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Rumours are rising everywhere that the PlayStation 2 launch is to suffer further delays. Many of the un-official magazines in this country are daring to broach the subject with their readers, and the responses, it is thought, could seriously dent the already much maligned PS2.
If there is to be another delay, the other console manufacturers could be laughing all the way to the bank. As we all know, christmas is the pinacle of the retail industry year, and any delay to what was supposed to be this year's hottest gift, could mean the PS2 being relegated behind a host of other goodies. How many parents will take up the Sega offer of a DreamCast & DVD player for the same price as the PS2? Human beings are a fickle animal when it comes to getting the best of both worlds, don't you agree.
I for one will wait for the PS2 for as long as it takes, (despite my recent wavering on the subject. Thanks for the advice Babylonian!) but how many will stay with the console as christmas approaches? At the end of the day, Santa must have something to deliver!
So come on Sony, get it right, PLEASE.
If there is to be another delay, the other console manufacturers could be laughing all the way to the bank. As we all know, christmas is the pinacle of the retail industry year, and any delay to what was supposed to be this year's hottest gift, could mean the PS2 being relegated behind a host of other goodies. How many parents will take up the Sega offer of a DreamCast & DVD player for the same price as the PS2? Human beings are a fickle animal when it comes to getting the best of both worlds, don't you agree.
I for one will wait for the PS2 for as long as it takes, (despite my recent wavering on the subject. Thanks for the advice Babylonian!) but how many will stay with the console as christmas approaches? At the end of the day, Santa must have something to deliver!
So come on Sony, get it right, PLEASE.
You are right about the mail sort, but larger companies such as sony have pre-cast prices already, due to the large amount of mail that is sent each day anyway. I know this because my brother works for the royal mail.
As you said europe is larger than the USA, but i was not talking geographically. The US has a singular economy, but Europe has many differen economies, lots of which will not be able to sell the PS2 in any great quantity. Their economy just won't allow it.
As for the games situation, i don't know. It's a fact though that years ago, VHS films were available before any one had the players, and they still sold. The PS2 games will sell aswell, due to the anticipation of the machine reaching fever pitch in the next few weeks.
The rumour i heard is proberbly not accurate anyway, but if i hear something i will post it. My sources have been pretty consistant with their info, though not 100%!
As you said europe is larger than the USA, but i was not talking geographically. The US has a singular economy, but Europe has many differen economies, lots of which will not be able to sell the PS2 in any great quantity. Their economy just won't allow it.
As for the games situation, i don't know. It's a fact though that years ago, VHS films were available before any one had the players, and they still sold. The PS2 games will sell aswell, due to the anticipation of the machine reaching fever pitch in the next few weeks.
The rumour i heard is proberbly not accurate anyway, but if i hear something i will post it. My sources have been pretty consistant with their info, though not 100%!
> Hey guys, i'm only telling it like i heard it. And Babylonian, i
> didn't just mean by phone, what's to stop them sending the letters
> right now. If they have the info (which we all know they have) why
> not confirm it. It just seems to me that they could be holding
> back due to the reasons i put forewards in my earlier post.
Depends if they've sorted out every pre-order application. I don't know if Sony do/will make use of it, but the Post Office operate a scheme called Mailsort for business customers. What this means is that companies get considerable discounts for bulk mailings of 4,000 or more letters.
If Sony send out in dribs and drabs as and when they confirm dates, they will have to pay full-price postage on the 200,000+ letters. By waiting until all of them are ready, they save a small fortune.
Not saying this is the case, but just a definite possibility.
> At the end of the day the American market is
> "potentially" larger than ours, is it not?
It certainly is - but at least here Sony *know* how many units they're shifting, where they don't in the states. Also, we need to make a clear distinction here between 'UK' and 'Europe'; while the US market is potentially much larger than the UK's, I doubt it is anywhere near as large as the whole of Europe - and while only the UK has the pre-order system, as I understand it, the November 24th date applies to the whole of Europe.
If you're making a distinction between UK and US, consider this... the US allocation was recently slashed by 500,000 units. If Sony were planning to put our date back again, would they not have said - for example - that the US will get 700,000 units and the UK will get none until next year?
Also, as mentioned elsewhere, games are - very strangely - supposed to be released here starting on 1st November. Granted these are preliminary dates, but the release date of 24th November has been known for some time now - surely the games industry wouldn't 'jump the gun' by such a vast amount of time unless they were confident of the launch date?
On the other hand, of course, maybe the games industry is attempting to push Sony into sticking with the 24th November launch by announcing the early launch of software titles?
