1) That seems like quite a lot of games since game makers just started getting
developer kits for the final, finished hardware design.

2) According to Gamespress.com, which isn't the Bible of course, there are
currently 33 titles scheduled for release on the PS3 between now and the end of
2007, including Call of Duty 3, Stranglehold, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas.
That's a far cry from 100. Surely, there are many titles in the works that
haven't been announced yet. But by my math, that would mean that a third of all
PS3 titles are currently unannounced and flying under the radar, which makes no
sense from Sony's point of view because they want big titles to hype their new
console.

Something's fishy here. I'm not saying that Sony and Harrison are exaggerating,
but I'm puzzled nonetheless. I think the company may be feeling the heat after
being showed up at E3 by Nintendo and Wii, which has continued to steal Sony's
thunder in the ensuing months with its lower price point and allegedly shorter
game development cycles. Now comes word that Ubisoft is absolutely ga-ga over
Wii and has seven titles in development for the console.

I guess that's what bothers me. Sony has reeked of desperation and its
executives have been very defensive since PS3 fizzled at E3. I'd feel a lot
better if game developers and publishers were more vocal in their support of the
new console and were enthusiastically announcing exclusive, blockbuster titles
for PS3. Instead, it just seems like developers and publishers are tepidly
defending Sony out of loyalty rather than heralding the console as a result of
true excitement.

Florida, which boasts a tremendously large senior citizen population, has a
number of adult arcades and rec rooms. For years, these businesses would pass
themselves off as nothing more than a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant for retirees --
indeed, they exploited an exemption to state gambling laws called the Chuck E.
Cheese exemption, which allows coin-operated games that require a level of skill.

In case you missed it, this issue gained national attention this week when an
adult aracade owner named Gale Fontaine, who was on trial in Florida for running
an illegal casino, was acquitted of the charges by a jury of her peers. Fontaine,
who owns the Tropicana Rec Room in Pompano Beach, Fla., is also president of the
Florida Arcade Association. Again, the FAA is not what you think it is. The
industry advocacy group has nothing to do with actual video games.

The state attorney's office in Broward County, Fla., brought the charges against
Fontaine as part of a statewide crackdown by Florida on the adult arcade
industry, which has grown rapidly in recent years. Why? Well, because they do
have slot machines, which are gambling machines, right?

Wrong. According to Fontaine's defense attorney and the FAA, the rec rooms don't
qualify because the slot machines "require an application of skill." A level of
skill? Come again? Anyone who has ever played any type of slot machine know
definitely that the only skill involved is the ability to press a button or pull
a lever. There's a reason that slot machines are called "one-armed bandits."

Yet somehow, the jury allowed Fontaine and the FAA to exploit a ridiculous
loophole big enough to drive a truck -- or a bus-load of senior citizens --
through it. Now other adult arcades like the Tropicana Rec Room will masquerade
under the guise of being a Chuck E. Cheese or other video game arcades.

A crowd of supports cheered the verdict and the now-free Fontaine. Protesters
who felt the state was unjustly persecuting elderly Floridians were shouting
"Right to play! Right to play!" -- even though, as common sense would dictate,
no such right exists. This is hardly fair, though it's understandable why a jury
and even some politicans would cave to the desires of the state's senior citizen
population and its formidable lobby. But it's upsetting for me, because while
the elederly in Florida get to circumvent the law and GAMBLE, which is illegal
in the state and also clearly addictive, real video gaming continually comes
under fire from experts and legislators who want to outlaw or excessively
regulate it.

There's an old saying: what's good for the goose should be good for the
granny.

Apparently, the rules of sports media can now apply to technology. Despite all
the negative press reports, despite all of the recent misteps from Sony, despite
the big lead that Xbox 360 has in the race and despite all the buzz around
Nintendo's Wii, one technology analyst firm has declared Sony's PlayStation 3 as
the clear winner in the U.S. next-generation console race. The Yankee Group
recently issued a report that predicts Sony will sell 30 millions PS3s in the
States by 2011 while Microsoft will sell 27 million 360s, capturing 40 percent
of the market and closing the gap on its chief rival.

The Yankee Group also reports that the Wii will be a big loser with just 11
million units sold, despite have a much smaller price point and a whole lot more
positive vibes out there. According to the report, Yankee Group analysts simply
don't believe the feel-good Nintendo nostalgia and glowing reviews from game
developers will translate into big sales for Wii. Also, the report notes that
console sales will be down overall compared to the previous PS2/Xbox/GameCube
cycle because of higher costs and confusion concerning the competing HD DVD and
Blu-ray formats.

Will Nintendo make the Yankee Group eat crow? Check back with us in five
years.

