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Profit, profit, profit. Although Sony aren't going to see any of it, it looks as though a fair few crafty Japanese will.
Saturday's Japanese launch saw plenty of homeless and poor Chinese people queing to buy PS3s. Unlike the ordered system of pre-ordering to guarantee your console, the PS3s were available on a first-come-first-served basis, which meant that wealthy business minded Japanese could hire the poor and homeless to stand all day in a queue waiting for one of the much sought after consoles.
As expected, the consoles started appearing en-mass on Ebay and on private auction for much larger sums, and they seem to be going as well. Bids were starting for $100 more than the retail price and were steadily rising as so many proper customers found themselves without a console at launch.
I'm sure that Sony don't mind, however. They're getting so much publicity from the whole thing, and only releasing 80,000 units means that they were guaranteed to have a large shortfall of units compared to customer demand.
Already, Nintendo's Wii has made an entrance on ebay before even being launched in the shops, pointing towards another spate of over-priced sales when that too is released.
Unless they were really obsessed with getting a machine at launch, however, I would expect the vast majority to wait for the next batch of consoles. With some of the consoles going for in excess of £1000 you have to ask yourself just how important it all is in the grand scheme of things!
Saturday's Japanese launch saw plenty of homeless and poor Chinese people queing to buy PS3s. Unlike the ordered system of pre-ordering to guarantee your console, the PS3s were available on a first-come-first-served basis, which meant that wealthy business minded Japanese could hire the poor and homeless to stand all day in a queue waiting for one of the much sought after consoles.
As expected, the consoles started appearing en-mass on Ebay and on private auction for much larger sums, and they seem to be going as well. Bids were starting for $100 more than the retail price and were steadily rising as so many proper customers found themselves without a console at launch.
I'm sure that Sony don't mind, however. They're getting so much publicity from the whole thing, and only releasing 80,000 units means that they were guaranteed to have a large shortfall of units compared to customer demand.
Already, Nintendo's Wii has made an entrance on ebay before even being launched in the shops, pointing towards another spate of over-priced sales when that too is released.
Unless they were really obsessed with getting a machine at launch, however, I would expect the vast majority to wait for the next batch of consoles. With some of the consoles going for in excess of £1000 you have to ask yourself just how important it all is in the grand scheme of things!
Considering how much people will pay for high-end tv's and sound systems I can definitely see PS3s going for £1000+.
Profit, profit, profit. Although Sony aren't going to see any of it, it looks as though a fair few crafty Japanese will.
Saturday's Japanese launch saw plenty of homeless and poor Chinese people queing to buy PS3s. Unlike the ordered system of pre-ordering to guarantee your console, the PS3s were available on a first-come-first-served basis, which meant that wealthy business minded Japanese could hire the poor and homeless to stand all day in a queue waiting for one of the much sought after consoles.
As expected, the consoles started appearing en-mass on Ebay and on private auction for much larger sums, and they seem to be going as well. Bids were starting for $100 more than the retail price and were steadily rising as so many proper customers found themselves without a console at launch.
I'm sure that Sony don't mind, however. They're getting so much publicity from the whole thing, and only releasing 80,000 units means that they were guaranteed to have a large shortfall of units compared to customer demand.
Already, Nintendo's Wii has made an entrance on ebay before even being launched in the shops, pointing towards another spate of over-priced sales when that too is released.
Unless they were really obsessed with getting a machine at launch, however, I would expect the vast majority to wait for the next batch of consoles. With some of the consoles going for in excess of £1000 you have to ask yourself just how important it all is in the grand scheme of things!
Saturday's Japanese launch saw plenty of homeless and poor Chinese people queing to buy PS3s. Unlike the ordered system of pre-ordering to guarantee your console, the PS3s were available on a first-come-first-served basis, which meant that wealthy business minded Japanese could hire the poor and homeless to stand all day in a queue waiting for one of the much sought after consoles.
As expected, the consoles started appearing en-mass on Ebay and on private auction for much larger sums, and they seem to be going as well. Bids were starting for $100 more than the retail price and were steadily rising as so many proper customers found themselves without a console at launch.
I'm sure that Sony don't mind, however. They're getting so much publicity from the whole thing, and only releasing 80,000 units means that they were guaranteed to have a large shortfall of units compared to customer demand.
Already, Nintendo's Wii has made an entrance on ebay before even being launched in the shops, pointing towards another spate of over-priced sales when that too is released.
Unless they were really obsessed with getting a machine at launch, however, I would expect the vast majority to wait for the next batch of consoles. With some of the consoles going for in excess of £1000 you have to ask yourself just how important it all is in the grand scheme of things!