All I'm suggesting is that, until we have OFFICIAL information one way or the other, try not to worry too much!
> didn't just mean by phone, what's to stop them sending the letters
> right now. If they have the info (which we all know they have) why
> not confirm it. It just seems to me that they could be holding
> back due to the reasons i put forewards in my earlier post.
Depends if they've sorted out every pre-order application. I don't know if Sony do/will make use of it, but the Post Office operate a scheme called Mailsort for business customers. What this means is that companies get considerable discounts for bulk mailings of 4,000 or more letters.
If Sony send out in dribs and drabs as and when they confirm dates, they will have to pay full-price postage on the 200,000+ letters. By waiting until all of them are ready, they save a small fortune.
Not saying this is the case, but just a definite possibility.
> At the end of the day the American market is
> "potentially" larger than ours, is it not?
It certainly is - but at least here Sony *know* how many units they're shifting, where they don't in the states. Also, we need to make a clear distinction here between 'UK' and 'Europe'; while the US market is potentially much larger than the UK's, I doubt it is anywhere near as large as the whole of Europe - and while only the UK has the pre-order system, as I understand it, the November 24th date applies to the whole of Europe.
If you're making a distinction between UK and US, consider this... the US allocation was recently slashed by 500,000 units. If Sony were planning to put our date back again, would they not have said - for example - that the US will get 700,000 units and the UK will get none until next year?
Also, as mentioned elsewhere, games are - very strangely - supposed to be released here starting on 1st November. Granted these are preliminary dates, but the release date of 24th November has been known for some time now - surely the games industry wouldn't 'jump the gun' by such a vast amount of time unless they were confident of the launch date?
On the other hand, of course, maybe the games industry is attempting to push Sony into sticking with the 24th November launch by announcing the early launch of software titles?
All I'm suggesting is that, until we have OFFICIAL information one way or the other, try not to worry too much!
Hey guys, i'm only telling it like i heard it. And Babylonian, i didn't just mean by phone, what's to stop them sending the letters right now. If they have the info (which we all know they have) why not confirm it. It just seems to me that they could be holding back due to the reasons i put forewards in my earlier post.
At the end of the day the American market is "potentially" larger than ours, is it not?
At the end of the day the American market is "potentially" larger than ours, is it not?
Babylonian, I have to agree with Kieran on this one, the US launch on Friday will kill off or confirm our hopes on whether we will see PS2's in this country on November 24th. I do agree that it would not be inpractical to release the information that " ring to find out when youll get the Playstation 2", because it would case meltdown of the phone system. Kieran, news is news, it doesnt matter where it comes from, and most of the time its very reliable from Official magazine sources. Lets all hope we get our PS2s when they should be on November 24th!
> All of this could very well be unfounded, but watch carefully,
> after the American release, we will see if the information about
> the pre-orders is more forthcoming. If there was no problem, as
> Sony would have us believe, and the information is already in
> their system, what is the problem with giving this information at
> this time. The retail outlets seem to know how many consoles they
> are receiving on launch day, so why not tell people when they will
> be getting theirs.
They will, but by letter - as they have said they would do all along. They have never said that they would notify people over the phone, so I personally have no problem with it.
If they had said you could call to find out, then the PlayStation Helpline would be completely jammed. 200,000 people potentially calling at the same time could quite easily bring down their phone system; it's happened at my company several times when handling large telephone response campaigns for major clients, and we have one of the most advanced phone systems on the market today!
> According to a friend of mine, the best sources of information are
> the un-official mags. And to be quite honest, they seem a lot more
> un-biased.
That is probably true to an extent, but all I'm saying is that when any *official* announcement is made, PSM is likely to be the first mag to carry the news. After all, if it's not official, it's a rumour - at least in my book!
> after the American release, we will see if the information about
> the pre-orders is more forthcoming. If there was no problem, as
> Sony would have us believe, and the information is already in
> their system, what is the problem with giving this information at
> this time. The retail outlets seem to know how many consoles they
> are receiving on launch day, so why not tell people when they will
> be getting theirs.
They will, but by letter - as they have said they would do all along. They have never said that they would notify people over the phone, so I personally have no problem with it.
If they had said you could call to find out, then the PlayStation Helpline would be completely jammed. 200,000 people potentially calling at the same time could quite easily bring down their phone system; it's happened at my company several times when handling large telephone response campaigns for major clients, and we have one of the most advanced phone systems on the market today!
