PS3 Line Watch

Tonight I went from store to store chatting with the folks in line for the new PS3.
It seems that the PS3, despite it's high price, is going to be giving Microsoft's Xbox 360 (released last year) a real run for the title of top console.

Every Future Shop in the area had 12 PS3s in stock (8 with 60GB drives, and 4 with 20GB drives) and every one of those stores had 14-15 people in line. The last few gambling their health on a damp and rainy night that someone else would leave their spot in line or that someone's credit card would be declined.

At each of the Future Shop stores I visited the staff had kindly put an XBOX 360 on a big screen HDTV in the window and handed 2 wireless controllers to the customers waiting in line so they could play through the night while waiting for the store to open and start selling PS3s.

At the Oshawa store a customer told me that the staff had offered to set up one of the PS3s but none of the folks in line wanted theirs to be the one that was unboxed and played with all night before they had a chance to even pay for it.

Titles that people were waiting for, surprisingly for PS3, were mainly 1st person shooter games, and of course, one lady said she was waiting for Tiger Woods golf. (there's always at least one golf gamer in any crowd)

More to my surprise was the fact that people were already beginning to line up for Nintendo's Wii which isn't going to be available till Sunday and each store is expected to average about 40 units (compared to the PS3's 12)

The least important feature, people told me, was the Blu-ray movie playing capability. One fellow said "Yeah, it's a nice add-on, but it'll be a long time before I have a TV like this (motioning to the big screen in the window) to play them on."

When asked if anyone was going to sell the PS3 on Ebay the reaction was mixed, but the consensus amongst this college aged crowd was if the price is right, hell ya! One guy mentioned that he'd seen one listed on ebay for $4000, and at that price he'd gladly sell his, come back and buy a Wii and an Xbox 360 and wait for the next round of PS3 sales.