Video game enthusiast Zach Strankowski understands the principle of supply and demand. That's why he and two friends have been sleeping outside an Escondido Circuit City store since Tuesday, waiting for Sony's new PlayStation 3 game system, which won't go on sale until Friday.
“We could either pay three grand on eBay, or camp out here for 10 days,” said Strankowski, 22.
The economics are simple. Sony built a loyal base of 30 million PlayStation 2 owners in America. When the PS3 launches Friday, there will be fewer than 400,000 of the new game systems on store shelves.
The PS3 is the latest of “next-generation” video game systems. It follows the Microsoft Xbox 360, which was released a year ago. The Nintendo Wii will be available Nov. 19.
Sony's new system will be the most technologically advanced of the three and, at $600, the most expensive. The 360 costs $399 and the Wii $250.
Sony will not disclose the total cost of creating the PlayStation 3, which has been in development for six years. But analysts say the sum reaches into the billions of dollars.
Sony has revealed that it spent $2 billion on one major component alone, the high-speed Cell microprocessor, co-developed with IBM and Toshiba.
The system also features Sony's BluRay high-definition video player, capable of producing movies on some HDTVs with more than twice the detail of today's DVDs. Problems with BluRay's development delayed production of the PS3 and led to the current shortage.
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Showing posts with label New. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New. Show all posts
Monday, November 13, 2006
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Game on: Sony’'s new PlayStation is snapped up by black marketeers as it finally hits streets in Japan @ TimesOnline
BY THE time his moment of joy arrives, Taiga Ishikawa will have been roughing it for 28 hours, but no one could be better equipped for a night on the streets of Tokyo.
He has his red cotton slippers and bamboo sleeping mat. He has 30 comic books to read and a supply of cold coffee and cold noodle sandwiches. Mr Ishikawa is a 20-year-old computer game otaku — a Japanese nerd — and in just a few hours his vigil will be rewarded with a jewel beyond price.
At 7am today, the shutters of Asobit City game shop in the Akihabara district of Tokyo will open, and Mr Ishikawa will be at the front of the queue to become one of the first people to own the Sony PlayStation 3. The PS3 is the newest games console in the world, and an immeasurable amount of money and credibility rests on its launch.
For Sony, this is an opportunity for success after a dismal spell. For gamers like Mr Ishikawa it is the most powerful games system in the world, quite apart from its capabilities as a storage system for photographs, music and a player of new-generation Blu-ray DVDs.
Even before it went on sale, a thriving black market had sprung up around the PlayStation 3, on the internet and on the streets of Akihabara. The console for which Mr Ishikawa will pay 59,980 yen (£267) was last night attracting bids of up to $1,800 (£940) on online auction sites.
In Akihabara a dozen homeless men queued incongruously in front of a game shop to buy the console. Each was being hired by a middleman to circumvent the shop’s “one customer, one PlayStation rule” to ensure the biggest number of consoles for immediate resale.
Seven British students from Bournemouth University, who had paid £700 each for a week-long stay in Japan, were debating whether to buy the PS3 and keep it for themselves, or sell it at a handsome profit. “I played a display model in a branch of Starbucks on the other side of Tokyo last night,” Christopher Poole, 19, a student of television production, said. “It’s true that they’ve only got the first generation of games at the moment, but it was a bit disappointing.”
He has his red cotton slippers and bamboo sleeping mat. He has 30 comic books to read and a supply of cold coffee and cold noodle sandwiches. Mr Ishikawa is a 20-year-old computer game otaku — a Japanese nerd — and in just a few hours his vigil will be rewarded with a jewel beyond price.
At 7am today, the shutters of Asobit City game shop in the Akihabara district of Tokyo will open, and Mr Ishikawa will be at the front of the queue to become one of the first people to own the Sony PlayStation 3. The PS3 is the newest games console in the world, and an immeasurable amount of money and credibility rests on its launch.
For Sony, this is an opportunity for success after a dismal spell. For gamers like Mr Ishikawa it is the most powerful games system in the world, quite apart from its capabilities as a storage system for photographs, music and a player of new-generation Blu-ray DVDs.
Even before it went on sale, a thriving black market had sprung up around the PlayStation 3, on the internet and on the streets of Akihabara. The console for which Mr Ishikawa will pay 59,980 yen (£267) was last night attracting bids of up to $1,800 (£940) on online auction sites.
In Akihabara a dozen homeless men queued incongruously in front of a game shop to buy the console. Each was being hired by a middleman to circumvent the shop’s “one customer, one PlayStation rule” to ensure the biggest number of consoles for immediate resale.
Seven British students from Bournemouth University, who had paid £700 each for a week-long stay in Japan, were debating whether to buy the PS3 and keep it for themselves, or sell it at a handsome profit. “I played a display model in a branch of Starbucks on the other side of Tokyo last night,” Christopher Poole, 19, a student of television production, said. “It’s true that they’ve only got the first generation of games at the moment, but it was a bit disappointing.”
Saturday, November 11, 2006
New Concept Art and Fan Site @ Age of Conan
Warriors, thieves, priests and mages are not the only citizens of Hyboria. This week we take a look at some concept work focused around defining the costumes of the everyday characters you will meet in the gameworld.
You can find the new images here in our concept art gallery.
Also keep an eye on the Age of Conan fansites over the weekend as we have sent out a series of these images to some of the sites for them to feature that continue the theme, and show you a little more of what the characters might be wearing when you get to walk the lands of King Conan!
You can find the new images here in our concept art gallery.
Also keep an eye on the Age of Conan fansites over the weekend as we have sent out a series of these images to some of the sites for them to feature that continue the theme, and show you a little more of what the characters might be wearing when you get to walk the lands of King Conan!
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