I can't say I'm much surprised by the lackluster PS3 launch. A day late and a dollar short, even eBayers are giving up on the PS3. Can SONY screw things up even more? First they don't even meet their 'revised revision lanuch shipments', then their B/C plan goes awry. Next, it turns out that you need an update out of the box in order to go online, the first in a string of quick fix patches. Then it turns out that instead of upconverting native 720p games to 1080i or 1080p, they are downscaled to 480p. To make matters even worse, they hype over Resistance, Fall of Man was misplaced as it failed to acheive AAA status here at GS. To top it off, the past few days have seen PS3s go onsold on eBay because the MSRP reserve hadn't been met! I don't blame SONY for launchday violence, but just about everything else is egg on their collective corporate faces (and just cause for disgruntled shareholder lawsuits).

The Wii, on the other hand, was an unqualified success. Despite wrist-strap issues (I particularly like the video of the guy playing Wii sports in his dorm and wiping out a table of drinks when his Wiimote goes flying), the Wii was and remains a seriously hot-ticket item this holiday season. I have a friend who managed to get one on launch day (with no wating in line, no less) and he is amazed. He can't tear himself away from Wii Sports, or Zelda: TP. The thing is, he isn't a gamer (his g/f's son is, apparently). Unlike the PS3, Wii eBay prices stayed high, with units going for $350-500 (or more bundled with games and extras).

That just makes this next topic so *groan* unbearable for me. Zelda: TP had been hyped AAA in GS System Wars, strongly and consistently, for months. Very few predicted a FLOP and they were generally laughed at. Then it happened: Jeff Gerstmann dropped his infamous 8.8. Cows laughed in relief, sheep were owned, and even many lemmings such as myself were left stratching our heads, dumbfounded. I guess it can always happen to any game, but I never expected Twilight Princess to flop. Flop, however, it did. The news hit System Wars hard, with a few sheep posting suicidally. Threats of a mass exodus were issued. 'Teh LameSpot" and "XboxSpot" were some of the more civilized of derogatory names hurled at our hosts. Madness, I say, MADNESS! I'll be honest, my respect for many sheep went down that night, and for many cows, it went up. R:FOM got the same flop treatment (8.6, the highest PS3 game so far, beaten by 4 360 launch titles), but the cows didn't go south like the sheep did. "Bah Bah" became "Wah Wah" in the space of a few short minutes.

Of course, immature fanboy madness didn't stop me from searching for a Wii in the wilds, so to speak. I had heard rumors on System Wars of a special BestBuy allotment being held for 17 December. There was even a digital photo of the employee newsletter telling them how to handle the situation. I woke up at 4 am that Sunday morning almost giggling with glee that I would have the drop on all the other poor suckers in my area who didn't wait for a week and a half just for an unannounced Wii release. At just about 5 am I rolled up to the nearest BestBuy (Utopia Planitia is quite a commute)...to find 21 people in front of me. DAMNATION! Apparently the newsletter had leaked to the local TV station the night before and lots of people were in line. To make a long story short, I was 3rd loser in line.:cry:

Well, i guess I can get one in the New Year.

flair
Until then, this is your observant servant signing off!
/flair