VICTORY IN EUROPE DAY, MARCH 23 2007! PLAYSTATION3 DEAD ON ARRIVAL! JUSTICE DONE! GLORIOUS FUTURE ASSURED! WE ARE NOW OFF TO HAVE A WANK!
Here are some photos from the London PS3 launch. It was like the opening scenes of 28 Days Later.
There were, literally, no more than 120 queuing people inside, and half of them were journalists. No queues outside. And this was 11pm on the Official Midnight Launch night for all of central London. It was a disaster. Obviously we’re bound to say that, but it was. Nobody was interested in the slightest. Today, we are proud to be British.
That’s the queue. All of it. The phrase we want to use to describe the clear death of PlayStation is “seismic shift in the national psyche” but that might be a bit over the heads of the 20,000 Gamefaqs readers we’ve picked up in the last couple of weeks. To put it in simpler terms – “Ps3 is teh doomed”.
The London launch also proved how old fashioned Sony’s “lifestyle” approach is. 10 years ago, we’d have been wowed by a launch party which featured hired performers, a predictable selection of hip hop music being played too loud and an overly-enthusiastic MC trying to get people to sound excited. Now, though, it’s just embarrassing.
A few more disinterested automatons, the last of a dying breed, trudge lifelessly toward the till because they think they have to. It is the same across all of Europe. Today, we have woken up to a better, brighter world. A GREAT DARKNESS HAS BEEN LIFTED FROM US ALL! Sony is over. More photos from the European night of GLORY soon.
filed in WAR ON PS3 on Mar.23, 2007
March 23rd, 2007 on 3:17 pm
I was at a mall with a fnac store here in coimbra, portugal at 23:00 and there was noone for the ps3. there was a message on every screen saying that fnac would be open for the ps3 launch.
I asked some worker how many preorders they have made, and suddenly there were 4 desperate workers around me trying to “change my mind” about the console and make me see the “real value” of bluray and all the other shit.
I thought we would lose here in the portugal front, cause everyone here is a huge fan of playstation, but no. actually we won the battle and the war.
When the workers found out i was never to buy that shit, they said that was a normal work’s day because they generally close at 23:00 and that day it was just one extra hour more… no big deal.
The only people inside were watching some kind of gig in the store.
March 23rd, 2007 on 3:40 pm
i have not seen the sales numbers, but Germany has let us down.
check out Gamefront.de for an update on the launch party there.
http://www.gfdata.de/archiv03-2007-gamefront/2896.html
March 23rd, 2007 on 4:07 pm
It’s more beautiful than I dared hope…
March 23rd, 2007 on 4:18 pm
Typical of Jerry to pick sides like that.
March 23rd, 2007 on 4:43 pm
Its only nazi propaganda. All those kids are not buying PS3’s. They are just there to watch the fake popstars dance around on stage. Notice the PS3 kiosks there are only a couple people playing motorstorm (played it myself today it is crap).
March 23rd, 2007 on 4:49 pm
And that bloke with the Kiss hat… looks like some bum sony paid off the street to pretend like he just bought a PS3. Either that or some german celeb who got rich off of the valuables that his grandparents nicked from dead jews.
March 23rd, 2007 on 5:05 pm
Ten years of turgid, grey opression is over? I didn’t think this day would come, I…I dreamed but thats all it was, a dream. No more souless, dead games from a company who didn’t give a damn about gaming in the first place. It can’t be over.
But their monolithic box of shit that was designed for the sole purpose of using moronic sheep to win a format that they started has bombed.
Is the prophecy true, that a white phoenix would rise in the year of 20 and the 9 to take back a crown it should never have lost, that a planet of rings and fire should return. That a prince of dreams and twilight would bring color to a sea of mediocrity.
10 years, ten………..long……….years.
March 23rd, 2007 on 5:29 pm
I was in Hammersmith in London today.
GAME had a few left (well they wouldnt say more than that)
HMV had more than enough for the weekend
Argos had 36. Yes, 36
March 23rd, 2007 on 5:29 pm
=]
March 23rd, 2007 on 6:34 pm
Virgin in Liverpool had a sign saying “Buy your PS3 today, only 95 consoles left”
When we went in, there were a crown of people looking at the Xbox 360 and Wii, and playing the demo PS2. I almost felt sorry for the neglected PS3 in the corner. Almost.
March 23rd, 2007 on 11:44 pm
I was going to go into Game at Hammersmith too, ask them how many PS3s they had left and then buy Virtua Tennis 3 for the Xbox360.
I never did either of those things. Too much work.
March 24th, 2007 on 2:07 am
You wankers in Europe are so behind the times. We’ve been not buying the PS3 in America for 4 months now. Way to play catch up though, bravo.
March 24th, 2007 on 2:48 am
I didn’t think Americans were allowed to use the word wank. I thought you thought that was a kind of beer…or something.
And oh yeah, to ‘do my bit’; Sainsbury’s were advertising that they had PS3 stock over the Tannoy (yes Tannoy; we are at war you know), to hapless shoppers this evening. I’ve never heard them use the thing in that store before for anything other than trying to round up errant employees from their fag breaks/illicit shags in the store room, to get them back on the tills.
wpycnnfu – new tongue-in-cheek martial arts game for the Wii.
March 24th, 2007 on 3:04 am
Here in NZ the major retailer in our capital sold 10. At the official Launch event about 30-40 people showed up. At one of our best Net Stores the PS3 preorders ran a distant third behind the number of preordered 360s and wiis on their respective launch days.
March 24th, 2007 on 3:08 am
How about an update for us in Australia? We may only be your criminal illiterate half-cousins but we’ve ignored the launch as studiously as you poms.