> According to a friend of mine, the best sources of information are
> the un-official mags. And to be quite honest, they seem a lot more
> un-biased.
That is probably true to an extent, but all I'm saying is that when any *official* announcement is made, PSM is likely to be the first mag to carry the news. After all, if it's not official, it's a rumour - at least in my book!
Why would they care? At the end of the day they know that they are guaranteed a major slice of the market no matter how many delays they announce. The USA is a much larger country than ours, and potentially, a much larger market to please, so who would you look after if you were after customers?
I have no doubt that when the PS2 is released in this country, Sony will provide us with everything that they can, but they do seem more intent with pleasing the rest of the world first.
All of this could very well be unfounded, but watch carefully, after the American release, we will see if the information about the pre-orders is more forthcoming. If there was no problem, as Sony would have us believe, and the information is already in their system, what is the problem with giving this information at this time. The retail outlets seem to know how many consoles they are receiving on launch day, so why not tell people when they will be getting theirs. I know that i have had some information already, but how do i know if this is right. Answer is, i don't.
According to a friend of mine, the best sources of information are the un-official mags. And to be quite honest, they seem a lot more un-biased.
I have no doubt that when the PS2 is released in this country, Sony will provide us with everything that they can, but they do seem more intent with pleasing the rest of the world first.
All of this could very well be unfounded, but watch carefully, after the American release, we will see if the information about the pre-orders is more forthcoming. If there was no problem, as Sony would have us believe, and the information is already in their system, what is the problem with giving this information at this time. The retail outlets seem to know how many consoles they are receiving on launch day, so why not tell people when they will be getting theirs. I know that i have had some information already, but how do i know if this is right. Answer is, i don't.
According to a friend of mine, the best sources of information are the un-official mags. And to be quite honest, they seem a lot more un-biased.
I doubt Sony 'don't care' about Europe - money is money to them, whatever the market. if they didn't care, they'd never have made the necessary changes to the machine if they didn't care
Also, I *believe* that - certainly at one point in time - the UK has/had the highest percentage of PlayStation owners (when compared to total population) outside of Japan. It certainly would not be in their interests to p!ss us off.
Only time will tell, though. Presumably the Official UK PlayStation Magazine will be one of the first sources to confirm or deny these rumours; I subscribe to the mag, so will post anything they report here, when the next issue arrives.
Also, I *believe* that - certainly at one point in time - the UK has/had the highest percentage of PlayStation owners (when compared to total population) outside of Japan. It certainly would not be in their interests to p!ss us off.
Only time will tell, though. Presumably the Official UK PlayStation Magazine will be one of the first sources to confirm or deny these rumours; I subscribe to the mag, so will post anything they report here, when the next issue arrives.
Kieran, it would annoy every single person who pre-order a PS2 here in Britain in September, also it will be Sega that laughs all the way to the bank. It will be their oppertunity to steal potential PS2 owners right from under Sonys nose, but do Sony REALLY care about the European gamers, but just the Americans and the Japanese?
Rumours are rising everywhere that the PlayStation 2 launch is to suffer further delays. Many of the un-official magazines in this country are daring to broach the subject with their readers, and the responses, it is thought, could seriously dent the already much maligned PS2.
If there is to be another delay, the other console manufacturers could be laughing all the way to the bank. As we all know, christmas is the pinacle of the retail industry year, and any delay to what was supposed to be this year's hottest gift, could mean the PS2 being relegated behind a host of other goodies. How many parents will take up the Sega offer of a DreamCast & DVD player for the same price as the PS2? Human beings are a fickle animal when it comes to getting the best of both worlds, don't you agree.
I for one will wait for the PS2 for as long as it takes, (despite my recent wavering on the subject. Thanks for the advice Babylonian!) but how many will stay with the console as christmas approaches? At the end of the day, Santa must have something to deliver!
So come on Sony, get it right, PLEASE.
If there is to be another delay, the other console manufacturers could be laughing all the way to the bank. As we all know, christmas is the pinacle of the retail industry year, and any delay to what was supposed to be this year's hottest gift, could mean the PS2 being relegated behind a host of other goodies. How many parents will take up the Sega offer of a DreamCast & DVD player for the same price as the PS2? Human beings are a fickle animal when it comes to getting the best of both worlds, don't you agree.
I for one will wait for the PS2 for as long as it takes, (despite my recent wavering on the subject. Thanks for the advice Babylonian!) but how many will stay with the console as christmas approaches? At the end of the day, Santa must have something to deliver!
So come on Sony, get it right, PLEASE.