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Saturday, November 11, 2006
My 500th post... and it's about PS3!
Today is a big day for gamers in Japan. As some may know, the long-awaited Playstasion 3 (that's how they spelt it in Bic Camera just now.. hehe) is finally launched. The first batch, that is. All 80,000 of them, for about 18 million Japanese.
That's hardly enough.
Because of that, many people, expectedly, rushed to queue overnight at places like Yodobashi Camera, where the sale of PS3's are on a first-come-first-served basis.
I nearly got my hands on 1 myself. I went to Kawasaki last nite to meet my Japanese teacher, Tanabe sensei for dinner. I was early, reached at 7, so I decided to check out the situation there. There wasn't any queue at all. All was peaceful and quiet. Not what I expected since in America, people started queuing 9 days before the launch date!
Anyway I proceeded to dinner with my sensei. Afterwhich, which was about 9+, I went back to Yodobashi. It was a crazy mess. The line was still pretty short when I reached, probably about 80 people in line already. I could have joined the queue then, but I hesitated. I went to ask a staff how many sets do they have for sale. He gave me a pissed off look and said it had not been decided yet. And then he ignored me.
WTF. never what I expected from a Japanese sales staff. some ppl just can't work under pressure.
The couple of minutes I took to hesitate, the line doubled already. I did some maths, figured that no matter how big Kawasaki Yodobashi is, I don't think they will have more than 100 sets available. And I think it is rather unfair that they don't tell the ppl waiting in line overnight how many sets are available, since most of them will probably go home empty handed. Ah well, whatever. I returned despondently.
But all was not lost. yet.
I decided to try my luck, and try for those "lottery" type sales. Meaning you go and get a number or ticket at the store between a certain timing, and a lucky draw (or lottery, if you prefer) will be conducted. The winners will then win the rights to buy the PS3's.
This system, fair or not I don't know, but at least it won't encourage ppl to queue overnight, is adopted by many major shops, such as Tsutaya, Sakuraya, Bic Camera.
Thinking that Shin Yokohama is very ulu (it is, trust me. it's a birds-dun-lay-eggs place), I may stand a chance to win myself one err.. rights.
So I industriously dragged myself out of bed this morning, and went to queue for the draw.
The reception started at 9, and my turn was at 930. Not too bad. For the draw at Bic Camera, membership card was needed, so I got my hands on one myself this morning.
I returned at 11 am, which was when the results were announced.
I didn't get it.
Darn.
I initially wanted one so that I can resell for a profit (yeah, shoot me), to earn enough money to buy my oboe. But well, it's not meant to be. I guess God must have given the sets to those with purer motives than mine. But then again, some say games are the works of the Devil.
Ok, I'm straying off here... just trying to justify my bad luck.
So anyway, it is not that I really wanted 1 so that I can play it earlier. Being the first 80,000 people out of a population of 8 billion in the world (about 0.001%) sounds cool, but I'll rather get it when it is more stabilized, and tried-and-tested.
So in a certain sense, I should not be dejected. But still, seeing those lucky bast**ds carrying brand new PS3's out of the store, I can't help but to feel a tinge of envy, and a pang of jealousy.
Ok, that's an understatement.
Sigh~~~ At least I tried.
At least I finally got a Bic Camera membership card. Which may not be a good thing though. I used to not have one, so I refused to buy anything from there, knowing that the same items in Yodobashi will get me rebates. Thus saving money.
Now the seal is broken. I finally have the license to buy things at Bic Camera.
Darn.
posted by winz at 11:57 AM
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