Khaaaaaaan!!!! KHAAAAAAAAN!!!!!

Whatever. Maybe this will lead to an outcry from jilted North American and
European gamers (who will pay a higher price for in U.S. dollars for the console
than Americans -- more than $800 for the premium 60 GB version!). But I'm not
holding my breath. Why? Because I think that Sony's move was prompted by
Nintendo's less costly Wii, which has absolutely owned the next-generation
console buzz since E3. Microsoft hasn't particularly excelled at winning over
the Japanese crowd in the past, so it's easy to see why Sony may be more
concerned with the hometown favorite and lovable underdog Nintendo.

I'm not the only one who suspects that Sony has a little case of Wii-envy. Check
out the latest href="http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/09/22/sony_price_cut_nintendo_wii/">report
from Wolfgang at TG Daily.

Is Sony running out of material? It certainly seems like it. A keen observer at the blog Gaming Edge picked up on a striking similarity at the recent Tokyo Game Show. Ken Kutaragi, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment and the father of the PlayStation, delivered a highly anticipated keynote address at TGS. While most of the buzz was about Kutarag announcing an unexpected price cut in Japan for the 20GB version of the new PlayStation 3, Gaming Edge's Rod Oracheski had a bit of deja vu and discovered that some of Kutaragi's speech was recycled -- word for word, apparently -- from a speech he gave in 2000 prior to the PlayStation 2 launch. Here are some excerpts of the speech:

"We need an open system. Like an internet. People can have a first hand experience: the network world of the game has to be open to everyone."
"Sony has Sony's agenda. But (I) want a very open platform, equal for every person."
"For instance: for movies. You looked at the [..] you can jack in and watch the new world. We are very lucky to live in this era. We try to open the door for the future."
"You can communicate to a new cybercity. This will be the ideal home server. Did you see the movie 'The Matrix'? Same interface. Same concept. Starting from next year, you can jack into 'The Matrix'!"

First off, let me just say that Oracheski has got one hell of a memory. You have to have a sharp eye (or ear) and a whole lotta video game industry knowledge to make that connection. Kudos to Gaming Edge!

Second, "The Matrix" was, like, 10 years ago.

Third, if this doesn't indicate that Sony is coasting on the remarkable success of PS2, then nothing will.

I remember a time when Sony was king of quite a few hills, and king of no bigger a hill than the video game console market. The word PlayStation is synonymous with a gaming box attached to the TV. Sony is master of this market no more, however, and the worry now is that they may crash out of it altogether.

To put it bluntly, I'm not sure if Sony could successfully organise a piss up in a brewery these days, where the gaming market is concerned. The first signs of worry came in 2005 with the PlayStation Portable. The handheld console is a nice piece of kit, but it's over expensive, dogged by piracy and poor format support in the form of UMD movies and games.

From a business point of view, Sony couldn't even roll it out to the world without a bit of a fiasco - anyone in Europe may recall that the entire European allotment of the PSP was shipped to North America, where expected frenzied buying never emerged, leaving Europeans to wait a half a year for the handheld and American warehouses full of them.

It's the PlayStation 3 which is the biggest concern for the company, however. I dunno about you, but when a company stands up and says "Expect it to be expensive, ohh and we're delaying it again... and hiking the price again... and not including some of its best features as standard, like HDMI cables... ohh, now we are, but we have to raise the price again because of it..." Well, I'm not particularly confident in that company. I'm even less impressed when they stand out on stage and arrogantly proclaim to the world at large that "The next-gen doesn't begin until we say it does" when, to be frank, if we left it up to them mankind would probably never get out of bed in the morning.

The PlayStation 3 is setting itself up to be a massive failure, at the very least a large loss-leader for Sony. This lot think that it might bankrupt the company entirely. I doubt that a little, but the numbers are interesting to look at; certainly the "next-gen" isn't going to make Sony a particularly rich company in the short to medium run.

When Microsoft came to market with the Xbox we all laughed at the massive losses the company was incurring - and still is incurring with the 360 - to grow itself a market position. Now Sony too is going to make a massive loss on their console... funny how the "norm" can switch so quickly to such a polar opposite position. It would seem that the boys at Microsoft have a lot more long-term brains than anyone has given them credit for with their games business.

If we sit back and take stock of what this "next-gen" in gaming has delivered, and will be delivering, to us I would say that the entire thing is one major cock-up, and gamers have been fools to be taken in by it.

