Australian Launch Reports

2

22psi

Veteran
Okay first off, I usually don't like posting threads like this or get myself engaged in potential flamewars but this is pretty alarming for Sony for a launch of a Playstation branded system in a new territory. These sites are reporting that the Australian launch went VERY underwhelming. I am not saying it's all doom and gloom, but Sony sure has their work cut out for them.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/ps3-launch/australian-ps3-launch-shindig-246437.php

11:25pm - Still nobody here. A band of douches with a filmcrew were trying to interview people about the PS3. "Fuck, mate, there's nobody here!" one exhales between cigarettes. "Hey, ladies!" another, the cameraman, hollers.

Two thirty-something women who had stopped for a moment to perv on Daniel Craig were pounced upon. "Hey, ladies, are you hear to buy a PS3?" the interviewer pleads.

"Uh...no".

"Fuck! Nobody is! Well, can you pretend you are? You'll be on TV!"
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http://www.theage.com.au/news/games/playtime-for-midnights-children/2007/03/23/1174153291466.html

Over 500 retailers around the country threw open their doors as the clock struck 12:00am, expecting the frenzy that accompanied the games console's overseas debuts.

But most stores were virtually deserted, despite the 20,000 pre-orders Sony said it had received.

Even at the official launch event held at Myer's Pitt Street store in Sydney's CBD and attended by Sony's local managing director, Michael Ephraim, media and security outnumbered PS3 fans until at least 11:00pm.

At midnight, about 40 PS3 buyers had arrived to collect their consoles, causing distress for the army of camera crews who turned up expecting to capture launch mayhem.

Desperate producers unashamedly asked the crowd to fake excitement when the cameras were rolling, while a team from 2Day FM let out bogus cheers to convince their radio listeners that a launch extravaganza was underway.
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Kiwi Launch Report

3 words = Kiwis Love PlayStation!

NZ Herald said:
"Pre-orders are five times that of Nintendo Wii. Our expectation is that this is going to be our biggest gaming launch."
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Source: NZ Herald

Looks like it's the opposite across the Tasman, so it's not all Doom & Gloom for SONY.
 
22psi said:
Okay first off, I usually don't like posting threads like this or get myself engaged in potential flamewars but this is pretty alarming for Sony for a launch of a Playstation branded system in a new territory.
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I'm in sydney right now and frankly this hasn't got much to do with the PS3 future chances. The weather is pretty good, people are at the beaches (or at work). There has been plenty of PS3 information, game reviews and news from US sites etc. Nobody expects not to be able to get one *when/if they want one* because they are well aware that being this far from NA and Japan means that any supply kinks have been long since worked out. There is not going to be any ebay make-money-fast after market (that fueled much of the rush in NA). It is also being advertised at $999 which doesn't inspire (although I also see advertisements for $2500 coffee makers on TV so at least some aussies are not short of a few bucks).

I even bought a Wii for someone after stepping off the plane, target happened to have stock. This was at the same time as they were going for 30% over retail on US ebay. The city just isn't large enough, (and the weather is too nice) for retail rushes for consumer electronics like you see in the US or Japan.
 
bRoNx said:
3 words = Kiwis Love PlayStation!



Source: NZ Herald

Looks like it's the opposite across the Tasman, so it's not all Doom & Gloom for SONY.
Click to expand...

Sony also claims to have 20k pre-ordered in Oz. If that's the case a lot of people must have forgot to pick their $1k purchase up last night.

$1k is just far too expensive for a console down under. It's not going to get legs until it comes down in price.
 
Word is that the Australian launch was average...but what's more concerning is that the PS3 apparently bombed in France ! I feel sorry for Sony...what a bad, bad start ! ;)
 
Even if the system were notably more popular in New Zealand (I'm living in Hamilton in NZ at the moment by the way... and haven't really seen any hype, and no lines outside retailers etc) that is of intensely limited use to Sony.


It would be different if sheep were capable of buying the system, as it stands though there are approximately 4 million people in the entirity of this country. Even assuming a similar ratio of gamers to the UK that puts it at a market 1/15th the size of the UK alone...


Despite the reports of a rather lackluster launch across numerous territories I have no doubt sony will bounce back eventually. Once they start getting some big name games out and the price drops the sales will pick up dramatically in my opinion.
 
