On my way home tonight, I decided to see if I could scope out some of the Playstation3 launch madness for myself. I headed over to the Best Buy at 23rd and 7th Ave, to already find a line formed around the corner. I actually wasn't surprised, as I've heard that people have been waiting in line as early as Tuesday afternoon (it's Thursday tonight) in spots across the country. 

I took a few pictures with my crappy cell phone (though just 2 years ago the Razr was supposed to be cutting edge) and uploaded them up so that I could share them with the world.


The weather is calling for some severe thunderstorms through the evening, and it sure was nice to see the Best Buy employees care enough to pull out some tarps for the masses to huddle under.  Sure, they could just give out the systems they have in the store already, but in this day and age of the internet, any news of broken street dates would've spread like wildfire.

I snapped a couple shots and made my way to the front of the line, where I saw camping chairs, little tables, and tons of magazines laying about.  The air was actually warm and humid, around 60 degrees, and there was no real rain yet, but I could sense it would be coming eventually.  I chatted a bit with the first guy in line:

Me: "Hey, how you doing?  Is this the beginning of the line?"
Him: "Yeah."
M: "When did you first get here?"
Him: "Been waiting here since Monday."
Me:  "Monday?!  I heard as early as Tuesday in some spots, but wow.  Do you have people hold your place?"
Him: "Yeah, we hold each other's spots when we need to."
Me:  "Have there been any media coming buy to interview you?"
Him: "Yeah, this one guy was from NY1.  He told me that Sony gave him a system already and it was real cool.  My mom told me she saw me on TV, and that's how she knew where I was.  They have a demo set up in the store if you want to see it."
Me:  "Cool, man.  This is just insane.  How many systems are they giving out?"
Him: "34, they said."

I looked over at the line again and I could tell there were easily more than 34 people waiting.  Someone was going to be dissappointed. 


"There's like 70 people here," I said.  "I guess they're just hopeful they can get something.  Do you have a pre-order receipt?"
He goes: "No....that's why we're here."

At that point someone nearby asked me if I was willing to buy the system off of them for about the price it's going for on EBay, and I kindly declined.  I did head down into the store to see the system for myself though. 

The first thing that strikes you about it is how big it is.  It's not very slim at all, and there are various high end output labels gracing the side of it.  Everyone knows by now the gamepad is about the same as the existing PS2 controllers with added functionality.  They were both tethered to the kiosk display though, and sadly, the unit was not on, although it was framed with pictures of games from the launch window.  I asked one of the associates to turn it on, and he declined.  It was surprisingly empty there, with most folks opting to try out Guitar Heroes II to the side instead.