PS3 availability

noimposse

cheddar wrote:

Lol, if they're sitting in the back of TRU then the manager should get some stockboy to stack them out front :rolleyes:. If they're gonna hide them in the back, what do they expect? People just assume the wiis and the ps3s will be sold out.

Toys R Us dosent just put consoles and games out on shelves. If you look at the videogame section of the store they just put up copies of the boxes and artwork on the wall and then have paper tickets that you bring to the register so the cashier can go out back and grab it for you.

Given those situations and the actual advertisement of the system in the store I would assume they would sell more....but they haven't.

cheddar

I'm not saying that the ps3 is the #1 selling game console. There are reports that it may not be meeting the lofty expectations of #1 status.

http://www.vgcharts.org/news.php?id=58

But just because it won't reach ps2 status (was it ever supposed to?) doesn't mean the machine is dying. The ps1 and ps2 were mutant run away hits that dominated the market with over 100 million sold of each machine and far outstripped competitors like the xbox at only 30 million sold.

But even the article citing missing sales targets has the ps3 selling 10-11 million machines a year. That could beat the 360 sales figures in it's first year of at most 10 million shipped in a year with no next gen competition whatsoever. And I'm not saying the 360 is dead. A lot can change in the future as the ps3 console drops in price and adds new games. I've played the downloadable turismo HD and the motostorm demos and they look amazing, although motostorm looks more fun to play, falling off cliffs, exploding cars, bodies flying through the air... I haven't seen anything that compares to the graphics of turismo on the 360. The cars and environment look showroom real. If they can put those graphics in an FPS with good gameplay (killzone?) and drop the price a little on the console it could completely change the landscape.

I'm just saying that there are a lot of people that like predicting doom and gloom for the ps3 with even a hint of not meeting the expectations set by the ps2. And it's just too early to be making these predictions of death and dying.

When I was searching for my ps3 this week I hit CC, BB, Costco, Frys, TRU, and wallmart. There were no promotions, no stacks of empty boxes, just empty store shelves until I drove 50 miles outside of the San Jose area to a wallmart superstore and scored their last one. I'm not denying that other areas have them, just don't assume that nobody's moving them. And I went into a bestbuy at Christmas and ran into a solid wall of premium 360 systems as I entered the store. When there's a solid wall promotion of in stock ps3s at big box stores and they can't move them, then yeah, I'd say it's time for sony to worry. But I don't think we're there yet...

cheddar

scottvamp wrote:

Cheddar, did ya get the firmware updates all in?

Firmware update was the first thing I did. After getting the wireless to work. It was pretty painless considering all the security hoops I make my wireless devices jump through. No problems at all with the setup start to finish including hdmi.

The resistance demo looks good. Should have fun shopping this weekend.

krabby5

cheddar wrote:

When I was searching for my ps3 this week I hit CC, BB, Costco, Frys, TRU, and wallmart. There were no promotions, no stacks of empty boxes, just empty store shelves until I drove 50 miles outside of the San Jose area to a wallmart superstore and scored their last one. I'm not denying that other areas have them, just don't assume that nobody's moving them. And I went into a bestbuy at Christmas and ran into a solid wall of premium 360 systems as I entered the store. When there's a solid wall promotion of in stock ps3s at big box stores and they can't move them, then yeah, I'd say it's time for sony to worry. But I don't think we're there yet...

I don't know..I always see PS3's available...and of course yer gonna see a wall of 360's at Christmas time...they already sold 10 mil and don't have shortages..

I finally caved and bought a 360 last week after never owing the original Xbox. I had a PS1 and a PS2..never wanted or needed any other console..

But, as of right now, I couldn't see the benefit of me buying a PS3..I don't have a HD tv yet and there are no games yet..

But I can tell you right now, XBox live is gonna be REAL hard to top. I never knew how cool that was until last week, when I bought the 360.

As far as Im concerned, I hope they both do well..it only benefits us in the long run...

cheddar

krabby5 wrote:

I don't know..I always see PS3's available...and of course yer gonna see a wall of 360's at Christmas time...they already sold 10 mil and don't have shortages..

Not trying to knock the 360. They shipped about 10 million with almost no competition. Now that the wii and ps3 are around, we'll have to see what happens xbox-wise. But I agree with you. Live is great. Before I got gears of war, I was on live playing lots of halo 2. Haven't played multiplayer over sony's network yet. But the marketplace works pretty much the same. Demos, video, downloadable content, trailers...they just have to fill out the offerings and I don't see any advantage there.

Good you have plenty of ps3s in MN. That means that mere mortals can finally pick them up at leisure where you live. I was just saying not to assume that there still aren't shortages in other cities. The wii has already won this round, no doubt about that. But all three consoles will still be alive and kicking by next Christmas. And they should all be showing their real potential with 2nd and 3rd generation titles and fully available and hopefully discounted consoles (the wiis in my area were only available in $499 bundles at TRU :rolleyes:). Should be a great year for gaming and home theater overall! I'm already enjoying my stuff and the year's just started .

Edit: Checked ebay, and they still seem to be selling for about cost plus tax or a little more when you add shipping. So they can't be that 'available' or people wouldn't even bother paying more than $600 on the bay.

