With the last of the next generation gaming consoles hitting the US markets today, people are in a frenzy, risking lives nad even paying homeless people to line up for them, much like they did in Japan.
What’s all the frenzy about? In this CNN report, people are going to extreme lengths to get their hands on the PS3:’ One pregnant camper in Mount Laurel was staying in line despite having contractions. “I’m going to hold out as long as I can,” Julie Mosley said Thursday. ‘ ‘The line Thursday in San Francisco, California, was at least three blocks long.‘
Wikipedia has this to say about the PS3:
‘The PlayStation 3 is Sony‘s seventh generation era video game console, third in the PlayStation series. It is the successor to PlayStation and PlayStation 2 and competes against Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 and Nintendo‘s Wii.
Sony’s retail strategy for the PlayStation 3 involves two configurations detailed in a Sony press release.[10] The “premium” version of the PlayStation 3 comes with an internal 60 GB Serial ATA 2.5″ hard drive, Wi-Fi connectivity, and multiple flash memory card readers, and features a brighter cosmetic silver-colored trim.[11]Both consoles now feature a silver-colored logo, to add to the cosmetic appeal of the packages. The second, alternate configuration of the console has a 20 GB internal hard drive, but does not feature Wi-Fi or a memory card reader. The hard drive is upgradeable, and memory card support can be added through adapters,[12] but Wi-Fi support cannot currently be added.[13]‘
It takes a real gamer to understand and appraise the situation:
‘The Sony Playstation 3 is going to cost $600.00.
In the desolate economic climate of post-apocalyptic 2006, I’m thinking that’s going to be a lot of money. Now, it’s true that at E3 Sony was boasting the Playstation 3 could crank out 1.8 TFLOPS, or 1.8 trillion FLOPS. If that many FLOPS were piled together they would fill the Grand Canyon, assuming each FLOP were the size of a muskrat. So what do gamers want from all that money and FLOP? Just ask them.
Game designers: we’re really busy. Lots of us got kids now, and second jobs and mistresses on the side. You want to sell your console games to the millions of people who are lucky to get 30 uninterrupted minutes to play a game? Fix this first.‘