In a few hours, stores around the country will begin selling Sony’s latest creation and virtual gasoline will be poured on flamewars across the Internet. I say “virtual” in the previous sentence because as far as I know no one has literally been set on fire tonight while waiting in line. But the night is young, tensions are high, and reports of violence continue to trickle in. My fingers are crossed that we can get through this thing without any immolation.

As for the flamewars? I’m sure they have already begun to heat up. I picture some opportunistic and spoiled adolescent on the east coast huddled awkwardly in front of their 1080p LCD, PS3 glowing, and a USB keyboard splayed out before them boldly posting on the official Xbox forums:

ps3 is here and xbox sucx! Reply if you can, o wait 360 hasn’t have a borser LOLOLO!

On a whim I decided to do a real-time weapon switch, hop in my car, and take a tour of the various stores around me for massive damage. Are we tired of that meme yet? I want to make sure that I am being historically accurate. Here is what I found:

Best Buy

I’ve never felt as hated in my entire life. I would describe the approach as an icy gauntlet of glares. Forty people (and eighty eyes) all simultaneously thinking “This guy had better not be getting in line.” I spoke to two gentlemen at the end.

- What number are you guys?
“37 and 38.”

- Wow. How many systems are they getting?
“We think forty. That is what they are saying.”

- If you get one, will you keep it?
“No. Hell no. I mean, I want one. But have you seen the prices on eBay?”
“I was checking it all day, refreshing like crazy.”
“I saw one for a pre-order close at $5700. That’s just the piece of paper. The ticket. The actual console will probably be worth more.”
“That is what I am hoping for.”
“Me too.”

Walmart

These people were too cold to hate me. There was no room for tents, but was there room for hope? I spoke to a woman toward the middle of the line and feigned ignorance.

- What is this line for?
“The Station 3.”

- Are you excited for it?
“Well, we have friends in Denver who are doing the same thing we are now.”

- Which is?
“We are going to sell this on eBay.”

What will cause the fall of man? Aliens in the 50’s, or greed? Dejected, I made my way back to the car.

Circuit City

As I pulled in, a car was just leaving the parking lot. Eight people stood in a pack in front of the store. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It all became clear once I got close enough to see the sign in the entryway stating that there were only eight consoles total.

- How long have you guys been here?
“2 AM last night.”
“What day is it?”
“Thursday.”
“Oh. Tuesday I guess.”
“That guy is the die hard. He has been here since Monday.”

- So are eight consoles from this store going on eBay tomorrow?
“You know that guy that was pulling out when you came in?”

- Yeah
“He just offered $1000 for a place in line. We all said no.”

- So wait, you guys are all keeping your systems?
Nods of agreement

- What are you most excited to do with it?
“I am going to play Soul Caliber 3 for the PS2. It has wireless controllers and I think I will really like that.”

Three stops. Playstation 3. Spiderman font. Faith in humanity restored.

There are going to be a lot of stories in the coming days about how no one really bought the system to play it and that the launch was just an eBay gold rush. But just remember that there were eight guys who were genuinely excited to spend the night on the pavement in sub-freezing temperatures for the privilege of dropping $600 to play a year-old Playstation 2 fighting game. Without rumble. And one of them looked almost exactly like David Bowie from Labyrinth.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 3:23 am and is filed under Sony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.