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Launch Weekend Insanity
There are many people in lines out there already, waiting for their chance tomorrow at Sony's PlayStation 3. Probably the biggest line is at the Metreon, where almost 1,000 people are lined up outside of the official Sony store. Destructoid is carrying stats from eBay's pre-sales numbers. (The average sales price of a PS3 was $1,532.76. 2,165 Wiis have been sold since October 20th.) 1up's intrepid reporters have thoughtfully outlined the dangers of Wiimote use. Somewhat relatedly, Miyamoto reveals in a BusinessWeek article that he wanted the Wii to be even cheaper. From that article: "Originally, I wanted a machine that would cost $100. My idea was to spend nothing on the console technology so all the money could be spent on improving the interface and software. If we hadn't used NAND flash memory [to store data such as games and photos] and other pricey parts, we might have succeeded."
What I've been waiting for is more reviews to come in so we can see how well the games are matching up with people's expectations. Its all good to say that Game A looks so great, or Game B is so inovative, but until there is a final product it is hard to judge. So far it sounds like Zelda is Awsome, and Resistance is Excellent, but there are still a lot of titles that have yet to be reviewed (Red Steel) and some that have remarkably varied Reviews (ExciteTruck).
Ultimately the important thing is the games, the question is whether many of the games have lived up to the hype
I don't know if this kind of thing happens in the US, but in the UK most manufacturers were only selling the 360, come launch day, on the condition that you bought three games with it. And because the units were so scarce, people were happy to do this. Bear in mind this was when the selection of 360 games was pretty mediocre. You can bet this will be happening again when it finally hits the UK.
Miyamoto's birthday today.
Monstar L
I have been tempted to go down to my local BestBuy dressed up as a sheep herder with a Sony Logo on my chest and just wander around the idiots waiting outside in the rain for days.
I'm sorry but nothing out there would ever get me to waste that much time of my life for something that will be replaced in 3-5 more years. Not to mention wasting that much money on something with less moving parts than my mountain bike.
Dewser - all around techy "In the immortal words of Socrates - 'I drank what?'"
Ok, so this is hilarious. There is a PS3 line outside the local target that formed yesterday morning. Today we had a HUUUGE storm. Look at the water flowing off the roof of my building after the storm had passed. To make matters worse for the people in line at Target, last night Target's management had all their cars towed while they stood and watched, everyone afraid to lose their spot in line. My question is....if they are too afraid/stupid to stop their car from being towed...where are they going to the bathroom for 3 days?
adventure-today.com
When's that being released? Where can I get in the line?
KFG
With apologies to any women waiting in line, lining up for a game console is just a modern day display of good old fashioned machismo. There have always been badges of honor associated with doing physically difficult things, no matter how silly or unnecessary. Human beings have a need to test their limits, and occasionally show off to members of the (usually) opposite sex, or at least one's peers. So I say just let them have their fun!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Let me preface this by saying that I have stood in lines before. I have slept in lines before. I have camped in lines before. I have had tailgate parties in lines before. So I know how normal lines work. I have seen bad lines, good lines, friendly people, other people, clueful managers and store employees, and not. But the PS3 debacle as I am calling it was by far the worst in most categories that I have seen.
My camp started pretty simply. I called all the local Wal Mart stores and asked for their timing and policies, etc. Almost universally they said they would have a line in the (soon to be closed) Layaway department. So I pick out the store closest to a friend's house, so he can come hold my spot while I go shower/etc at his place, and we hope to perhaps do a little word of mouth about our local gaming group.
Wednesday morning I walk through the store, see where the bathrooms, food, magazines, chairs, etc are. No one is in line, and I am not desperate to be first, so I head out for a little while to get some things done. I come back around 12:30 PM and there is a console-gamer-looking teenager sitting in the one non-bench chair in layaway. I take this as a sign that the line has started, but I left all my stuff (books and a deck of cards) in my car so I go back out and get them. When I get back inside the guy has disappeared, so I take the chair and start to wait.
Over the next 20 minutes or so a number of employees either ask what I am doing, or comment on it since they already know. The layaway attendant finally gets done with her customers and makes a call to her manager, and I hear "You'll have to come tell him that yourself", which soooo does not bode well. I then see a pallet jack full of chairs come out of the back of the store, and am enthusiastic about them putting together a real line. Sadly the chairs continue past me and out of sight, another bad sign.
Shorthly thereafter an assistant manager comes out and tells me the line will have to be outside, AND that they are getting less than the 10 promised units. I don't mind either bit of news so much. An indoor line is why I picked Wal Mart, but I figured outside wouldn't be too bad, they have covered and even heated outdoor areas. I head outside and am greeted by cloudy skies. I figure worst case, I step inside and buy a tent like most outdoor line campers do. The line gets set up as 10 shoulder-to-shoulder chairs in front of one side of the building, directly in the water runoff path of a large slanted roof with no gutter. Bad sign number 3 I think?
I sit down, and am shortly joined by two more guys who thought they would be the first ones there. No worries, the employee rumor mill has hinted at 6 units and 4 rain checks at this point, so top 3 is a fine place to be. At this point the store manager comes outside to talk to us. He vetos the idea of having tents (wtf mate?) which is really scary for that kind of line location and weather, and also tells us we can't have extension cords to the distant power outlets, and can't have cars any closer than the parking spots 30 feet away across the 'street'. So much for almost any sort of group entertainment, and any prayer of keeping dry.
The line fills up to the 10 chairs pretty quickly, and comments are made about selling seats. I jokingly offer the #1 spot for $400, which would have been a hell of a sale that early in the camp. No takers though. We hang out, a few people tag team friends into their spots, generally nothing happens for a few hours. It's a friendly line, we are letting people make food and bathroom trips into the store without losing their spots. All seems well, except for the previously noted poor location and rules. The evening manager comes on duty, and parrots the store manager's answers to all the questions, still no tents.
And then the rain starts. The rain is pretty light, but theres a difference in getting hit by 2 square feet worth of light rain (drizzle) and getting hit by 100 square feet worth of light rain
You can't add the Wiimote straight onto the GC without the internal infrastructure to use it.
And why not? Do you need to modify the internals of a PC any time you plug in a new controller, steering wheel, keyboard or mouse? Of course not; it's all software driven. Nintendo could, in theory, easily produce a Wii remote for the Gamecube.
This is not to say the $250 price is unjustified, because it almost certainly is. As much as some people decry the latest innovations in graphics once they've gotten used to a certain level of quality it's difficult to go back to something more primitive-looking. I'm the first to argue the virtues of gameplay over graphics. Some of my favorite games are 2D games, but often older 3D games have become to primitive-looking to effectively enjoy. 3D doesn't age nearly as well as 2D does.
Nintendo likely abandoned the $100 console idea because they realized that they needed a more significant upgrade if they wanted to be competitive. Hence the $250 Wii.