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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Sony Can't Seem To Win

Previously on the gaming blogsphere, Sony was flogged for not shipping enough units for the US launch of the PlayStation 3. To summarize some of the quotes - Sony had killed themselves ... twice ... at least ... and given up the console war before it even started.

Now that the UK launch for the PlayStation 3 won't be repeating this problem, Sony has a new problem ... they can't sell out fast enough to please expectations:

This week saw Sony dish out its official allocations to retailers, and some, including Play.com and Amazon UK, are guaranteeing all their preorder customers a console on the launch day.

However, unlike the Wii or previous UK console launches including the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 3 is still available to buy almost a week after being offered.
-- Preorders still available for UK PS3

Apparently what the gaming media wants for preorders is for a company to estimate precisely and then understock by a couple thousand just for a good old fasioned panic. Kid. Pole. Remember that? I don't know how to explain this - but people being able to preorder and not have to shoot each other ... that's a good thing.

After inferring through the whole article that the PlayStation 3 is suffering from lack of demand, they finish with:

Play.com's head games buyer, Gian Luzio, commented that demand for the PS3 on its site has been phenomenal. He said, "The Sony PS3 has preordered six times more than the Xbox 360 in this period before launch, and 15 times more than the Wii. So it's the most preordered console yet."


Course, that tidbit doesn't merit any mention in the headline or teaser.

Seriously, it's time to stop the madness. I'm not sure when the feeding frenzy that trying to spin anything Sony related in a bad light began ... but it got old about a year ago. The comments on that Gamespot seem to agree. It's like all the people who overgeneralized that "nobody" would buy it now have to adjust the facts to prove they were right.




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