Well I was actually at this wallmart and saw the whole thing first hand So i can tell you that there is more to the story than this..

we had been to the store 2 days earlier and met some guys who told us they were the unofficial line, because even though they couldnt form it they couldnt get kicked out of the store if they continued walking around pretending like they were shopping.. We nicknamed them Zombies because thats what they looked like with exhausted black eyes with tired yellow skin hanging off there bodies ...

first off no one should tell anyone when a line should be formed because it defeats any purpose of trying to have a first come first serve "civil" line..

instead what you get is a fucking brawl between 100 crazy sleep deprived people.

we knew this shit was going to happen and thus we decided to not even try because it wouldnt matter anyhow..

well we were right big time..

at 10:30 a make shift line had already formed of about 40 people..

the line was perfect, it was calm and organized really well, everyone was happy and smiling and talking..

.... then the cops came.

around 7 cop cars burst on the scene and at first just surounded the line.

we who just went to check out the line were just watching from the sidelines.

the line leader went to the cops and started explaining what a good job of organizing he had done, then some walmart store idiots came out and talked to the cops, a minute later they came to an understanding.. the cops picked up a megaphone and said we are forming a new line inside the store at the electronics department NOW everyone inside!!

at that all hell broke loose the organized lined attacked eachother and ran through the cops into the store like a pack of wild wilderbeasts flailing their limbs randomly,

at least 4 people were pretty badly injured the line leader a fat man who was previously first in line just stared in disbeliefed as his spot in line had just disintigrated before his eyes... the zombies also fat and obviously out of energy to run meandered around looking like they were going to cry..

at the electronics department it looked like a ship was going down and everyone was trying to squeeze into the hatch that led to the lifeboats..

then it got real bad, the cops realizing what a stupid thing they just did decided to do it again.. they got out there megaphone and shouted at the crowd... "EVERYONE BACK OUT SIDE THE LINES GOING TO REMAIN OUTSIDE"...

because of the flood of people the trampling was much worse this time as charging fan boys murdered eachother for a spot in line.. back at the front of the store..

It was insanity and human greed at its best.

after all this was said and done and everyone was done pushing and shoving at there new spots in lines the cops grabbed the microphone again and told eveyone to "go home or be arrested immediatly.."

Everyone was soo damn pissed I thought there was going to be a riot, people were in the cops faces screaming and the employees looked scared as hell, but finally after more cop cars came the line dispersed and everyone went home...

everyone except for the 3 zombies who elected to moan there way around the 24 hour store more..

Ive already got one on reserve so its not that big a deal but Im glad I wittnessed what is probably one of the oddest spectacles this world has ever had,..

because never before in human history has there been such a demand for something so trivial....

From what i have seen people everywhere are blaming the gamers waiting in line for the chaos and insanity however everywhere Ive gone its the morons who run and work the stores that are the cause for all the problems..

to think that wallmart a world wide super corporation did not have a global plan for dealing with this launch is probably the most ridiculous story anyone will find regarding the ps3...

I for one was screwed out of the front of nearly 5 lines because of misinformation or poor organization before i decided to forget it.

The lack of cooridination and the overwhellming stupidity as well as pack mentality and rampant indecisivness just shows how screwed our world will be in the event where something really important were on the line..

you can easily imagine the last bottles of water in town being in that wallmart instead of ps3s and seeing the bloodshed that would have ensued from it..

Yet everyone who wants a Wii is conserving their precious physical energy for actual playtime.

Sony has the most idiotically entertaining fan base.

Akbar- I guess i didnt really look at it that way this vilence over buying something just annoys me.

Eh? There's only one "Akbar the Great". Naming yourself Akbar the Great and not having anything to do with Akbar the Great isn't wrong or anything, but it's pretty weird. Like calling yourself "Andre the Giant", but with no relation to the pro wrestler, or "Richard the Lionhearted" with no relation to the former King of England.

kftgr -- not named after anyone in particular

Blob -- I think it's just that enthusiasts are kind of... insane... often times. I mean, looking at Soccer riots (Football if you're European), and you can easily see that people who care alot about something get pretty violent about it. I actually have a harder time imagining someone getting violent over reselling it than I do over wanting to play it. I can imagine it... In fact, I find both scenarios pretty easy to believe, I just have a slightly harder time imagining the latter.

Akbar, I don't think that it's pedantic and absurd, I rather think it's shallow and pedantic. If gamers want to make money for more Bawls by risking their own lives, have fun. I'll wait it out, I don't need more bawls that much.