The Xbox 360, the first herald of this next-generation of loveliness. What did we get with it? A whole heap or PR tripe, leading up to a disastrous launch pockmarked by shortages; alleged price hiking by retailers, via forced selling of expensive bundles to consumers; and then a first year of operation which basically saw Microsoft and partner developers sitting on their hands waiting for the launch of the PlayStation 3 to be, coincidentally, also marked by the launching of big-name titles for the 360.

Ohh, and one other thing: All new games now cost about ten or fifteen quid more than they used to, depending on where you live. Having been around games for such a long time, I recall when around €30 (before we switched to Euro in these parts, so I'm calculating a little there) was the norm for a new game; then €50 and now, for the pleasure of new titles on the Xbox 360, €75, and more such price hikes expected for the PlayStation 3 games. Allow me to give you another view of €75. It's €25 short of €100, and we're seeing such price inflation all over the world. (I could complain that while €1 is worth about $1.25, we get a 1:1 conversion ratio on these prices, so a $600 console actually costs Europeans $750.) The next-gen is late, not up to much and expensive.

Over the past year and a half alone we have witnessed some amazing cock ups where video game hardware launches have been concerned. You may recall the PlayStation Portable launch, particularly if you happen to be a European left out of pocket for six months after Sony panicked and sent all its European units to sit in warehouses in what turned out to be a soft US market.

More vividly, perhaps, folks might recall the launch of the Xbox 360 alluded to above, which saw panic buying and retailers like BestBuy allegedly hiking prices and profiteering by forcing consumers to buy expensive bundles instead of just the console and the game they wanted.

Shortages and extortionate pricing seems to be the order of the day where modern console launches are concerned, and for the launch of the PlayStation 3 Sony execs seem to have studied these debacles carefully and chosen all the worst elements to emulate in their launching of the "Next-generation"; which won't be starting until they say so, apparently - November in North America and sometime in the misty sands of 2007 for Europe (don't tell me you're not expecting further delays?)

Shortages? Check, as we've already seen with the pushing back of the European release. Something like 400,000 units for the lucky North Americans, who will actually be getting to crawl over one another for the console this side of Yule... 400,000 units is about one for every 1,285 people, I believe. If you ignore the Canadians, or just divert their shipments, that's one unit for every 750 people... still a lot of bodies to clamour over to get that special "value" bundle that'll be waiting for you.

Shortages lead to price hiking even in the pre-order stages, and considering the PlayStation 3 is expensive to begin with you can now expect to pay around $2,500 on eBay for a $100 pre-order slot that's not even a guarantee that you'll get a PS3 on launch (same, incidentally, as it was with the Xbox 360... a pre-order isn't worth much more than $100 these days, eh?)

As much as retailers took a good bit of flak for the dogs dinner they made of the Xbox 360 launch, will anyone in this room, cynical or not, stand up and tell me that with a comparatively tiny launch allocation, extremely high demand and really expensive peripherals and games to tout; we won't be seeing a repeat of the Xbox 360 "value bundles" come November?

What, at the end of the day, are gamers scratching one another's eyes out to get at? Fancy graphics, online capabilities and a game or two that'll still be worth playing in six months time. There are better things to get excited about in life, I daresay (and the most amusing thing about it all is that the one console that looks truly innovative, the Wii, is the cheapest and least sophisticated looking of the lot.) I for one don't intend to buy into it. Unfortunately for those of you who are intent on wasting your money, I'm in Europe and so I'm not actually one less person for you to bid against on that $2,500, non-assured unit, pre- order.

I enjoy doing a bit of math in Google every now and again, and I just copped something amazing: The Nintendo Wii is going to have more than double the revenue of the Sony PlayStation 3 come November.

In the US of A Sony is promising 400,000 units of the PS3 at launch. Nintendo is promising around 2 million Wii's for the

US

Now, if we give Sony the benefit of the doubt and say that every PS3 in the US will be sold at the higher $600 price point, and the Wii is obviously at $250 across the board, that means that Sony stands to have revenues of $240 million; Nintendo $500 million, presuming they sell all their consoles. Sony will obviously make much less than $240 million as not everybody is going to be buying their PS3 at $600, so if Nintendo fails to sell off all of their launch stock they still have plenty of margin for error to be able to claim 100% more revenue than Sony.

Half the price and double the revenue, I still maintain that the Nintendo Wii will be the real console to beat. In the past Nintendo has always had the creative edge in certain areas - in 2006 it would seem that they have done their sums as well. Of course, as DFC Intelligence helpfully pointed out, the Wii has to be more than a fad to be truly successful. It's my opinion however that with a wide range of games and the reasonable price point, the Nintendo Wii would be an attractive bet even without its controller.

Fox News Flash: PLAYSTATION PORNABLE!!!! EEEVVVVIIILLLL!!!!!!