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It's not hot in France either: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5001&Itemid=2

Outside the Fnac store, right on the large side walk of “la plus belle avenue du monde”, security people in red jackets were ready to guard a big line of PS3 lovers. All that was missing was the line itelf. At 8pm, a young man sauntered along. A bevy of cameras and microphones turned to him. But he didn’t have anything to say.
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Meanwhile: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/only-in-france/xbox-crashes-french-ps3-launch-246475.php

And: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=74495

In England, at Sony's Virgin Megastore London launch, friendly men approached people in the queue offering tired bums a seat. Their fold-out chairs bore the words, "Shouldn't have kept you waiting" with a URL, www.shkyw.org.
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Peter Moore is up to his old tricks again it seems...
 
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Lycan said:
Word is that the Australian launch was average...but what's more concerning is that the PS3 apparently bombed in France ! I feel sorry for Sony...what a bad, bad start ! ;)
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Ohh my, could this mean that the French might start bying an amerikan product instead? Has the world started turning the ther way around?;) :p ...
 
22psi said:
These sites are reporting that the Australian launch went VERY underwhelming.
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Hasn't Australia alway sbeen very strong XBox territory ever since MS's original console?

That - along with the high pricve - would explain a thing or two with regards to the slow initial sales wouldn't it?
Peace.

*Edit: it's worth nioting though that once a killer app game launches people usually start running to the stores regardless.. Sny might only need a relaly hot game to change this initial slump.
 
Rainbow Man said:
Hasn't Australia alway sbeen very strong XBox territory ever since MS's original console?

That - along with the high pricve - would explain a thing or two with regards to the slow initial sales wouldn't it?
Peace.

*Edit: it's worth nioting though that once a killer app game launches people usually start running to the stores regardless.. Sny might only need a relaly hot game to change this initial slump.
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With that price tag they will most likely need more than one...
 
Trawler said:
Sony also claims to have 20k pre-ordered in Oz. If that's the case a lot of people must have forgot to pick their $1k purchase up last night.

$1k is just far too expensive for a console down under. It's not going to get legs until it comes down in price.
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I pre-ordered last year, but didn't pick mine at the stores midnight launch party. So yes, maybe, there were a lot of people that didn't pick theirs up at midnight.

Sony also said that they took $20 million in pre-orders, which correlates nicely to 20,000 x 1,000.

Considering the PS2 retailed for $749 in Aus, imo, $999 for PS3 is great value for what it offers me.
 
^^^ Well it looks pretty nice :D



Rainbow Man said:
Hasn't Australia alway sbeen very strong XBox territory ever since MS's original console?
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You're thinking of New Zealand, they're some sort of bizarro-reality for videogames. If I remember correctly, they were the only place where the original Xbox outsold the PS2.
 
Egads how embarrassing. I surely hope it wasn't just that one guy standing in that whole queue serpentine thingy.

Seems early evening when that pic was taken. Sky's not totally dark yet. Maybe more people arrived later..

Peace.
 
Platon said:
Ohh my, could this mean that the French might start bying an amerikan product instead? Has the world started turning the ther way around?;) :p ...
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In fact in france Wii is for now the winner as it is pretty much sold out since launch.


PS and that guy is now famous and it is the only one in the queue for the event at the Champ-Elyséee launch, you can se him on pretty much every french forum and website.
 
Rainbow Man said:
Egads how embarrassing. I surely hope it wasn't just that one guy standing in that whole queue serpentine thingy.

Seems early evening when that pic was taken. Sky's not totally dark yet. Maybe more people arrived later..

Peace.
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:???:

Some random guy jumps into the line hours early for a pics and now the PS3 has bombed. There were more pics, but I guess the singe guy one serves the purpose more for certain people...

10editeurs20070323_014245_6_big.jpg
 
PatrickL said:
In fact in france Wii is for now the winner as it is pretty much sold out since launch.


PS and that guy is now famous and it is the only one in the queue for the event at the Champ-Elyséee launch, you can se him on pretty much every french forum and website.
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Like the rest of the world then...
 
So the internet is running with an incomplete picture? Who'd have thought the internet would act so irresponsibly...?

Shouldn't this thread be renamed the official launch results thread? It's hardly constrained to the antipodies.
 
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