Besides, Alexander, the true "the Great" died twelve hundred years before Akbar the imposter was even born.

If theese were people atualy going to play the system and not sell it this fight probably would not have happened. Greedy people are usually stupid too.

Akbar as in Akbar & Jeff of Matt Groening fame?

If everyone's out to make a profit from camping, I wonder how much dough the early campers can make by selling their spot alone.

Would a flat fee be better, or would a lottery system? Charge $10 a person and do a drawing when you get 20 people interested, or flat out $200 for a top-5 position in line...

you sir, are my new nemesus (sic)!

you out-nerded me? Pfft. My name's not spelled the same as Admiral Ackbar's (I'm upping the ante here...)

@Akbar The Great

it's a traaaap!

(yup yup, just out-nerded ya.)

rainofwalrus, Sorry to nit-pick, but "sic" doesn't mean what you think it means. Sic in a quote means that a spelling or factual error was, in fact, part of the original quote, and that the author/editor of the piece did not correct the quote, but wants to ensure their readership that it is not their mistake. What you meant to put was [sp?], implying that you were unsure of the spelling. God, I'm a nerd....

Ugh, we Americans -are- horrible about things like this. Sorry other countries.

Like the other posters here, I refuse to believe any true-blooded gamer would choose the 'throw a violent fit' option, when 'complain sternly and/or loudly' is always available. That's what we geeks are better at, anyway ^^;

...I think I'll stay inside the next day or so o_o;;;

Yeah things are getting crazier by the minute, i just came form my local walmart, and the line(still inside the store) was begining to change mood,from bored and quiet to more anxious and touchy. people are getting tired of waiting, and the constant treat of being move to outside is ever present. lets just hope a fight does not break out in here.

God I hope this shit doesnt carry over to the Wii launch, I just went/called every store within a 80 mile radius EVERY SINGLE ONE HAS BEEN CAMPED for every console there getting, however I found 1 store thats doing a lottery in the morning, my chances are slim and nil but its better than nothing and at least I wont be freezing my ass off oh btw, there was over 30 people at bestbuy and they had 4 tents setup 2 tents setup at target.... some people have already been waiting over 12 hours....

Please god let there be enough Wii's locally that I dont have to camp. I really shouldent have sold my pre-order.. :(

This weekend is going to be a busy weekend for the Police all around north America... The shortage of PS3 and the waiting is just cooking up something nasty. I personally won't be surprized if someone's beaten to a pulp over a PS3... just like Gear of War did to this 14-year-old kid.

My buddy works for a sports bookie [sic?] in Vegas and said his boss is taking PS3 pre-orders for 3,000 USD right now. 'says these clients don't wanna fuss with lines *or* Ebay.

must be nice to be rich.

@Psychotext

Maybe you confused yourself? That statement was obviously implying that people who like the PS3 would be dumb enough to commit those acts of violence. So because I like a certain product you have to assume that I am somehow lacking the intelligence to know that shooting people up is stupid? If what you say is true then I guess I can say something like "all xbox fanboys are retarded" and get away with it because I'm only expressing my "hardcore feelings" for the ps3. Read your comment and think because you're only confusing yourself.

THESE are the people who'll be buying PS3's for $1200. My people. Keep up the fighting. No deaths please.

@Precise

Let me guess, you didn't get your preorder in?

Wow... This is getting VERY ridiculous. But hey, more entertainment for me hurr hurrr...

KaneRobot, if I'm the first person you're worried about letting down when you think that's funny, then you missed my point altogether.

My roomate is waiting in line at Wal-Mart. There are 15 people in line but only 10 PS3s. Every single person in line said they planned on reselling. I'm starting to think people aren't going to turn the profit that they are hoping they will.

They're just going to resell it, so fuck them.

Although, if it was me, I would have kicked over a magazine rack on the way out.

Mezodon

That's the exact same thing that happened for the 360 launch at one of the Wal-Mart locations in Weatherford, TX.

I wonder if they did have a policy in place they just didn't know when to have it take effect. Like, all the stores were told to put 10 chairs out front and have people sit there and wait but they waited to long to tell people what to do. If they would just line the chairs up ahead of time so the customers would trickle in at different times you wouldn't have a mob racing all at once. So stupid.

What's that say about you as a person?

Man, although I woke up this morning thinking to myself "I don't want to let down Akbar The Great," sorry. I just can't resist getting a chuckle over geeky thugz shooting each other with pellet guns over a console they probably had to spend their last dime on.

Maybe you should sponsor a starving child or something to help you forget how awful we are.

Why am I not shocked this is happening at Wal-Mart?

