Who has money AFTER christmas?

I saw a bunch at my best buy at 5pm on Sunday...

The reason is simple - people are broke. Sure, haters are going to argue that this just accurately demonstrates how poorly the PS3 is doing, but that's not the case. If you have the money to buy a PS3 after Christmas, that probably makes you rich, and if you were rich.. you likely already got your PS3; no?

It will be interesting seeing how sony fanboys will try and say this isn't a bad thing. Seriously can you imagine PS2's sitting on shelves this close after launch?

The fact that best buy were doing plenty of adverts (At least I think it was them) shows that this isn't a case of people not buying them because they don't know there are any for sale. Which in all fairness was a ridiculous argument anyway because there were certainly no reports of 360's sitting on shelves this close after launch. If there was it was usually, there was 1 premium 360 at the best buy in specific place, specific place and 2hours later someone would post saying its not there anymore.

I imagine making people think that to get a new console they will need to spend more than half a grand is a pretty horrible thing for sales.

Many factors play into people not buying one after Christmas, one being no one really has the money to afford a $740 (with the $99 two year replacement warranty) game console. I did however, and easily walked in to pick one up at around noon on Sunday. They had about 20 to 30 behind the service desk. This was at the Capital Blvd. Best Buy in Raleigh, NC.

My Best buy had 21 consoles on the floor yesterday and 19 today. Every other store I checked in town had at least 2 ps3's and none had a single wii. I talked to salespeople at several of the stores and they say that the wii's are sold as fast as they come in. The guy at Gamestop said that they have had ps3's all week that he could not get rid of.

Well at least Europe won't have a shortage. We just need Sony to knock off £100 for our launch...

I was at Best Buy today and I could make an igloo out of all the unsold PS3's they had. Granted it would be one expensive igloo but....

I'm tempted to say it isn't just post-holiday slump. Look at post-holiday PS2 sales in its' first year. It is probably a combination of no real interesting games and price. People who follow gaming know what the PS3 library is likely to have a year from now, but average consumers just see what is out now. Right now the PS3's best game (according to the critics) is Resistance. Everyone knows if FPS's are your genre of choice, get a 360.

@Eyerox: I do. I didn't have a chance to cash my Christmas bonus check until the 26th and I'm still not getting a PS3. However, I managed to score a Wii before the 25th, so I guess that makes me part of the Wii60 army :)

If it were just a case of people being broke then Wii would be plentiful as well.

"Who has money AFTER christmas?"

People who couldn't find a Wii BEFORE christmas.

I know anecdotal evidence isn't very useful at proving anything, but there's been a LOT of it stacking up over the past few weeks. The demand from the non-hardcore, non-scalping crowd just doesn't seem to be very strong, and it really can't be explained away by excuses like "people don't know it's available so they don't bother looking" or "people are completely broke now", considering that Wiis have been consistently flying off the shelves since launch.

Sony should be concerned.

I can't believe it! There are so many good titles available only for the PS3. Resistance Fall of Man...and then there is Resistance Fall of Man.

Hmmm this is something we need to keep an eye on. If come Feburary this trend continues... Sony is in a world of trouble. At that time, it will simple mean that Wii60 is for real... HD gamers will buy the 360 for their HD needs (to date PS3 hasn't shown why its worth the extra $200) and Wii for the party and family based games.

So like I said lets wait and see if this carries over to Feb. and the following months.

"Who has money AFTER Christmas?"

Not Sony.

I was at Best Buy in Framingham, MA today, standing next to a pile of 9 PS3's. They were the first "sitting right there on the shelf" PS3's that I had seen so far. It drew a little crowd. I asked a slaes clerk how long he thought that pile would last and he said about 3 hours. Then I asked him if he had Wii component cables (I've learned to not even bother asking for the Wii right now.)

He said no.

Then I played with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi and drooled on it a little bit. Re-checked the pile. There were 8. I bought a gumball and left the store. TRUE STORY!

People have no money after christmas? Lets remember that a big part of the gaming market is teenagers and children. This happens to be 2 groups that will quite often receive money at christmas. Relatives sending cash instead of a gift etc.

I agree adults will be strapped for cash but these should still be able to sell out to all the teenagers and kids who have just received cash.

I don't know about in the Us but here in the Uk there are after christmas sales as well and it can be incredibly hectic. Shopping centres and towns get completly packed and people go nuts buying things.