So, Fox 29 has wheeled out the plastic newscasters and concerned inflections to have a go at the PlayStation Portable. Apparently you can access pornography on it via the WiFi browser. I Am Personally Shocked And Appalled By This. Watch the video, or allow me to paraphrase.

MALE FOX TYPE: Is the PSP on your kids Christmas list? Well, mmuuuaaahhhaaaa, boy do I have news for you!

FEMALE FOX TYPE: I don't want to ruin anyone's Christmas... it's just that it helps ratings

FEMALE FOX VOICEOVER: Portables are all the rage. Everyone has one... and they're Insidious. You can do more than play football or race cars... and no, I'm not mentioning the violent video games we trashed in our previous video game spot... yet. I want to make this out as a wholesome product before destroying everything you believe in. Mmmmuuuaaaahhhhaaaaa.

This thing is actually a giant porn downloading super-computer!

CONCERNED POLICE OFFICER: Parents can watch their kids in the kitchen, or the living room... but not while they have a mobile PSP. Or, maybe just if they just don't care.

FEMALE FOX VOICEOVER: Pandora's box!!!!! ...Erm, what's a Pandora's box?

[Porno flashes on screen, cue concerned mother strapping in child]

CONCERNED MOTHER: What the hell dude?! This thing can access the internet?!!?!!?! And it's meant for kids???!!!!! Why didn't I read the friggen manual???!?!?!?!?!?!

[Cue kid who looked at porn on his PSP... using school WiFi... wait, no, wait, I think I might just see a way in which that might have been prevented... Nope, there it goes again... let's just get back to Banning This Sick Filth]

APOLOGETIC CHILD: I swear I turned it off right when the naughty pictures flashed up on screen.

INTERNET SECURITY EXPERT: Ohh, it's incredibly easy to find. It's that other evil company, Google. In fact, they're all evil in that technology world.

FEMALE FOX VOICEOVER: The stooges of pornography are even cashing in on porn on the PSP! But erm, and you can stop listening to me now, you need a credit card and actual money to be of any interest to pornographers. But hey, supposing your kid gets a credit card? I mean, you bought them a PSP without thinking of the consequences, why not?

...Ugh, I canne go on. So boring, so clich馘 and so simplified it could only be aimed at an audience of easily frightened parents who will, never the less, go out there and give their kids a piece of technology without understanding how it works or even, apparently, what it can do.

According to Tokyo-based Kotaku reader Dirk Benedict, many PlayStation 3's sold on launch in Japan went to homeless and poor Chinese people; hired to stand in line and purchase the console for more wealthy individuals who are selling the units on for exorbitant prices online.

If Benedict's letter to Kotaku, and the images he captured, are to be believed then the foul-up that was the 80,000 - 100,000 "strong" PS3 launch in Japan really went far, far worse than expected; with the first person to be congratulated for purchasing a PS3 in fact being a hired Chinese line-waiter who didn't buy any software for the console.

These console launches have surpassed stupidity at this stage. People getting in line over a week before the console launches, with the 10^th person in line not even being assured of getting a unit, and line-sharks buying the console to sell it on for big profit. Supplying enough units to last about two seconds on retail, in a world where paid-for pre-orders aren't even an assurance of getting a product on launch, is really and truly farcical.

I've come to the point of loathing just about everything about the PlayStation 3 launch, just as I did with the Xbox 360 launch last year. Limited supply after drumming up huge demand; exorbitant prices; poor organisation; company arrogance in telling us all about the next- gen, and then wondering why the first guy you've pulled up on stage to congratulate is, in fact, a poor man working for a line-shark; and all for some new tat, same as the old tat but with better graphics. Jeez guys, it's a video game console, let's stop with the tunnel vision here.

If anyone needs me I'll be off reading a good book.

The day after TG Daily's Humphrey Cheung interviewed about 10 gamers that were waiting in line at the Best Buy in Burbank, Calif., the diehard PlayStation 3 fans were dispersed by Best Buy officials and local authorities. These loyal gamers had called in sick and quit their jobs - one even postponed his engagement because he didn't have enough cash to buy a sparkler and a PS3.

Okay, so maybe these guys aren't exactly heroes. Some may also refer to them as losers. But we may also know them by another name: martyrs. That's right - martyrs. Why? Because these young men were willing to sacrifice their time to be on the frontline of next generation gaming. As misguided as I think their efforts may be, I commend them for stepping up and dedicating themselves to their first love: PlayStation 3.They are hardcore gamers, plain and simple.

