It was the homely if endearing Cabbage Patch doll that brought to American society in full force the sight of crazed parents so desperate for the season’s hottest Christmas toy they camped overnight and fought in store aisles. Other frenzies followed: One retailer remembers drivers following trucks at midnight from a warehouse in Milwaukee to a Chicago store to pounce on what they thought was a shipment of Tickle Me Elmos.
But this year, the hot toy for the Christmas season–if you can even call it a toy–is giving new definition to an acquisitive culture and raising some unusual issues among parents and cultural commentators.
This item costs hundreds of dollars, has created a stir before Halloween, may be sold out before it hits stores, and is even being promoted to kids and adults alike alongside movie trailers in theaters.
It is Sony’s PlayStation 2, which arrives in stores Thursday, a video game console that generates images of such startling graphic force that it easily qualifies as the most lifelike video-game machine in history. Priced at roughly $300 (the games retail for $49), it also plays CDs and DVDs.
Depending on your point of view, PS2–and a host of imitators that will follow–could be the porthole to new age of digital home entertainment or a black hole that will suck dollars from your wallet and its users into a virtual fantasy cocoon.
Regardless of the outcome, the introduction of this new generation of video systems appears to be some sort of pop culture watershed.
“This is like the first time we saw a Technicolor movie, or TV,” said Joe Coates, a Washington-based future-trends analyst. “It puts more computer power in the hands of ordinary people than they’ve ever had before.”
For many a frustrated shopper, it will be something more: impossible to get. Demand for PS2 is ferocious, but because of an apparent manufacturing problem that has added another twist to the story, only 500,000 consoles will go on sale this week, half the number Sony initially promised.
On eBay, the Web auction site, there are 30 pages of bids, ranging as high as $700.
Meanwhile, Sony is embarking on an unprecedented advertising blitz, estimated at $150 million.
“It’s truly taken on a movie launch mentality,” said Gene Del Vecchio, an author who has written on the marketing of toys. “And if you look at the dollars at stake, it’s very similar to what’s at stake at the box office.”
While that prospect is exciting to gamers who have waited months for PS2’s arrival, it could spell “game over” for parents caught between the desire to provide kids with the latest technology and concern over whether they’re sinking too far into the “other worlds” created by video games.
Elliott Martinez, 15, of Chicago plans to drive as far as 90 minutes away and camp out overnight to get his hands on one–for which his brother is footing the bill. Martinezhas been honing his plan for a month. “We’ll bring a tent, blankets and everything,” he said.
“The Best Buy in the city, it’s close by at Harlem and Irving Park, but probably a lot of people are going to go there,” he said. “So we’ll just ride out to some store far away where no one else would go–maybe to the Mega Mall at Sauk Village.”
Lee Crum, team leader of the Target store at 2656 N. Elston Ave. in Chicago recalled that customers have tried to bribe employees for hot toys in the past. Of PS2, he said, “Yeah, this is the buzz one, the one that will drive ’em all crazy this year.”
Sharon Burch Baracree of Chicago finds herself in a dilemma. Her two sons, 15 and 13, desperately want a PS2 this Christmas. Assuming she can find one, it would be her lone gift to the boys because of the cost. But despite their persistence, she isn’t sold on the idea.
“I told them, `It’s $300 and you’ll be really upset a few months down the line when you’re bored in some way, shape or form,'” said Baracree, a corporate foundation manager.
Try telling that to her older son, Jay, who is trying to track down a PS2. He hopes to persuade his mother to wait at one store Thursday while he goes to another. He’s at a disadvantage, though. “I’ll have to go to school,” he said.
Over the summer, Martinez averaged three to four hours a day on video games. Now a freshman at Von Steuben High School, he’s pulling decent grades and down to about a half-hour of game-playing a day.
He thinks he can handle the temptation of PS2, but admits it might be tough. He tried the console at a trade show in August and was hooked.
“It was perfect,” he said. “It’s lifelike.”
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With violent video games under increased scrutiny, some argue that PS2 will make on-screen bloodshed all too real.
“I find it extremely frightening,” said radio host Bob Larson, author of “Extreme Evil: Kids Killing Kids.” “The more we get real, the more the line between fantasy and reality gets blurred for the most impressionable of minds.”
But other experts think the correlation between video games and violence is weak, at best.
“There are 80 million of these games out there, but violent crime committed by juveniles is down,” said Bennett Leventhal, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of Chicago.
Actually, PS2 might stand a better chance of making adults punchy after they run into row after row of empty store shelves.
If you’re hoping to pre-order a console, forget it. Local retailers closed their waiting lists weeks ago. And stores that aren’t taking pre-orders are bracing for the worst. Crum has no idea how many PlayStation 2 units his Target will get. “We’re sort of at Sony’s mercy,” he said.
Fearing that same scenario, Toys R Us has decided not to heavily advertise PS2 consoles. “I’m not going to disappoint the customer,” said George R. Staley, president of the company’s U.S. toy division.
The online retailer Buy.com, by contrast, is fearlessly predicting it can handle whatever stampede comes its way. The e-tailer is featuring a $449 bundle that will include the PS2 console, two games (NFL 2001 and Fantavision) and the “Men In Black” DVD.
“Our site has been geared to accept tremendous increases in traffic,” Buy.com Vice President Mike Walkey said. “We’re fully ready and waiting.”
People who end up empty-handed may wonder why Sony couldn’t meet demand. Sony cites a lack of parts–it won’t say which–leading some observers to question whether the so-called shortfall is as manufactured as the machine itself.
“The consensus is that yes, that this is almost staged,” said Levi Buchanan, editor of GameFan.com, an online magazine for game players. “It seems like almost a bizarro marketing ploy that I think will greatly backfire on them.”
“That is absolutely false,” said Andrew House, senior vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment America. “There is absolutely no point in us trying to drum up demand that we can’t satisfy.”
At this point, Sony’s strategy is to play catch-up, cranking out another 100,000 consoles a week through Christmas. But by then, shoppers might set their sights on what they perceive as even greener video pastures. Competing systems, Microsoft `s Xbox and Nintendo’s Dolphin, are scheduled to come out in 2001.
Expect a high-stakes battle to capture consumers’ hearts, though it’s too soon to predict which system will win. As Martinez put it, “They’re all designed so differently, it’s hard to compare them.”
Eyes fixed on his game room TV screen, he fired his controller button a few times, sending a video fighter into a kung-fu frenzy.
“You’ve just got to get all of them,” he said.