Kurt's Thoughts

UPDATE 11/22/2006:
This has officially turned into madness. 

I want to be clear about something here.  This is NOT a commentary on greed or responsibility on Sony’s part.  I don’t believe that people’s wanton desire for the console is a bad thing at all and I don’t think that Sony did anything wrong is releasing it’s console with such a limited supply.  That’s their prerogative.

This is a commentary about:

1. The horrendous PR job their company has done and
2. The ridiculous lawlessness and lack of civil order that is occuring throughout the world 

ATTENTION LAW ENFORCEMENT & STORE OWNERS:  There are idiots everywhere that are going to cause trouble.  You know that chaos is a possibility.  You know that this spectacle is something that brings you patrons and is essentially free advertising for your stores… why aren’t you better prepared?

• PS3 campers shot outside Kentucky Best Buy
  http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/16/ps3-campers-shot-outside-kentucky-best-buy/
• Person shot in Playstation waiting line
  http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct–putnamshooting1117nov17,0,833783.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut
• Armed Gunmen Steal PS3 Consoles in Elk Grove Store Robbery
  http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=21616
• Violence escalates during PS3 launch
  http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/17/violence-escalates-during-ps3-launch/

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ORIGINAL POST:
It’s interesting to see there’s another big brand out there with really, questionable PR.  Seriously Sony… who’s responsible for your press relations?  I never thought I’d see the day where another tech firm’s PR department was twice.. no, check that… THREE TIMES as bad as ours.  At least we have the excuse of being a monster company with PR concerns all over the board:  Sony only has this one product that’s coming to market now that they have to concentrate on, and they’re handling it with all the grace of a bull in a china shop.

Next to Sony, Microsoft PR is 24k gold.

• NY Times: The PS3 "isn’t that great"
  "Measured in megaflops, gigabytes and other technical benchmarks, the PlayStation 3 is certainly the world’s most powerful game console. It falls far short, however, of providing the world’s most engaging overall entertainment experience. There is a big difference, and Sony seems to have confused one for the other."
  http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/20/ny-times-the-ps3-isnt-that-great/
  
• Boston’s mayor says Sony’s launch wicked wrong
  "Sony’s PlayStation 3 finally launched last week, but as predicted, supplies were extremely limited. Many stores received only a few units, and in some places, long lines combined with inconsistent preordering standards led to some very unhappy gamers. In some places, this anger led to violence. Now, Boston mayor Thomas Menino is planning to send Sony a bill for an incident that happened at Copley Plaza’s Sony Style store."
  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061119-8249.html
  
• Analyst: PS3s to be in even shorter supply
  "An analyst claims that Sony’s projections for the North American launch may be too optimistic. Sony had announced that the PS3 launch would see North America receive 400,000 machines. However, according to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, Sony will only be able to deliver 150,000 to 200,000 consoles to the US market at launch, approximately half the number the company has predicted. (Sony’s estimates are for all of North America, and Sebastian’s figures are for the US only, so the figures may not be quite as bad as they first appear.)"
  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061115-8233.html
  
• Sony taking big hit on each PS3 sold; Xbox 360 in the black
  "Market research firm iSuppli has torn down the PlayStation 3 to see what’s inside. In doing so, iSuppli confirmed what we reported back in February: the PS3 is expensive to manufacture and Sony is taking a serious hit on each console sold."
  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061116-8239.html
  
• PlayStation 3 launches in US to huge demand
  "If you listen to reports on the PlayStation 3 launch in the major media and on other websites you get a grisly picture: people are getting robbed and shot at, are rioting inside Wal-Marts, and of course each store is only getting a few systems."
  http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061117-8242.html
  
• Hot 360 titles and PS3 problems exposed
  "Sony has had a few problems since the PS3’s release last week.
  Backwards compatibility was never Microsoft’s strong-point with the 360, and the new Playstation is suffering similar problems.
  "We are trying to get there as quickly as possible," said SCEA President and Chief Executive Kaz Hirai. Spokespeople from Sony said the issues were mostly related to audio glitches and Playstation 3 controller mappings which may not exactly correspond with what the developer intended with the original controllers."
  http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35838