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.”
Nope, just a clown!
The reason they don't is because the system always has problems with it. It's pretty much a beta testing of the PS3 right now...peoples will break after they spent 3000 dollars on it and they will have to wait to get a new one which most of the bugs will be fixed.
You want to talk about creepy... Do you remember the "smaller" version of the cabbage patch kids, the "Premies?" As in prematures? Now THAT was CREEPY!
Mark
There have been some strange toy crazes over the last few years. The most recent I remember was the "Tickle Me Elmo". I never liked Elmo to begin with, but some folks just went insane over that one.
Of course, that PC would not play PS3 games, which presumably is a reason why people are buying the PS3. I assume that most PS3 owners already own a PC. Also, that PC probably wouldn't be $600 if it had a BD drive like the PS3 has.
Yes, it's Sony's fault. For making a product that lots of people actually want. Shame on them.
Sony's next shipment should contains 20 units.
The only solution to this situation is a windfall profits tax plain and simple!
I couldn't believe it either, six times the price. That's capitalism at its best.
So how do you spend your free time? Don't you have any hobbies?
Plenty of hobbies: Camping, Hiking, Photography, Travel, Bicycling.
I prefer to live in the REAL world as opposed to a virtual one.
FReegards!
I'm glad you're healthy enough to enjoy "the real world." My husband on the other hand is serious ill and in a wheelchair so we enjoy our home theater system.
Oh My! I am sorry to hear about your husband's illness. Certainly for anyone homebound, something like this is good to keep the mind sharp. But I'm sure you and your husband weren't camped outside Best Buy for three days waiting for the latest version.
There are lots of kids who are insulin resistant and/or developing adult-onset Diabetes before they even reach young adulthood. This is due in large part to the fact that they are not as active as kids were years ago (i.e.: too many video games). And I wonder why otherwise healthy people (Like the one's I saw literally camping with tents on the sidewalk outside Best Buy last Wednesday), would spend so much time and money on something that IMHO doesn't really do anything to enrich one's life.
With all the tents that were set up outside the store, I thought Best Buy was getting into the sporting goods line as well as electronics. Some of those tents were impressive. But I'd rather pitch one out in the woods......cleaner air and nicer scenery.
FReegards, & God Bless you and your husband.
I don't see how that would work any better because when do they hand out the tickets? Right before you come in the door for the sale? The mob is still going to show up hoping to somehow get to the front of the line to get a ticket. If I owned a store I'd just have a lottery for them. Anyone that came in the store the day before the sale could get a ticket and on the day of the sale I'd just pull the tickets out of the hat. The person would have to be in the store for the drawing and pay for it on the spot. If they weren't there or couldn't pay you just go ahead and draw the next name. No one would have to camp out or stand in line. Just be there and be lucky.
I really think that Sony is partly to blame for launching the sales before they had enough units to come anywhere near meeting the large demand.
My wife stopped at a game store in the local mall to get a couple of games for my kid's birthday. While she was on line, the manager announced that they had just gotten a couple of extra PS3's. Just as my wife got to the cash register. She bought it on the spot
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