PhantomOG

cheddar wrote:

Edit: Checked ebay, and they still seem to be selling for about cost plus tax or a little more when you add shipping. So they can't be that 'available' or people wouldn't even bother paying more than $600 on the bay.

It's not even funny how many items are sold everyday on ebay for prices higher than your local B&M stores and even online stores like Amazon. I'm not saying the PS3 is dead, but you can't exactly use ebay as a true gauge.

I've seen tons of USED items go for more on ebay than they do new from respected online stores. I don't understand it, but it happens all the time.

cheddar

Well,

The top 5 closing soonest non 'featured' as of right now (last refresh) are:

Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) 60GB 2 bids $2,550.00 (This one is obviously not market price) Shipping $40.00 Closing in 5m

Playstation 3 Game 60GB 1 bid $690.00 shipping $14.05 closing in 7m

Sony PS3 60 GB (comes with games) 20 bids $660.00 shipping $125.00 closing in 10m

Sony PS3 Playstation 3 60GB no bids $620.00 shipping $45.00 closing in 13m

Sony PlayStation 3 - 60 gig 18 bids $610.00 shipping Free closing in 15m

So I'm not saying that the $2550 should be used as a gauge. But when the market price is consistently higher or even at retail plus tax, the item is not commonly 'walk-in' available. Just basic economics. They are far more available than before. As market ebay prices are very near retail. I saw a lone 20GB at a large target just yesterday night. But they just aren't piling up on the shelves in EVERY city like people seem to be hinting at.

Compare the 360 which is defintely 'walk-in' available:

Xbox 360 Premium 22 bids $380.00 shipping $25.00 closing in 3m

Xbox 360 Premium 13 bids $335.00 shipping $34.99 closing in 10m

Xbox 360 Core System (broken) 17 bids $100.00 shipping $12.99 closing in 30m

Xbox 360 Premium 28 bids $345.06 shipping Not specified closing in 43m

Xbox 360 Premium (comes with games) 18 bids $400.00 shipping $25.00 closing in 44m

The price is almost always below retail plus tax because people can just walk in and buy them pretty much at every target or wallmart in the country.

Edit: Sorry, should have said that these items are listed as new except where specified.

audiobliss

So, how does this online stuff work? With XBox live and whatever Sony is calling their network for the PS3...are there fees? Or can you just play your online-capable game through the network with others for free?

What about playing online with the PS2? Wasn't there a modem or some such you could plug into the back of the PS2? I'm still discovering capabilities of the PS2...ie...I just discovered and started using the USB ports on the front of mine...:p

krabby5

audiobliss wrote:

So, how does this online stuff work? With XBox live and whatever Sony is calling their network for the PS3...are there fees? Or can you just play your online-capable game through the network with others for free?

What about playing online with the PS2? Wasn't there a modem or some such you could plug into the back of the PS2? I'm still discovering capabilities of the PS2...ie...I just discovered and started using the USB ports on the front of mine...:p

I just bought a 360 and Xbox live is awesome (I never had the original XBox).

Basically when you start up the 360, you automatically sign in to Live...Once you know your friends gamertags, you can add them to your friends list. When they're online, you can chat with them or invite them to play with you, which is very easy to do.. You can even see what games your friends have and compare how well they are doing compared to you..it's incredible..

You can download demos free, tv shows, Xbox arcade games..

It costs $59.99/year for Xbox live, whoch allows you to play online against others...or if you just want to download demos and play in the arcade, it's free..

overall, I think the XBox Live is easily the best value you can get for the 360...

I didn't realize how cool it was until I actually bought a 360.

cheddar

audiobliss wrote:

So, how does this online stuff work? With XBox live and whatever Sony is calling their network for the PS3...are there fees? Or can you just play your online-capable game through the network with others for free?

What about playing online with the PS2? Wasn't there a modem or some such you could plug into the back of the PS2? I'm still discovering capabilities of the PS2...ie...I just discovered and started using the USB ports on the front of mine...:p

The biggest difference between the two is that live has been around since the original xbox, always for a fee. With the 360 they added the marketplace where you could download stuff for free like demos or other stuff for a small fee. And they started to keep track of all the progress you've made in games and gave you a reputation score all for public view and bragging rights. Yes, it's very cool.

Sony's online service is FREE. So far, except whatever downloadable content they might charge a small fee for in the future. It's only been around since the ps3 launched. So it's untested and I'm sure they'll make all sorts of improvements and changes to it as it gets out of the gate. That said, outwardly, it offers the same basic stuff as Live marketplace-wise. I haven't played any online games yet, so I don't know how it compares to Live. But it does track progress and allows you to rank yourself against others depending on the game. There is a demo of gran tourismo HD and it records all your game times and ranks you against all the other people who have logged in their times. So again, the same basic functionality. But I can't comment specifically on any online fragfest implementations as I don't have any non-downloaded games yet. The multiplayer on the 360 is great.

audiobliss

Sweet, thanks for the answers. $60 really isn't that bad, but free is sweet.

cheddar

The ps3 is now available online through the big box retailers. Looks like supply is really coming on strong. BB is sold out. Walmart is pushing a $900 bundle. Go figure. But you can get still get a 60GB system for retail price at CC.

And CC already has half as many reviews and ratings for it as the 360 does. Looks like they're still moving.