In fact here is an article from The times stating that shoppers are expected to spend more cash after christmas than before
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2519812,00.html<...
I would suspect that the situation cannot be that different in the US. Any of you guys seen/read news about after christmas shopping?

Yup, I went to Fry's yesterday to find stacks and stacks of PS3's. Of course, no one noticed because they were all playing Guitar Hero II.

"I bought a gumball and left the store."

Dude! Gumballs are back in stock?!

Here in Montreal area I went to my local Maxi or Canadian Super Store for the rest of Canada (a store similar to WalMart). And they had a stack of 25 PS3 sitting there in the shelf of the electronics section and nobody seem to take any of them. I first saw them on saturday the 30th and when I went back yesterday on the 31th at 16:00 (the store was closing at 17:00) and the stock didnt move at all, I even stay a while in that section to see if someone would eventually pick one. And after 30 mins no sign, so I went back home but inform one of my friend who was looking for one and he will go pick it up tomorow on the 2nd.

Ohh and it was all 60gb version, no 20gb insight. And of course I also check for Wii and DS and they had no in stock.

The PS3 is just too expensive, and it has nothing that demonstrates why it is so expensive to the average consumer. It has nothing to do with whether people have the money or not. You never saw a PS2 or 360 in a store for months after launch and the eBay prices for 360 were still $300-$400 over retail after Christmas.

PS3's were selling for at or near retail price on eBay a week BEFORE Christmas and they sure aren't going to start selling any time soon with no good exclusives coming before next Fall.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a price drop by the summer if sales don't pick up. The Playstation name still holds incredible power in the minds of consumers; if they lessened the price obstacle they could still compete with and even overtake the 360. At their current price they are handing the top spot over to Microsoft as the 360 will continue to sell 5 or more units for every 1 PS3 sold.

Sony grossly overestimated how many people would be willing to fork over $600 for a game console, especially after how crappily built the PS2 was and all the problems the 360 had initially.

I have seen PS3's in stock at 6 different stores in the last 4 days in Northeast PA. 2 Walmarts, 1 Target, 2 Eb games, 1 Gamestop. Most of them had several and they were mostly 60Gb. Its very odd, but I know i don't want one, especially when I can go home and play wii tennis.

Is anyone going to consider the price at all? Sure PS2's were left at this relative time, but it was $300. Wii's aren't around because they're $300. You can literally buy 2 Wii's for one PS3. Yeah, you're gonna have to dish $600+tax. Not only that, but Wii's appeal to a broader audience.

I don't know about Zim, but here where I grow up, we don't receive about $700 in cash for Christmas. We get the newest version of Pictionary, and perhaps a sweet remote control car.

So I think the money argument is somewhat legitimate, but I expected it to be harder to snag.

It does seem alarming for sony how quickly the hype has disapeared, not sure what they can do about it as they are alresdy making a $300 loss

Wow, look at all those PS3's! I bet if you sold all those on eBay, you'd get a whole $10!

wow, sony is in a lot of hurt. that's unbelievable. wii's are still selling like hotcakes. i wonder if this is going to turn into another DS vs PSP battle. i'm interested in seeing what kind of games are in the pipeline for the wii. the possibilities are very exciting and potential is enormous. the ps3 doesn't excite me very much, and i guess a lot of people agree.

It's starting to look sort of bleak for the PS3 right now, isn't it? I was feverishly searching for a 360 from Christmas day until I finally found one in March. It certainly doesn't feel like the PS3's are selling out as fast.

Of course, having said that, I don't think that it means the end by any means for Sony in gaming. Maybe Sony just won't be enjoying the same leads it has in the past. Once the decent exclusives start coming sales will start to pan out.

Man, that was worth withholding sales for! I bet most people believe that they're just going to be sold out when they get there so they're not even bothering.

Dear Sony:
No one can freaking afford your damn console.

Wait, scratch that.
Dear Sony:
No one can freaking afford your ____.
(Insert Sony product here)

Timing is everything. Releasing more Ps3's right after Christmas is a bad idea. No one has the money right now to buy one. It's not because there's no hype or demand. It's mainly because the people that want one don't have the funds at the moment. And word has no spread around...

None of the stores in my area have PS3s in stock... I don't see how tons of stores have a bunch in when I still can't find one anywhere...