And yet, they got dumped by Best Buy. What happened? We're not quite sure. At least a few of the guys in line had been there for a few days. Why did the managers at Best Buy let them camp out for a few days and then suddenly change their policy, order the group to leave and then call the police? A couple of Kotaku's bloggers searched for answers at the Burbank Best Buy and got what I would term as a chilly reception. They were even told not to take pictures of the posted sign that stated lines were not allowed to form outside the store until the day before the launch (that would be Thursday, Nov. 16, for those keeping score).

I did some investigating of my own yesterday at my local Best Buy. I soon discovered that there were no lines or tents forming outside, but I didn't see a sign that prohibited such activities, either. That could be because the neighborhood was quite as nice as Burbank - or maybe the valley has more gamers than my 'hood, I just don't know. I went into the store and sure enough, there was a big, shiny PlayStation 3 in a display case in the center of the store. Some guy was playing Ridge Racer, and a few people were watching him and asking the nearby Best Buy employee when the console was going on sale. Next to the PS3 display, however, was a larger group rocking to Guitar Hero II (not on PS3), and a few more gamers trying to score a copy of Gears of War for the Xbox 360. Not sure what all of that means.

Back to the PS3 fans - it still bugs me that these guys got tossed. They waited in line for two or three or even four days and got nothing. Meanwhile, Sony was partying at a PS3 launch party in Beverly Hills last week with a bunch of celebrities like Chris Rock, Diddy, Paris and Nicky Hilton (the party was held at the Beverly Hilton, of course), David Arquette and, of course, everyone's favorite party girl Lindsay Lohan. So these celebrities like the PlayStation 3. BFD! The people whose opinions really matter were lined up outside, ready to wait out more than a week to be one of the first gamer's to get their hands on a PS3. So while Sony roles out the carpet for a bunch of non- gaming famous people, the real fans get left out in the cold.

Life is so unfair sometimes...

If one were to stack up the coverage of the PlayStation 3 since the weekend you could be forgiven for thinking that Sony has shipped the 4 million units they want to by March, instead of the 80,000 or so that have gone to Japan.

It's console launch week alright, and blanket headlines are screaming PS3 This, PS3 That With Accompanying Pictures of Cats For Comparison. Of course the most amusing thing about all of this is watching the looks on peoples faces when they realise that the next-gen, which apparently must be starting now, isn't actually the Orgasm ina Box they might have been promised previously.

The big complaint about the PS3 from the off this week is back compatibility. It's a selling point for Sony, who laughed at Microsoft's attempts for bridging the Xbox and 360; and now it turns out that big titles such as Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo are not working properly on the PS3, and there could be as many as 200 titles which won't see the light of day on Sony's "backwards compatible" console. Of course Sony are apologetic about the whole thing; though they didn't bother to tell anyone about the problem until it was pointed out by users. Is that my cynic sense activating?

Not even Wikipedia, bastion of worthwhile knowledge and the pursuit of human happiness through Comma Nazism and pedantry, has escaped the hardships of this console war. Apparently the vandals have been at it and the moderators have had to come in with their big sticks of revert edits and lock the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii articles away for their own protection. For shame, console fanboys.

In case anyone was wondering, I meanwhile continue to read my good book. Schott's Almanac 2007, if you must know. Cost me €22.99 (that's €23); I didn't spend weeks excitedly circle jerking with random people online in anticipation of its publication; and I'm quite possibly a better person for being able to tell you that last year 81 people were reported as having been struck by lightning in the UK and, curiously considering the abundance of lightning compared to volcanoes, 86 people were treated for injuries relating to the latter.

Analyst Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets has said that he expects Sony to ship 150,000 to 200,000 PlayStation 3's for the

US

This comes after Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) co-chairman Jack Tretton said last month that launch allocations were more of a "target" than a precise number; and after the company cut the Japanese launch allocation from 100,000 units to 88,400, according to official sales figures released after the PS3 launch there.

"We expect Sony to deliver 150-200k units to stores in the United States for the launch; consumers without pre- orders may find it difficult to locate an available system," said Sebastian "We expect sales of approximately 750k PS3s domestically by year end," he added.

Rumours have also begun to fly as to when exactly stores such as GameStop will actually ship their pre- ordered units to customers, with some indications that the units will not actually be shipped on November 17^th; rather, at some stage "before Christmas". This could be a further indication of lower than expected launch numbers for the PS3 in the

US

Sony had originally aimed to ship 2 million PS3s by the end of 2006, and even adding the rest of the world's launch numbers (including

Taiwan

Sebastian expects that Nintendo will ship 1.2 million units to the

US

It would appear that Sony has, once again, left it to the last minute to confirm, deny or stoke rumours of its own demise.

