Topic: Did Sony lie about PS3 available in US retailers?

[Rhoq]

This morning I was watching my local news and they were at an area Best Buy to report on the PS3 line. Anyways what caught my attention is that they mentioned this particular Best Buy had 34 PlayStation 3 consoles in stock and ready for sale when the store opened this morning.

With all of the hype about most stores getting "8 or less" PS3s, this came as quite a shock to me. So now I'm left wondering if Sony purposely made the situation seem even more bleak than it really is to generate even more of a buzz and sales frenzy today? I wouldn't be surprised. God I hope the PS3 ruins Sony. Hopefully HD-DVD will be the victor over BluRay and everything else will fall into place.  

[NWR_DrewMG]

Well, I went to Walmart last night in my town to check out the line.  There were about 15 people in line, maybe more.  But then I saw a sign that they didn't get ANY PS3s in stock, so the line was only to offer rain checks.

So take that for what it's worth.

[Ceric]

Personally I'm going to not judge Sony until I see what Nintendo done.  I rather a company come out and give me a low ball number and then actually have more then come out with a high ball number and not fulfill.

[raptorspike]

It could be that Sony sent a larger number of units to the stores that would probably sell the most (i.e. Best Buy, Circuit City) over those who wouldn't (i.e. Walmart, Target)

[nitsu niflheim]

there's a store around here somewhere that has advertised in their flier for a certain amount and then cut that way down to just six with a memo posted on the store's door.  people were pissed, saying it was false advertising.  Which it isn't really because the legal mumbo jumbo in the fine print says that they aren't resonisble for stuff like that.

circuit city i think.

[Dryden]

Here in Canada, the supply line is actually quite grim.  Yes, BestBuy and Future Shop got their stock here in Calgary (under 30 each), but on a national level - national - The two biggest video stores, Blockbuster and Roger's Video, didn't get any.  Heck, the Sony Store only got two.

Also, SCEA isn't saying boo about how many units they've actually sent out.

By the way, the Future Shop and the BestBuy near me in Calgary both promised three times as many Wiis as PS3s.  I just hope there's enough Wiimotes to go around.

[Nick DiMola]

I'm thinking Sony didn't give us an undershot value, I think for some reason Best Buy got the lions share of PS3s. My Walmart was supposed to get 10 and instead got 0 and had to hand out rainchecks to everyone who was waiting.

[Ceric]

You see that sort of stuff infuriates me.  Where I was getting a Wii from went from having Nintendo telling them that they get at least 10 to 0.

[couchmonkey]

Also in Calgary, I was planning to find a PS3 and resell...HA HA HA.  I saw the lineups last night at 5 PM and figured I wouldn't even bother trying, but I checked Superstore at 10:30 PM last night and they had no lineup....WOW!  Went back this morning at 7 and they were sold out - I bet the reason there was no lineup is that they sold them at closing time last night.  I couldn't even find the tail end of any lineups...there must have been a few midnight/late night launches.

I checked about four stores (and drove past the ones that had lineups last night) and every store was clearly sold out and most had signs saying the had no idea when new shipments would come in and that Sony had failed to deliver the number of units it promised.  I asked the guy at one Wal Mart and he said they only got 6 units in.

Wow.  So much for my scalping plans, looks like I'm going to have to cut back on Wii.  

[Ian Sane]

Best Buy and London Drugs near my house both had lines.  Best Buy had a sign saying they had 14 systems and they were using a lottery.  What's the point of pre-ordering if someone who ordered after you (or camped out for less time) gets lucky and draws a better number?  They should just go down the pre-order list in order and phone everyone.  There shouldn't be a line-up.  You either pre-ordered early enough and got one or you're on the waitlist.

Sony has underdelivered two launches in a row.  One was sort of acceptable but it's clear now that Sony doesn't care because they didn't make any attempt to prevent the PS2 launch problems from reoccuring.

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
Sony has underdelivered two launches in a row.  One was sort of acceptable but it's clear now that Sony doesn't care because they didn't make any attempt to prevent the PS2 launch problems from reoccuring.

If you are counting the PS2, wouldn't the PSP be three?

[couchmonkey]

I don't recall PSP being this bad.  I didn't pay that much attention, but it wasn't selling for thousands on Ebay, was it?

A lottery at Best Buy makes sense because I don't think they took preorders.  I actually like the lottery system, tell people not to bother waiting in line, just come at 12 AM (or whenever) and you'll be entered in a lottery.  It prevents problems like the one VGRevolution had, where a tent at the front of the line kept adding people to their group, and it also discourages week-long lineups.

[Sessha]

Although getting to buy a PS3 doesn't seem like a lottery prize more like a gypsy curse on your wallet.  But to each his own

[couchmonkey]

Ha ha ha...well, you could say the same for tickets to sports, but lotteries for major sporting events have become really poular lately.

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: couchmonkey
I don't recall PSP being this bad.

If you are using the PS3 as a benchmark, then no system has been this bad at launch.

[segagamer12]

No if I recall PSp sat on store shelves not goiong anywhere for a long time.



PS3 was front page news in our town, not the shrotages or anything, the loser, I mean entreperenuers who where only snatching themj up to resel on ebay was the big story.  

[KDR_11k]

They delivered a million PSP systems. While some areas were sold out others had a huge surplus and Sony had to retract their prepared "all sold out" press release a few days after issuing it.

[Talon]

I think Sony should have delayed the launch. They have already pushed the PAL territories back to March.  They clearly were not ready with the shortage of diodes and all those other excuses they came up with.

I suppose they were rushing to get it out before Thanks Giving but if the PS3 is sold out for the next month they wont be making money (or loss) on their hardware sales.

Its kind of like deja vu, I remember the exact same thing happening with Microsoft last year.  Rush to get the console out, its sold out everywhere delay launching in PAL territories until March.  You would think that Sony would learn from Microsoft's mistakes and try to capitalise on it.  Microsoft have now had the 360 out for a year and have ironed out all their supply issues and are starting to steam roll.  Sony really cant afford to make mistakes like this.

Lets hope Nintendo dont follow suit.

[KDR_11k]

Their shareholders would've been angry had they missed the Decemberween sales, no matter how much they'd talk about production problems.

[archioverload]

Yes.

[couchmonkey]

Also yes.  Plus Sony wants something out there to show people it won't be Xbox 360 forever.