The other day I was waiting in line for my Wii, and I missed out. But I did buy a PS3 in a “me against the world” moment. There were plenty Playstation 3s in stock, but of course no Nintendo Wiis.
I’ve been obsessing about the Wii now for over a month. But I haven’t been willing to buy one on eBay. I don’t like the idea of paying more than twice the system’s value, especially when it reveals a major defect in my character (no patience!). In any case, at this point, I’m now resorting to the “just wait until February method”.
But let’s get back to the story. I went for a Wii and came home with a PS3. My wife was more than a little pissed off that I had paid almost $750 for a new video game system (after taxes, a game and a new controller). She told me that I had no option but to return the Playstation 3 the next day.
Well, I didn’t return the PS3. What I did was hook up with a friend of a friend who tried to sell it on eBay for profit. But that totally bombed. I ended up having to get another friend to bid up the auction so that I’d at least not lose any money (Don’t tell eBay!)
The moral of this story, as you can probably tell, is that the PS3 is just not in high demand. Not for the price at which it is selling. Not only can you now walk into any random store and pick up a Playstation 3, but you can no longer make a worthwhile profit on eBay. In my view, this is indicative of the fact that the the PS3 is turning out to be a bust for Sony.
I predicted this here at Gadzooki even before the system came out, and I think my prediction is playing out more and more as each day goes by. The PS3 is trying to be too much to too many people, and for that reason it is priced outside of the range of the casual gamer. Sure, the hard core gamers are buying it up, but really, you don’t have a mass market product if only the hard core gamers are buying your system.