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Unfortunately, the race for parents and gamers alike to snag this year’s hottest entertainment console was over before it started.
Thursday’s nationwide launch of the much-hyped Sony PlayStation 2 met commercial expectations, by all retailer accounts, selling out of its initial offering of 500,000 units.
The system, which plays games, DVD movies and audio CDs, is already going for $450 to $1,500 on eBay.com.
“It’s a toy! A toy is not worth missing a house payment,” marveled Levi Buchanan, editor of GameFan.com, an online gaming magazine. “It’s all quiet now, but there are a ton of games left over.”
PlayStation 2, which has a minimum retail price of $299.99, was selling for $333.99 plus tax at San Francisco’s Metreon, where between 500 and 1,000 people by some reports camped overnight for a chance to buy one of an estimated 450 to 500 machines.
Most of the 20,000 merchants receiving machines have been tight-lipped about the number they received, but Buy.com said it sold out of its first shipment.
Beginning Oct. 10, United Airlines began shipping PlayStation 2 consoles and games to Chicago and Los Angeles, which served as the main hubs of distribution for Sony’s new ubermachine. A DC-10 airliner carrying 40 tons of Sony product flew into Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport that day, according to United spokesperson Chris Brathwaite.”Typically, we don’t give out information prior to the shipping,” says Brathwaite. “We probably would have had 100,000 Chicago kids–or should I say parents–trying to get one.”
At a Chicago Target store at 2656 N. Elston Ave., team leader Lee Crum said his store sold out of 90 PlayStation 2 units moments after doors opened at 8 a.m.
“It was immediate,” he said. “We had people show up at one in the morning and we had to tell them to go home and go to sleep. It was orderly. We had a policeman on hand and we gave out numbers starting at 6 o’clock in the morning to people in line. When we gave out all the numbers, that was it.”