Damn you whining xbox fanboys sound like some bitches on pms... If you're gonna hate then atleast sound educated about it. Statements like "Damn PS3 fanboys, wouldn't expect anything less!" make you sound like some ignorant turd who lives in some trailer home in the midwest. Try replacing the "ps3 fanboy" with an ethnic goup in that statement and see what happens. Yea it would make you seem like an ignorant ass.

(oops, looks like people had the same idea has i was writing my comment ;) )

Who's going to make a beat'em up game of this ?

"It's November 17th 2006, and you're in the wait-line to get a PLAYSTATION3.

You're 80th in a line of 100, with only 25 PLAYSTATION3 available.

BUT

*theme*

YOU'RE A LINE-FIGHTER!

*punch sound*"

Look, I'll admit there's going to be alot of PS3 reselling. These are the way things work. But speaking as someone with a preorder I intend to keep, not everyone is planning on reselling the thing... Why is it that every post that mentions the insanity and the lines quickly devolves into "well they're just going to resell it, so fuck them?" I mean, first of all, people that get screwed (getting shot by a BB gun?) deserve some sympathy. These are humans who've done nothing wrong, but you asshats all want them to suffer and be miserable. What's that say about you as a person? Secondly, when something like this goes down, the initial response is always that they're all not interested in the console itself.

As much as you may think that the market will be flooded by eBayed PS3s, there is a demand. Preorders are selling for like $2k. To pretend like that's an isolated event and that nobody else is out camping is both pedantic and absurd. So here's what I suggest: We don't assume that everyone out there camping is selling the PS3 on eBay. And most importantly, we learn to respect our fellow man, and stop making comments about how campers are scum and shitty people all the time.

Every hour it's getting better and better!!! Keep the riots coming! Best launch ever!!

@SXGlory

SELL THAT IDEA TO CAPCOM NOW!!!!!!!!!!

There was a similar scene at my Wal-Mart this morning.

As instructed, and as I verified over the phone three times in two days, I and everyone else was waiting in layaway... just a big group of people. This store wasn't allowing a line (of ten people) to form until 8am. Don't know how they were going to decide who got in line, but it doesn't matter.

So we're all waiting there, and at about 7:35, some of the people run off to elsewhere in the store. Most stayed put because we were right where we were told to be. Then at 7:45, an announcement on the intercom says that the PS3 line will be formed outside. Everyone runs from layaway to outside the store, and sees people in a line... at 7:45.

Apparently a dorky, skinny employee tipped some people off at 7:35 and everyone else got screwed. There were 50 or so people, a lot of yelling, a lot of profanity, pull aparts, and death threats. There were many people screaming that they just needed to do a lottery because what they did was ridiculously unfair. They changed the time and place of the line at the last second. The employees wouldn't budge though... it took four cops showing up for all but the ten people in line to disperse. The skinny employee looked scared to death and he may have some trouble when leaving work later.

I hope the people near the back of the little line are still there and unaware that they're waiting for a raincheck... they don't actually have ten on hand.

(see D00mM4r1n3 comment above)

"The PS3: It's for gangbangers and homeless people."

That has got to get itself on a tee shirt.

Once again proving that americans are horrible.

Dead Rising 2: The PoS3 Riots

-Exclusive to the XBOX 360-

It has begun! (Mortal Kombat song starts to play).

Sony.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I think the PS3 launch is the las of a series of bad launches designed to mess with America. This is a secret attack from over seas people! DON'T YOU SEE THAT?

"Only in america would this crap be allowed"

lol. Hate countries much?

DAMN CHIMPOKOMON!

Would it really have hurt Sony that bad to just delay until March 07? I mean, the infrastructure for the network doesn't seem set up that well, there have been problems everywhere, and there just aren't enough units.

If they waited until March they would probably even have a launch title that actually makes the system worth buying.

The people in lines I have seen so far around town, look like gangbangers and homeless people. It's like the Yakuza have invaded the US and are hiring Mexicans to do their line sitting for them. Hi-larious.

It's easy to say "these are Sony fanboys" and ridicule them for being stupid, but it's not that simple. These people are not at all interested in the console -- they are interested in the insane profits that places like eBay can get them. When there is no respect for the system or anything for that matter, then this is what you will get.

Unfortunately, the violence is bad enough for the system's success this holiday (mom and dad are going to get little timmy a console that sparked a riot?), but add into that the fact that no one is actually playing the eBay'd system as it sits on a shelf waiting to be sold -- for a SECOND TIME -- and it gets even worse.