On my way home from the office last night, I drove buy a local Best Buy here in Los Angeles on Sawtelle Avenue. And sure enough, there more probably more than 100 people lined up waiting for the PlayStation 3 launch tonight at midnight. They sat in collapsible camping chairs, wrapped in blankets and other heavy layers, hunkering down for the night.

You see, even here in L.A., the weather gets cold at night during the fall and winter months. It's the desert, people - really hot and sunny during the day, and then colder than a witch's - well, you know - at night.

Anyway, they were lined up on a sidewalk that bordered the Best Buy building. Why? Because several PS3 fans that had arrived the day before were told they could not wait in line on store property. Apparently, this was part of a new company policy for the PS3 launch (check out Monday's blog post about gamers in Burbank, Calif., getting tossed). I guess I can't blame Best Buy for prohibiting people from camping out in front of its entrances. Frankly, I hate loitering, and the last thing I'd want as a store owner is to have a bunch of Jay & Silent Bob wannabes and skate rats scaring away customers.

However, I'm a little ticked off because Sony and its major retailers probably could have handled this better. Take the Best Buy on Sawtelle. The store managers tell the eager PS3 fans not to wait on store property. Okay, fine. That seems like a reasonable request. But then, according to folks waiting in line, Best Buy officials then informed the patient crew that there was no point waiting in line on the sidewalk because Best Buy was going to form its own "official" PS3 line and wouldn't honor the order of the sidewalk waiters - which, quite frankly, seems not only ridiculous but also mean-spirited.

Of course, the gamers in line protested. In fact, a couple intrepid gamers at the start of the line began calling local media and gaming press organizations to spread the word about Best Buy jilting them. They also began to organize their own "official" list so they could maintain order and keep track of everyone's place in line. Eventually, after the group complained vehemently and called in the press, Best Buy relented and agreed to honor the sidewalk line. Then the store manager told the crow that they would check each person's driver's license and write down their name and place in line. Then every two to three hours, a Best Buy employee would do a roll call down the line to see if people were still in line. I didn't get a chance to talk to Best Buy about the roll call system, so I can't assume that if a particular person was, say, in the bathroom and missed roll call they would somehow lose his or her place in line. Because that would really suck.

Stay tuned for more...

Low supply, high demand and even higher prices on eBay... If you couldn't see a bit of a PlayStation 3 related crime wave coming then you might want to save your $600 and get some laser eye treatment instead.

Engadget has the roundup of muggings, scuffles and even shootings (in

Texas

The Darwin Award has to go to an assista nt Wal-Mart manager in

West Bend

That may not have been breaking the laws of man, but it sure was a crime of stupidity...

Sheesh. The human capacity for stupidity never ceases to amaze me - particularly when you get more than two people in the same space.

"You know, two guys got robbed at gunpoint a few miles down the road," the police officer said.

I froze.

"Wait, what?"

Midnight was minutes away, and we were in the Circuit City store in Hawthorne, Calif. Two Hawthorne police officers described how authorities nearby had responded to two incidents involving thefts of PlayStation 3s by armed assailants. My TG colleagues and I had been chatting all day and night about what kind of chaos we might see at the midnight sales; we talked about the incident at the Super Wal-Mart in Palmdale, Calif., Wednesday, where several eager shoppers got violent and unruly, forcing the police to shut the store down. Then there was the ill-advised "musical chairs" incident at a Wal-Mart in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (which Aaron blogged about this peculiar incident the other day). And of course, there was the "drive-by" shooting - albeit with a pellet gun - that injured four people outside of a Best Buy in Kentucky. Okay, so it was a BB gun and not a Mac-10. Still, I was unnerved. Now I was hearing about real guns being used to rob two PS3 owners just a couple miles down the road.

All of the sudden, L.A. has turned into freakin' Baghdad. All over a video game console.

Quite frankly, I don't need this. I was freaking out Thursday night. I have no problem admitting that I was a little scared. I wasn't getting a PS3 last night, but did it matter? Would that really stop some insidious criminal lurking in the shadows of Circuit City who saw me walk into the store before midnight and walk out soon after sale started? It certainly didn't help one guy at the Best Buy in Alpharetta, Georgia. Kotaku reported on an unfortunate soul named Dave who was essentially stalked from one Best Buy all the way across town to another store and then had his car broken into by someone who assumed he had a PS3 in the trunk (turns out, he did not).

