The Midnight Hour

This weekend saw the launch of two new gaming systems into the consumer market: the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. Both systems, but especially the PS3, met incredibly high demand, forcing hardcore gamers to camp like Boy Scouts outside electronics retailers in order to be first in line to secure a purchase. Most successful campers started their journey late on Wednesday night in order to secure a PS3 on Friday morning. There were also campers for the Wii, but competition to receive Nintendo’s new game system was much less than PS3.

Due to a complication in the initial production of parts for the PS3’s integrated Blu-Ray player, Sony shipped about 250,000 units on launch day. This was down from the 400,000 projected weeks ago, which was down from the 1,000,000 projected months ago. It seems that as the hour draws near companies are forced to come to Jesus on their actual production figures.

On Sunday the Nintendo Wii was offered for sale at retailers across the country. Unlike Sony, Nintendo was able to stock a variety of retailers and not just it’s top few. I am unsure how many units Nintendo shipped, but this site claims just less than 700,000. Most retailers who carried both systems received anywhere from 4-10 times the amount of PS3s they had received three days prior.

As usual during times of high demand and low supply for an easily Ebayable item, I procured a few of these units to sell at market price. You can view my auction for a PS3 here and my two auctions for Nintendo Wiis here and here. Fraudulent bidding has been rampant from kids out to ruin ebayers reselling game consoles because it violates the consumer’s God-given right to buy a luxury item on the day one wants at the price one wants. Wait, that sounds ridiculous…that’s right, it is ridiculous. Rapture, The Midnight Hour Webmaster, has also procured a PS3 for auction. You can read about his exploits at his blog here. Long live the free market.