But oh God.It isn't better in France.
I've been watching the launch event here in Paris. It was absolutely pathetic from the beginning to the end.
Sony had a boat turned into a floating store, docked in front of the Eiffel Tower with a thousand PS3s in it.
At midnight, a few dozen people came on board to get their consoles, and 30 minutes later, it was over. No one was left except journalists and security people (i'd say they were more of them than customers tonight), wandering along the deserted, oversized waiting lines.
A pathetic sight indeed.
Naaah, who am i kidding, it was hilarious.
Oh my God.
The "official" Australian launch was awful. Report care of Kotaku, where there are pictures:
March 22 2007
Australian PS3 Launch Shindig
What if Sony threw a launch party and nobody came?
10:30pm - I'm at Pitt St. Mall, heart of Sydney's city shopping, and location for the "official" Sony launch. Not exactly official official, since it was put on by Myer in an attempt to remind people they sell video games, rather than Sony in an attempt to remind people the PS3 was coming out. But all the Sony bigwigs were there, so that's official enough for me. And you too, I imagine.
For our entertainment: a massive screen projecting Casino Royale. I've seen this already. Attempts to suggest we watch The Thing fall on deaf ears. Cut me loose, goddamnit, cut me loose. Not on Blu-Ray, you see. Also on offer is free coffee, ice cream and Pepsi. No Coke? "Not our sponsors, mate" comes the reply. Fair enough, I know how these things work. It's all a little impressive for a quiet Thursday night.
10:50pm - Some hot young thing from a radio station is here trying her little heart out to MC the evening by interrupting the Casino Royal screening to get everyone excited for the PS3. "Did you know the PS3 can use two remotes?" she shrieks with feigned delight. The blank stares she receives in return lets her know she said something unacceptable. She doesn't care: she's young, and beautiful, and these men are up at midnight on a school night to spend $1000 on a video games console.
11:00pm - It all starts going a little bit wrong. You see, for security purposes, crash barriers have been erected in front of the Casino Royale screen, in order to best herd the hordes of expected customers up the escalators towards their waiting PS3s. Except...nobody is here. It's an hour before kick-off, and there's probably 40 people in line. Another twenty and they might outnumber the media in attendance.
A quick run down to the EB and JB Hi-Fi at the nearby Galeries shopping centre tell a similar story: ghost towns.
Back at Myer, some radio people are grabbing teenagers (appropriately, mind) and getting them to scream "PS3!! YEAH!!!" into a mic, no doubt so all of Sydney could share in the excitement. Three kids obliged, and for the second time in the night a radio personality is met with 100 blank, disapproving stares.
11:25pm - Still nobody here. A band of douches with a filmcrew were trying to interview people about the PS3. "Fuck, mate, there's nobody here!" one exhales between cigarettes. "Hey, ladies!" another, the cameraman, hollers.
Two thirty-something women who had stopped for a moment to perv on Daniel Craig were pounced upon. "Hey, ladies, are you here to buy a PS3?" the interviewer pleads.
"Uh...no".
"Fuck! Nobody is! Well, can you pretend you are? You'll be on TV!"
Fantastic.
11:40 - A few more people have trickled in. Still, counting actual customers (and not their mates/girlfriends/crazy homeless people loitering to score free coffee and a movie) we're looking at 50, 60 tops. Only a brave man would say this is meeting expectations. Who knows why the turnout is so low? We'd have asked the non-attendees themselves if they'd attended.
The radio girl with the nice legs is still doin her thang on the m-i-c. I feel a little sorry for her. In her spare time she obviously finds the very concept of games abhorrent, yet here she is, propped up on stage at midnight on a Thursday having to pretend she knows everything about the PS3. There are worse jobs, sure, but there are also better ones.
11:50 - It's nearly go-time. Crowd is still pretty small, and is obviously going to stay that way. I feel kind of bad for the Sony guys. They all seem like really nice people, and have put on a good enough show tonight, it's just...for whatever reason, bugger-all people have felt compelled to make the midnight trip.
11:59 - We are go. The first customer in line, the lovable "Danny" ("I really thought there'd be more people here"), who will be purchasing Virtua Fighter 5, a HDMI cable and a second controller, is ushered inside for his four minutes of fame. He hits the counter, hands over his pre-order ticket, SCE Australia boss Michael Ephraim is on the other side of the counter, smiling like a father at the birth of his third child. Goods are exchanged for currency
The same tool who had tried to rig up the fake interview bellows "let's hear it for the PlayStation 3!". He had no connection to Sony whatsoever, so I'm not sure of his motives, but up went the cheers anyway. From the Myer and Sony staff, they were genuine. From the attending media, they were sarcastic, and from the waiting crowd, embarrassed smiles.
12:07 - Nothing more to see here. The crowd is probably at around 80 or so which, for the official PS3 launch in Australia's biggest city, was a piss-poor turnout. Already the barriers and screen outside are being dismantled, and as Danny rushes home to play some VF5 I'm off to bed.
Final thoughts? Last night was a bust (and not just at the official launch). Sony put on a good show, but I don't think they, or Myer, had readied themselves for the fact nobody wanted to come. Midnight launches just aren't as popular in Australia as they are in other places (it's the apathy, you see), and when you throw in the fact the PS3 has come in on the back of 5 months of bad press (including the local media) and costs AUD$1000 (which is a significant psychological barrier) the turnout was about what I was expecting.
Still, this is only the first night of thousands that this thing will be on sale. I'd expect a few to be sold today and over the weekend as people do their shopping in regular, human hours, so it'd be unfair to pass judgement on the "launch" as whole until the GfK figures come in sometime next week.
Going just on last night, though? I'm hesitant to use the word disaster, but it's not the best start for the PS3 down under.
Luke Plunkett