Well, the Hawthorne Circuit City certainly appeared to be a respectable location - no barbed wire fences nearby, no shopping carriages littering the sidewalks, no gun/pawn shops within my visual frame of reference. However, there were plenty of, um, shady-looking characters hanging around the store - some of whom I'm sure were gamers but others perhaps not. Luckily, there were no major incidents at Hawthorne; there were a few people in line that got a little pushy and had to be reprimanded by the cops. Oh, and there was one annoying chucklehead who was hanging around the line, without a PS3 shirt, who was talking smack to people while drinking a can of Miller Lite (smart kid - I heard he was later asked to leave by the police).

So we got in and out in one piece (for more on the PS3 launch at Circuit City, check out TG Daily). And as far as we know, none of the lucky gamers (or bloodthirsty capitalists) who got one of the 100 60GB PS3s that night were robbed or mugged or car-jacked. But I was dismayed to hear about the violence that had taken place Thursday night in other parts of the state and the country. One person was shot outside of a Wal-Mart in Connecticut by two armed men (no word on the victim's condition); two other gunmen robbed a GameStop in Elk Grove, Calif. Two more people were robbed in a PS3 line at a Circuit City in Springfield, Oregon. And more reports are trickling in about various muggings, beatings, stabbings and riots across the nation.

This is so sad. Honestly, what is the world coming to? On one hand, I'm happy to be alive and glad no one got hurt at the Circuit City sale here in L.A. On the other hand, the absurdity of all of this is pounding my head like jackhammer, I've got a killer headache, and I hope I never have to go through something like this again.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to got get ready for Nintendo's Wii launch party tonight.

If there's one thing we learn from major console launches, it is that technology and particularly gaming companies hold their customers in the utmost contempt. Customers are mugs who have money in their pockets, and as far as the gaming industry is concerned it seems to be a crying shame that they actually have to provide you with any product to get it.

Ultimate example: Pre-orders. We've all heard a great deal about these over the past couple of months - "PS3 Pre-orders sell out in seven minutes", "Pre- orders being sold on eBay" and so forth. Really and truly however, pre-orders should be renamed "Non-statuatory expressions of interest and tokens of false hope."

When Nintendo launched the Wii here in Europe yesterday there were many people with pre-orders who have been told that they're not going to get their orders by Christmas; though, paradoxically, any games they may have pre-ordered are now in the post while gamers who did manage to secure a Wii are scouring the country for extra supplies of actual software. We could, quite amusingly, now see games rather than consoles going on-sale on eBay.

One woman who spoke to the Beeb put it quite well: "I pre-ordered the console in November from Woolworths website for my son's Christmas present.

"I received an e-mail today informing me that as Nintendo had not shipped enough I might not receive my order.

"So the fact that I had the foresight to pre-order and not disappoint my son means very little as they obviously expect me to camp outside Woolworths for days on end."

Precisely. A pre-order is not a promise that you'll receive a console - indeed, a pre-order isn't for your benefit. It's something for the sales folk to smile about and send out press releases on the back of, while it's the guys and gals who freeze their nuts and other assorted pieces of fruit off in the December nights camping outside of HMV who get the units. Nobody wins, really, except the people selling the consoles: They know that 9/10 disappointed pre- orderers will pick up the console at a later date.

This might seem like a crazy idea, but how about we make pre-orders stick? That is, if you pre-order in the allotted amount of time, you get a unit. Crazy idea, huh? No camping outside of HMV, on top of your pre-order, and no disappointments at Christmas for those with foresight.

Fat chance, but a nice idea. One day, the consumer will be king. For now, he's just a walking, talking wallet.

Yes, you read that headline correctly. According to Research and Markets, Sony's PlayStation 3 will eventually win the hard-fought next-generation console race. It's time to ask a simple question: does this research firm know something that the rest of the world doesn't?

Let's think this through for a second. First, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has an enormous head start on Sony and has already sold around 10 million consoles. In fact, another research firm, NPD Group, recently reported that Xbox 360 sold 2 million units in the U.S. during the holiday season (November to Dec. 25). Plus, with hit titles like Gears of War and forthcoming games like Halo 3, the Xbox 360 has a stronger library of games than the PS3.

Then there's Nintendo's Wii, which sold nearly 2 million units in North America since its launch on November 19th and has attracted positive buzz like it was a giant flood light pulling in hapless moths. The Wii has gotten outstanding critical reviews for the most part, while the PS3 has been ravaged by negative reviews in the mainstream press from the likes of the New York Times.

Plus, the PS3 suffered shortages for its launch and sold less than half the number of Wiis Nintendo sold. Also, the PS3 launch library is significantly weaker and a number of big titles scheduled for 2007 will be available on the Xbox 360 and in some cases the Wii as well. Oh, and don't forget the seemingly endless stream of stories about people returning their PS3s because they couldn't sell them on eBay for a mammoth profit and numerous retailers with PS3s sitting on the shelves, unsold and collecting dust.

