Console camping, is it really worth it?

Reading about what happened at the Sony Store in Old Orchard during the PS3 release makes me shake my head.

So, instead of about 12-20 people camping patiently, in an orderly fashion outside the Sony Store they got huge mobs and scores of security and police officers having to patrol the area, breaking up altercations and trying to keep the peace for around 12 hours.

That’s pretty tame when you hear about the crowd that got mugged, the kid who got shot, and the unfortunate one who’s now infamous because he ran into a pole racing to get a “guaranteed” seat for a PS3. You’d think people would have learned after the release of the PS2 and XBox 360:

Is it really worth that much? A lot of the people interviewed by the media said they were waiting so they could sell it later on Ebay to someone with enough disposable income for 2x and 3x the retail price. If the system was really living up to the hype everyone would be grabbing it for themselves. I sense that there will be one or two people who receive a PS2 in a box instead of the PS3 after winning their Ebay auction.

After this diatribe, the lesson of the day is… in a couple of months you’ll be walking through one of the big box electronics stores and there will be stacks of the coveted gaming consoles. I happened to be at Old Orchard that night for dinner. All was calm and serene at the Sony Store, but I did notice that some disgruntled customer tore off the “O” and “L” from their door sign.