Posted on 11/18/2006 5:12:46 AM PST by Living Free in NH
A furious Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed yesterday to bill Sony Corp. for the chaos that swirled around the release of its PlayStation 3 machine after Boston police had to quell crowds grown frenzied and unruly by the hype surrounding the coveted consoles.
“We had to rush in 12 police cars with officers there and take them off the streets of our city where they’re doing their patrols, to squelch the crowd that we had there,” Menino said, referring to a throng of 500 at Copley Place.
“It’s something that should not be tolerated,” he said. “It’s wrong to take advantage of the public that way, wrong by the manufacturer and by the retailer.”
Japan-based Sony made only 400,000 PlayStation 3’s available for the product’s launch, and thousands camped out for days at stores across the nation for a shot at shelling out $500-plus for the holiday must-have.
“The mayor feels this is a ploy by big business to fill the pockets of their stockholders on the public’s back without any regard for public safety,” said Menino’s spokeswoman, Dot Joyce.
Police had to control crowds at the Copley Plaza Mall’s Sony Style, where throngs rushed the doors at 5 a.m., and at the Fenway Best Buy, where more than 400 people were lined up by noon Thursday.
“It was ridiculous,” said Fernando Villanueva, 22, of the South End, who camped out in the rain starting Wednesday and paid $630 for a PS3. “We tried to keep it orderly by creating a list and having a roll call every half hour,” he said. “But the store said our list was meaningless; it’s going to be a mad rush, and whoever gets through the doors first gets one.”
Police eventually convinced Best Buy to honor the list. But elsewhere, mobs of customers stampeded into stores, injuring a man in Wisconsin and forcing authorities to close a Wal-Mart in California.
In Connecticut, two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people outside a Putnam Wal-Mart at 3 a.m. Michael Penkala of Webster refused to give up his money and was shot, police said. He was in stable condition yesterday at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester with non-life-threatening injuries, said Connecticut State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance.
Sony spokesman Dave Karraker said 400,000 PS3’s were all the company could produce for the launch. The chaos “is not something we planned or foresaw,” he said.
If Sony didn’t, nearly everyone else seemed to know that limited supplies and high demand were a formula for trouble.
“All this hype was created by some marketing ‘genius’ who didn’t think out the end game,” said Hub public relations guru George Regan. “When you have people waiting for hours, even days, in the rain, and someone gets hurt, all for the ‘privilege’ of paying $600 for some game, sooner or later, it’s going to backfire.”
Typical Massthink.
Yeah, doesn't Sony know who they are?
If I pull up to a store and there are 100 people on-line to buy this game, that tells me that I'm not getting one at said store. Why these morons gng up by the hundreds is beyond me. THEY are responsible. Nobody, least of all Sony, made them act like a bunch of idjits.
What do you excpect from Boston, though?
Did anyone expect Mumbles to do anything else?
The guy thinks he's a conglomeration of Huey Long and Kennedy. He rules his fiefdom and punishes all who oppose. Who cares if someone died from the Big Dig... as long as his friends made money off of it.
Its Boston. Unruly public gatherings / demonstrations have been going on for over 200 years - just ask some guy named George.
That mayor is no better than the imam in Austrailia that said Muslim men around women in skirts and high heels were like alley cats around a can of tuna, unable to control themselves.
I mean, how can the mayor expect *anyone* to control themselves when a game console is released in limited quantities. Look at *all* the mayhem across the nation in every city these things were delivered /s.
Ahhhhh!
We have a thin veneer of civilization covering our primitve animal drive.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Hey mayor, how is it Sony's fault that individuals act like Ma$$holes?
It was ridiculous, you ecumenically ironic moron, because YOU caused the entire situation.
The fools with more money than brains who buy them fuel this kind of fire, but that's what freedom is all about. If you wish to overpay for a toy, it is your right.
The crowd (mob) mentality, reminiscent of South American, and even some European, soccer fans, has been evident in this country for some time. We have riots after national championship games, won or lost, quite frequently.
I do not believe that marketing and advertising execs are totally blameless for this particular phenomenon. Why such a limited number produced? Some people would be reminded of oil-refinery capacity.
No one, of yet, has been able to encapsulate and communicate all of the effects (damage) caused by the modes of thinking and operating, that have become "de rigueur" since the mid 1960’s. There are bits and pieces scattered about, but people would be amazed, IMHO, if they could see the big-picture. Maybe they would stop asking the question: What happened to my culture, my way of life, my very children?
If that's what the mayor thinks, Dot, then he's an idiot. Stockholders aren't some exclusive club. The "public" can buy stock and have their pockets filled too. Or they can be part of a mob. Really, it all boils down to choice.
Sort of like being a Dim politian, isn't it...
This probably won't be a welcomed response, so please refrain the flame. Personally, I cannot see waisting hours on end on an activity so unproductive as playing video games, much less wasting three valuable days of my life camped in front of a store for said video games.
But......to each their own, I suppose.
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