So why will the most expensive console with the least amount of buzz and positive reviews eventually win the race? That's a good question, and frankly, I don't have the answer. And I'm not sure that Research and Markets does either. I haven't read the report - because I don't have it - but here are some excerpts from the press release:

"The PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, dubbed the next generation of consoles, each hold a unique position with regard to console offerings. While Sony and Microsoft aim towards increased functionality as a key driver for adoption, Nintendo look for innovative game play and the elusive fun factor. The Sony PlayStation 3 is expected to win the console war in the long term with an install base of around 75 million globally by 2010. The console is not expected to dominate as much as its predecessor, the PS2, due to late launch issues in the PAL region and the early lead of Microsoft's Xbox 360."

If you figure this one out, please let me know.

Wow. PlayStation 3 is kind of like that hot cheerleader in high school that every guy wants to date, but for some reason she gets dropped down a peg or two, and then she's suddenly available but not nearly as many guys are lined up to date her.

I had been reading about how the PS3 wasn't selling for a couple weeks now, yet everywhere I looked for one, I came up empty. Well, today I finally scored. And I'm sure a lot of other folks did, too. I discovered that Amazon and Best Buy were offering 60 GB PS3s for the retail price. Finally! Wal-Mart and a few other sites also had PS3s, though some of the offering were bundles that cost up to $1,300.

I decided to go with Amazon because I get free two-day shipping and because my last experience with ordering online from a big retailer ended in extreme disappointment. I had order the Wii from Walmart.com and the bundle I was forced to buy included eight games, and only two of them showed up. The shipping service was also ridiculously slow. In short, it was a grueling experience that has led me to avoid Walmart.com at all costs.

I grabbed a 60 GB console, plus an extra wireless controller and a copy of Resistance: Fall of Man. I decided I was only going to purchase one game, Resistance, because I had no interest in shelling out another $60 for a weak launch title. I'm actually excited to play Resistance; I tried a demo version of the game at E3 last year, and it looked pretty good. Resistance and Heavenly Sword, which has been delayed until later this year, are pretty much the only two PS3 games that have interested me so far. I hope the launch library expands, and fast, because it's pretty weak so far.

Our long-awaited PlayStation 3 finally arrived at the THG office in all its 60 GB glory. We fired the new console up at the office on an HD display that had no HDMI connector, unfortunately, and I quickly started playing Resistance: Fall of Man. It was the only PS3 launch title that interested me since Heavenly Sword got delayed.

I had played a demo version of Resistance at E3 last year, and it actually looked pretty good. However, I started playing the game and after an hour plus of action, I felt the experience ended up being just okay. This was for a few reasons. First, the game's graphics looked mediocre without a true HD picture. Second, playing the full game instead of a dressed up demo revealed some of Resistance's flaws, such as its painfully linear maps, lack of destructible environments, and buildings that you can't enter. And third, Resistance feels like an also-ran after playing Gears of War.

I'm no Gears fanboy - I think it's an excellent game, though not a great one - but I can say it's a beautifully designed title with jaw-dropping visuals and plenty of action. So far, Resistance doesn't even come close to Gears.

Eh. My PS3 experience is not off to a good start. Maybe Resistance would be better on a big HD screen, perhaps. Well, a bunch of us at THG decided to unplug the console and head over to one of our apartments - the one with the 56-inch Samsung flat screen HD T.V. We'll see what happens later tonight...

So last night we decided to bring our new PlayStation 3 and Resistance: Fall of Man over to Fredi and Humphrey's apartment to play on their big ole 56-inch Samsung HD T.V. with 1080p resolution. I had played Resistance for more than an hour on a Gateway HD display earlier in the day and found the graphics and visuals to be disappointing, but I suspected that was because we had no HDMI cable in the office. In fact, even if we had an HDMI readily available, it still wouldn't have worked because the Gateway HD screen doesn't have an HDMI hookup. Why, I have no idea. It's just another aggravating setback in our pursuit of hi- def gaming.

I noted in yesterday's PS3 post, found below, that Resistance looked average without an HD picture. Even on a slick display like Gateway's LCD 24-inch widescreen, the graphics were grainy and sloppy looking. I had high hopes that playing the game on the 56-inch Samsung would vastly improve the quality of the picture. And it did - once we got the console correctly configured and connected, which took about an hour.

I know that sounds ridiculous. After all, we had six THG editors at the apartment, and how many editors should it take to connect the damn console? Well, here's why it took so long. First, the PS3 would not automatically detect and broadcast the video signal using the HDMI connection. We had to connect with the regular composite cables provided with