Video game madness

While making a trip to Walmart last night we noticed a handfull of young people sitting in lawn chairs and a tent set up. At first I didn't know what was going on but then I realized - Sony's Playstation 3 was going on sale today. It must have been nice for them as we received freezing rain last night.

Apparently there were some fights at other locations in Winnipeg involving people in line and one guy was beaten up and robbed outside a Walmart after he had picked up his Playstation 3. That last part is a little bit second hand knowledge and may not be 100% true. However in the US there was a shooting and confirmed robberies and fights in many different areas.

Why you ask? While many people would be waiting outside a story for a day or more to buy the PS3 for their own use, I suspect the majority were buying them to resell on ebay. A couple recent auctions ended with the PS3 fetching $9000.00 US or more. The selling price is $549 CDN for the lower end version and $649 for the high end version. That's a pretty good profit for a couple hours in the cold - or a quick robbery of someone who legitmately paid for a system.

You can also blame this "game" on Sony for not providing enough consoles at launch. Apparently 400,000 were allocated for North America and approximately 32,000 of those for Canada. Nintendo is not going to be playing the shortage game and estimates say there will be 10 Nintendo Wiis for every one PS3 at launch. I figure that if that number is correct there won't be any worries about a shortage of Nintendo systems and you won't have to camp out overnight to get one.

I've been contemplating as of late on whether or not to get a Nintendo Wii. Everytime I see videos of people playing (http://us.wii.com) I remember back to how excited I was when my parents bought me the original NES with Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. I keep telling Marla she would have fun playing the Wii with me (lol). It looks very user friendly and more focused on having fun that using overpowering graphics. The price is also a bit easier to swallow as well at $279. That would be cheaper than the original NES when it was released in Canada.

Yes, I refuse to let go of my childhood;-)

On another note I met my goal of walking/running 80 km in four weeks last night. I had slacked a bit on my goal but made up for it in the last week. Next run is planned for tomorrow and I'm aiming for 5k.