Also unfortunately, this is all Sony's fault. People are people, for the most part average intelligence or worse. Sony, on the other hand, has purposefully decided to launch a system with grossly negligent numbers. They build and build the hype, and stroke the worst amongst us egos with their promises of power and a huge cock if you play the PS3, and then deliver a trickle of systems (perhaps even zero to Europe, who knows). If we find out somehow that they purposefully limited numbers to increase demand, then I think they should pay for the violence they literally caused!

This whole debacle is just that, and it's sad. It doesn't reflect well on the Americans or the Japanese, but sadly it reflects even worse on Sony, which was either too inept or too greedy to launch at a better time with better numbers.

Now, we are seeing the final results of that failed approach.

DId anyone else notice the horrible structure of the first sentence?

Only in america would this crap be allowed. Partially sony's fault for making these things so damn rare.

more proof that tardmart shoppers are just as stupid as the employees

THIS IS AWESOME ::clap clap clapclapclap::

THIS IS AWESOME ::clap clap clapclapclap::

THIS IS AWESOME ::clap clap clapclapclap::

Wal-Mart customers acting like third rate, low-class trash? Get outta town!!

Trust me, this is coming from a Wal-Mart employee who once saw a customer pee on a long stretch of fabric just to get a discount. (Didn't work.)

"this is the best launch week EVER

for some reason I cannot get enough of the craziness"

This week is the very DEFINITION of schadenfreude for me. It's great.

"Toneman says:

I heard they knocked over some employees and made them lose even more teeth."

LOL!

@Dorgort

That'll make an interesting south park episode....MATT AND TREY PLEASE DO IT ^_^

Funny how the reporter says "even when this is a very expensive gift, well maybe not for this folks!"

What a bunch of douche bags

I said it yesterday: Wal-Mart is evil. Probably a case where the management didn't come up with any kind of strategy on how to handle the PS3 situation. WM could care less for the well-being of their customers OR employees. Screw them.

You see, this is the mentality you develop when all you have to play is Madden and GTA.

Damn Sony for causing instability in America!!!

I'm enjoying this thoroughly. The brown stuff will really hit the swirly thing when someone gets shot.

Just wait until they realize they fought over something with like... Practically nothing worth playing (on a new $500-600 machine) with the exception of Resistance. Hope they loved Talladega Nights!

AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

EBAY TOUTERS TOLD TO GTFO!!!!!!!

they're not even fucking SONY fanboys tho, they're all selling them on ebay so obviously they don't give a shit about the game console. they're just your typical greedy asshat.

this is the best launch week EVER

for some reason I cannot get enough of the craziness

You know the real "Story behind the story" is the fact that a much larger number of campers are waiting in line JUST so they can eBay the consoles for absurd gain.

These people are pissed because they are not going to pocket $500 of profit. They are not upset gamers.

I would be really curious to see what percentage of PS3s realeased end up on eBay.

How about posting a poll Kotaku? How many people are planning to buy one, and of those people how many are planning to resell them?

Fack...

I was considering camping out, but I'm glad I came to my senses. I'll pay 650 CDN for the system but I'm keeping my dignity, thanks.

This disgusts me. You'd think this was a third world country, and the scuffles would be over bread the way its erupting out there.

Told you Wal-Mart wouldn't let em' stay inside for that long. It sounds like the sheep are becomming rabbid.

I saw the lines for the PS3 at the Sony store in NYC on Fox News this morning; buncha' thugs and moron lookin' types.

Store managers are going to have a long morning of approaching injured shoppers to remind them that even though PS3s sold out while they were lying unconscious and bleeding on the floor, they can still get the 'buy two games, get one free' deal by purchasing a 360.

"The group ran through the store knocking everyone and everything in their path over."

*falls off chair laughing*

That is what I do when upset, I knock everything over! Screw you, Wal-Mart shoppers!

par for the course in Palmdale

Denied their chance at making a buck, sony consumers destroy everything!

Please don't mistake these idiots for gamers, not a single one of them wants to play the PS3, they just want to flip it on ebay for a quick buck.

I think people should just bare-knuckle box for PS3s. Much more entertaining.

Damn PS3 fanboys, wouldn't expect anything less!

I heard they knocked over some employees and made them lose even more teeth.

FIGHT BEYOND

I'm seeing a trend.

It's not gamers who are stupid, it's the Sony fanboys.

Ace Lawyer Jack Thompson was right...video games do cause violence

Russian doll fights!

What broke out next?

Why do not they just take example from the Japannese launch and give raffle tickets? This is just ridiculous.