My twitter Updates
Dissapointing PS3 launch in Australia
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Last night was the Aussie PS3 launch, the guys and gwn.com went out on a mission - to visit three popular stores in the capital city of Brisbane and gauge the popularity of the PS3 at midnight, when those who pre-ordered could finally collect their consoles. Basically:The reporter check out three stores in the city, two EB Games stores and a JB HiFi, and the word that came to his mind is 'underwhelmed'.
With just a half hour until the launch of the console the stores were virtually empty. In all three cases there were more store employees in the shop than there were customers.
EB Myer Center had 2-3 customers. EB Queens plaza had 4 employees, a security guard and zero customers. JB HiFi was a similar story.
Rigs were set up with the new console displayed on pretty TV's, but according to the reporter, the only people taking advantage of them were employees. This is in high contrast to the Nintendo Wii launch just a few months back, where stores required police for crowd control even out in suburbs, and lines reached well over a hundred people hours before launch.
Meanwhile, in the official Sydney launch event, a tiny crowd of 40 turned up at the Myer Pitt Street store (despite the free food and drinks on offer), which was the location of the "official" launch held by Myer, with Sony reps in attendance. Other stores in Sydney received even smaller crowds of 20 or so customers at best.
Sony... you gotta change strategy, who's gonna pay AUD 1000 for a console? *ouch*
Labels: impressions, ivan