That is funny. A plasma can not display 1080p, and all games are in 720p. If he didn't pick up a pair of $50 component cables, he is out of luck for the 720p as well. I am sure the helpful people at bestbuy didn't know that either though. This is why HDTV is having such a hard time

i still cant find a freaking wii. i went into a gamestop while in the mall yesterday and there was like 15 ps3's for sale, they even had a sign in the window that said we have the ps3. but still nowhere can i find a wii.

My local Best Buy has a nicely made-up, color, semi-permanent-looking sign on the door stating that they do not have any Wiis in stock. I got to the game section and they had a pile of at least 20 PS3s sitting on the floor. I struck up a conversation with a Best Buy employee, and he casually mentioned how Nintendo screwed up this Christmas.

"Oh, well Sony probably wishes they screwed up the same way," said I.

"Nintendo really had supply problems, we saw a lot fewer Wiis come through the store than PS3s. Nintendo said that they would be ready for Christmas, but they really dropped the ball," said he.

For what it's worth...

People dont know that best buy has ps3 in stock.
I found out thanks to a friend that works at a best buy close to my house.they only had 8 ps3 left, people kept asking me were i found my ps3 i told them that they were in the game section, i actually saw people arguing, beacuse they only had one left....and they had wii's and no one even looked at them...and they had like 50 Xbox360 and no one took one!

I remember a couple weeks ago that people were saying that Sony is doomed because they can't get PS3s on the shelves, now they are saying that Sony is doomed because now they can? Jeez, make up your mind pplz.

A lack of available consoles after having sold 3 million within a month is a supply problem? Sounds more like a demand problem if you ask me. :-)

I also doubt this is a matter of people not having money. The Best Buy by me was buzzing with activity. I'd chance to say it was busier than it was before Christmas. And people just aren't buying small gadgets with their gift cards. The store was moving a lot of expensive stuff, namely HDTVs.

I saw a PS3 sitting at my Best Buy the other day. I was going to get it until I remembered that it was six hundred dollars.

Guess at this price and lack of real demand for them, they could've probably got enough out for a Christmas/January Euro launch, no?

At least we know there'll be a few going to Europe now.

The whole problem is the price. Thats why it's almost impossible to find a Wii right now even though Nintendo has made many times more units. I would buy one now if i had a HD tv and the money to burn.

Same by me in the west side of Montreal (an area people stereotypically think of as rich, and it's partially true but not entirely true). Lots of PS3... but no one cares. They're all clamoring for the Wii which disappear the second they're put on the shelves. A lot people tend to hold out and buy stuff after Christmas anyway. It's called the crazy Boxing Week (not a day anymore) sales...

No money after christmas? I must be living in a completely different world from you guys.
Malls around here were completely packed after christmas because everyone is looking for the clearance sales and ways to use up their gift cards.

I feel for Sony. The PS3 just launched in November, and by December (now 1st of January), after the console is available, it's not flying off the shelves. You would think it would be a scare item for months. You have a built in audience of over 100 million customers worldwide, and your PS2 console that is still selling really well.

By comparison, the Wii, which also launched around the same time, not only sold more units, but is still hard to find.

So the problem, appears to boil down to pricing. The PS3 is just too expensive. And without performing a substantial price cut, I don't see how things will get better anytime soon.

If Sony doesn't turn this around, they could be in a world of hurt.

There obviously were not enough wii's.
/eyeroll

That is why the Wii sold 3 million while the ps3 only 750k...not counting the ps3's returned by ebay scalpers.

I think sony failed so far because I don't own a ps3... not because I can't find one or can't afford one just because I don't want one yet...

I make enough money to buy most of the gizmo I want but yet the ps3 doesn't have anything special to offer really.

I'm looking to buy a Wii and can't find one

So I'm gona go back playing with my 360 for now.

This is the beginning of the end. This is not a good sign for Sony. I can't wait until fanboy's try and spin this into good news. Personally, I like my PS3 but it is barely played in comparison to my Wii and 360.

Went to pick up an extra Wiimote and a game and found the entire nintendo section wiped out. Saw about 15 PS3s just sitting there though, no one even in the section.

To be fair though, they were completely out of PS2s...

I'm looking forward to reading Phil Harrison's usual spin on all of this bad press.

He's so inventive!

"No money after christmas? I must be living in a completely different world from you guys."

Think for a second. Do you think most of the people that are in the malls now are spending close to $1000 each? Holiday clearance items are going to be a deal, so people will buy them. Gift-card statement is moot because that money on the cards already existed and is ready to use. It's not like someone still had $700 or so sitting in their wallet left over from Christmas to blow on stupid shit.