use real currency, that would confuse them.
The more I learn about science, the more my faith in God increases.