PS2 Launch Day Journal

It is a quiet Saturday morning. The Sony Playstation was released two days ago. Gone are the lines and the people frantically looking for a PS2 or a memory card. The malls around America are back to normal. But is this short lived? Will there be mobs at every game seller come this holiday season looking for this new system? Will it be safe? I don't know. But it can't be much worse than what I personally witnessed and read about on launch day.

What does Sony do? They send me four PS2 stickers in the mail. Weeeeeeee.. Sony has not made any official statements regarding the PS2 availability in the USA through the rest of the year. Maybe they are waiting for the price for components to drop, or maybe they need to sell a few million PS1s this season. I don't know. It is all quite strange given that Sony had plenty of lead-time to cover the demand.

I read in the paper this morning that two thugs robbed a 12 year old kid and his mother of their new PS2 and games. They had just left the local Toys R US and were heading to their car when these two older teens, bats in hands, pushed and shoved them, took the goods and ran off by foot. The Toys R US manager, in an act of kindness, replaced the stolen merchandise.

Flashback to Thursday morning. I get up and have my morning coffee. I read the sports section and comics from the local paper. The weatherman is blathering on and on about dense fog and that, if at all possible, you should not venture out. It is now 7:30AM. I'm ready to pick up my pre-paid PS2 and memory card. I've already got a bunch of games. I bought those a few days ago.

7:50AM. The fog is so think that I cannot see more than 80 feet in front of me. The traffic lights are not visible until. I know the mall is around here someplace. But I can't see it. I drive to the mall lot very slowly. There are virtually no cars in the lot. I grab my receipt and head for the mall entrance.

7:56 AM. I made it to Electronics Boutique. The chain door is down. There are 4 familiar faces inside, all employees. There are a few people lurking about outside of the store with a look of disgust on their faces. These were not mall walkers but looked to be disappointed gamers to me. A security guard is at the chain door. He asks me if I have a receipt. I show him my receipt. One of the employees inside heckles me, we're all out, go away. The guard opens the gate for me.

8:00 AM. The store manager greets me and tells everyone there, one I did not recognize, that I am one of his favorite customers. I've been a loyal customer for many years. Then he drops the bomb on me. Sorry, no memory cards. I know you pre-paid but Sony short shipped us. I did not flinch. He pleaded with me not to call the company toll free number. I told him that I understood and that I will be in contact with Sony, not EB. He then smiled and said that he's got one left, that I happened to be the last person that had pre-paid that would receive one. I made the cut off.. Barely. We joke around a bit and then I make my way to the door.

8:15 AM. The guard opens the gate. The lurkers are nowhere to be seen. I make my way to the mall exit to my waiting vehicle. The fog is bad. I cannot see my truck. I step into the lot and a car comes whizzing by, as the driver could not see me nor I him until it was almost too late. I clutched my bag of goodies closely. All of them. ;-) I see my truck and hop in. I hide my PS2 items behind the seat.

8:25 AM. Since I'm at the mall I decided to see how things were going elsewhere and to perhaps nab a second memory card.

Target: A long line of people is waiting to be allowed entry into the store. There was trash all over the parking lot. Each of these souls have been chosen - they all had tickets that would gain them entry. Each will receive a PS2. They've all been at the store for around 9 to 10 hours. Most of them looked like zombies to me. The manager would only allow one in at a time. When one left with a system, another was allowed in. None would leave with a memory card. Target did not receive any. 30 systems were sold, no way to save a game.. I ran into folks trying to get in to buy a system that did not have a ticket. They were sent away.

K-Mart: All systems were sold shortly after midnight. No memory cards. I bumped into a few people looking for PS2 items. All looked angry, as there were none to be found.

Wal-Mart: All systems were sold shortly after midnight. They had a few memory cards at launch but there were none to be seen now. A few hopeless souls lurked about.

Toys R Us: The store did not open early. There was a long line of people waiting to get inside. All looked tired. They'll probably be sent away as I heard that the store did not have enough to cover their pre-sells.

Sears: They had no units to sell at launch.

I decided that this was quite enough and decided to go home with my new system. The fog was lifting and I made my way home.

9:30AM: I took my old PSX off the shelf, leaving the SVIDEO and power cord in place. I placed the PS2 on the shelf; I plugged in the connectors and powered the thing on. Easy!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Larry aka Tiptonium himself!

Submitted by: tiptonium