I was too overcome with apathy to even venture down and take some photos, thats dedication!
March 24th, 2007 on 4:40 am
I asked the guy in Virgin in Fulham how many pre-orders they had, and he said ‘loads’… but he looked really shifty as he said it, so I think he was lying. I asked if he was gonna buy one, and he said ‘not for 430 fucking quid I’m not’ and that was that.
March 24th, 2007 on 7:46 am
Norway checking in. It’s all just really shit.
Even here in the country where every child and its sibling has a PSP it just won’t move.
March 24th, 2007 on 7:54 am
Mine overheats as soon as I put a game in. Son’s response? Organise a pick-up to replace it, then call five minutes later to cancel and tell me to return it to where it came from. I call them Son because the ke on my Son VAIO broke barel a week after I got that! Mabe I’ll just pile them up next to the Son walkman that broke after 5 Months.
March 24th, 2007 on 1:37 pm
I just got this month’s copy of OPS2 through the post (so sue me, I like God Hand and Okami) and, this is so delicious I can almost taste the day old turd, THERE IS NO COVERAGE OF THE PS3 LAUNCH WHATSOEVER AND THEY’VE BEEN COVERING THE THING FOR TWO YEARS NOW HYPING IT UP AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY, BUT NO ! NOTHING !
The bastards.
Although there’s something in the back of my head that tells me it’s because of the new Official PS3 magazine that’s out.
Well, it’s safe to say my Saturn and its 200 odd games have been avenged.
March 24th, 2007 on 3:10 pm
So what do you guys play apart from the DC?
March 24th, 2007 on 5:58 pm
Scotland is doing her part for the war effort too! A quick trip around the shops today (Game, Gamestation, HMV, Virgin, Tesco, Currys, PC World, Toys R Us) reveals PS3s piled high, with very little consumer interest.
Clearly these are all hallmarks of a very successful launch. My prediction – a random Sony bloke in MCV next week bragging about how well the launch went, about how the PS3 is intended as an “expensive, aspirational product” (until it isn’t) and about how they are in no hurry to slash the price (only to completely reverse his opinion on the latter just in time for Xmas).
March 24th, 2007 on 6:24 pm
Ive just been in sheffield city centre and the sign outside virgin megastores says it all:
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8290/0324071532gn4.jpg
I then went inside and looked at the demonstration:
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3573/0324071546qg3.jpg
Notice how no ones even looking?.. this was during the peak of the day aswell, about 3pm!
One of the shop assistants then said to me “there only £425 you know!”, my response “haha as if!”.
WE WON!
March 24th, 2007 on 11:19 pm
Can we have more pics pf your girlfriend?
March 25th, 2007 on 12:33 am
http://xxJo-Spannaxx.bebo.com
knock yourself out :-p
March 25th, 2007 on 12:48 am
I guess i could try getting some pics of her fondling a wiimote if u like?…id have to use one in-store tho coz ive only got a 360 at the moment. Ive got a megadrive lying around aswell coz i know how much u guys love sega.. the lack of a rumble feature would spoil it tho, she didnt take long to find out the true potential of the 360 controllers they rumble AND there wireless!…a girls best friend!
March 25th, 2007 on 3:43 am
The 360 should rule the world now, because the Wii is a joke, the PS3 is an inflated pile of hype, and all that’s left for sane videogamers is the 360.
People should respect the 360 more than ever now, and realise how good Microsoft has been to gamers over the past 5years.
I was never an MS fanboy, and I never will be because that would be stupid, but I do think MS and the 360 are the real console deal.
Sony and Nintendo need to die. Sony because they’ve always been evil, and Nintendo because all their creative juice has dried-up. :(
March 25th, 2007 on 8:46 am
How good Microsoft has been to gamers in the past five years? You mean, like, by releasing TWO consoles that have an alarming record of completely breaking shortly after their warranty runs out? All of the current generation of consoles are shit, which just paves the way for the Sega Saturn II (launch title: “NiGHTS: If You Bought This Ten Years Ago The World Might’ve Been A Better Place Edition”).
March 25th, 2007 on 9:04 am
In all seriousness, even the FF XII launch party a few weeks back had more people there.
Brilliant.
March 25th, 2007 on 10:30 am
That was a major f-up on Sony’s part for launching the ps3 in europe and downunder 4 months later. It gave consumers a chance to learn people’s opinions on the value of what they are getting. Obviously people decided it better to wait or go elsewhere. If they would have launched worldwide at the same time, initial sales would have been drastically better.
This is Living!
Only a handfull of people showed up at stores in Austria, Friday morning (I counted 14 between 3 different stores). And no one was really impressed with F1 or Motorstorm on the in-store kiosks.
March 25th, 2007 on 11:12 am
Whoah! There are girls on the internet?!??
March 25th, 2007 on 11:18 am
Anyone else get creeped out by the fonts that they use in avertising? The slogan looks like it’s for an ice-cream company and then the obvious use of the spiderman all capitals font for the name.
March 25th, 2007 on 2:11 pm
I sold 7 systems this weekend. 4 of them were preorders and one man bought 2 (hopefully he’ll try to put them on ebay because there’s no chance in hell I’m going to take them back).
I also got 20 systems delivered so it’s not like I didn’t have enough of them. Damn things are taking up precious stock space.
March 26th, 2007 on 4:26 am
Andrew… i think I’m in love with your girlfriend hhehe =P
=)
Well anyway this is great… i wish i had PS3 hating friends U_U
But instead of that i have 2 friends that love the ps3… and the others don’t care about games….