Clash of the Titans

The weekend of November 17th through the 19th saw an unprecedented event in American gaming history; the near simultaneous launch of two highly anticipated video game consoles. Unlike the launch of the Gamecube and the original Xbox during the last generation of consoles, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii are produced by veterans of the industry, brands easily recognizable to a general public with growing awareness of the industry. Like the companies themselves, the launches of the two consoles displayed two very different approaches to business. While Nintendo’s launch was smooth and almost uneventful, the news shows were dominated by word of the debacle that was the launch of the PlayStation 3, spreading awareness of the system into everyone’s living room.

Although Sony already announced a couple months back that they would be unable to meet previous projections, the estimated 150,000-200,000 PlayStation 3’s available in North America on Nov. 17th wasn’t quite half the number promised. Supplies were so limited that one of the largest retailers in the Great Plains states, Nebraska Furniture Mart, refused to sell the system. In an attempt to stem the madness that was to sweep the nation, and perhaps as a snub for the unprofessional quantities Sony was shilling, NFM actually placed ads in several newspapers to forewarn the masses that PlayStation 3 would be unavailable in their stores. Although they may have lost some residual business from the camped out masses, NFM also deftly avoided the revenue losing, consumer-scaring events that were to come.

Perpetuated by the desire to be one of the lucky few who were able to acquire a PlayStation 3 and post it for sale on eBay, November 17th saw a number of unfortunate incidents which mark it as the most violent video game console launch in our country. Fights erupted between consumers, employees, and passers-by. As many of you have already heard from your local nightly news or elsewhere, a man was even robbed at gun point while waiting in line outside a store for a PlayStation 3, and then shot twice in the chest. Luckily, he survived and is recovering remarkably.

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Despite Sony’s absolute failure to live up to so many of their promises, be it launch quantities or a console offering services on par with or surpassing Xbox Live, they ran away with the show that weekend. All over the media Nintendo’s launch was ignored as Sony left a destructive swath of controversy across the nation. Back when original estimates of units available to North America were reduced to 400,000 a couple months ago, some gaming pundits saw this as not only a failure to produce enough units, but also a clever marketing ploy by Sony to claim “Sold Out on day one by popular demand!”. It was well-known that many PlayStation 3’s would be up for sale on eBay at ridiculously inflated prices, providing yet another bragging right for Sony, yet few foresaw the media frenzy that would follow in the bloody wake of Nov. 17th. It provides the ultimate tagline; “PlayStation 3 is so hot people will literally kill for it.”

No one can argue with the power of that statement, yet neither can they argue with the power of roughly a million Wii’s happily humming all across North America. Although they made five times as many units available, Nintendo “sold out due to popular demand on day one” as well. If you happened to live in New York City and were among the 2,500 people waiting in line outside the Nintendo World Store for the Wii, you got one. Nintendo’s launch of the Wii was the exact opposite of Sony’s launch of the PlayStation 3, in more ways than the number of units available, clearly displaying that each company has taken very different approaches.

No matter where your line was, you almost surely didn’t have to dodge any fists or bullets to acquire a Wii, unless they were virtual attacks while playing multiplayer on your Nintendo DS with others waiting in line. Much of this is due to the fact that the majority of people waiting in line for the Nintendo Wii were actually buying the system to enjoy at home, not to sell on eBay. Acts of kindness rather than violence defined the Wii launch, such as a G4TV staffer selling his Wii to a family at the end of the line who were unable to get one, at retail price for no profit. This was the true face of the gaming community, not the scary picture of kids turned violent painted by political video game opponents. It’s the image nurtured by Nintendo for over a decade now, one of responsibility and dependabilty.

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That isn’t to say Nintendo’s launch was without incident. A number of Wii’s were sold without the requisite start-up disc, rendering the console almost useless. Nintendo claimed this was the result of display units being accidentally shipped as retail, but quickly moved to begin shipping replacements last week. More notably was the lack of available accessories, such as component video cables, which resulted in somewhat lackluster reviews of the visual quality of a number of launch titles. If you were looking to buy extra Wii-motes, the limited supplies of extra nunchuk attachments may have prevented the multiplayer Wii Sports Boxing match you were looking forward to.

That said, the Wii has made it’s impact in the most important way possible for any consumer product: word of mouth. The words “easy to pick up and play” have resounded numerous times from many critics worried about how well the innovative controller would actually work. I personally don’t know anyone who bought a PlayStation 3, but a number of my friends who bought the Wii have been noticeably absent from Xbox Live during a time when it’s teeming with great games.

The reaction from the Xbox 360 owning community regarding the competition’s launches was actually fairly calm and collected, overall. Obviously there was some debate as to whether Microsoft had established enough of a lead to withstand the onslaught of hype that accompanied the near-simultaneous launch, but for the most part, Xbox 360 owners seemed to be in agreement that at this early stage, the PS3 and Wii werent robbing potential sales from the Xbox 360. Afterall, anyone willing to wait in line for a console, for up to several days in some cases, obviously has their heart set on a particular product. It’s highly unlikely that any of the consumers that purchased a PS3 or Wii had gone to their local retailer with the original intention of buying an Xbox 360. No, most agreed that the real console war wouldnt start until next holiday season, when all of the consoles were available in large supply and each had more than a few big-name titles to their name.

During the “Great Launch Weekend”, my friends on Xbox Live and I were consumed with talk of the PlayStation 3. Not because of the games or a desire to personally own one, however, but of how we wished we could’ve sold one on eBay for ten times what we paid for it. Beyond the “Great Hype Weekend”, however, it is the Wii which has dominated our conversations. And this time, we’re talking about bringing it home and having fun.