Signs and Portents of Next-Gen Game Consoles

Kotaku has some great stories about the nationwide PS3/Wii pre-order camp-outs that took place in front of Toys R Us this past weekend. Here's my favorite of the stories from Hartford:

I got to our local Toys R Us around where about seven people were already camped out since noon yesterday, They asked, "Are you here for PS3? Because they are all gone. They only have 6 systems 1 of them is the 20 gig unit. Of course you can stay if your here for the Wii they're gonna have 15 of those."



They all proceeded to laugh in unison at the thought, So me and my buddies took out our stuff and sat down then they were like, " Umm. We were serious." I was like, "We're here for the Wii".



They were all shocked and proceeded to ask what the big deal was with the unit. They were clueless. Turns out they were Ebay-ing their units only one person actually wanted to keep theirs. I and the two other friends felt the odd men out as we were getting Wii instead of PS3.



But we braved on nonetheless, After a Long COLD night We fell asleep only to be awoken by chatter. I open my eyes and what do I see? Like an Army sent out from the heavens about 40 people lined up behind me.



So then someone decides to be brave and asks "Who here is getting a PS3?" The guys ahead of me rose their hands. Then the guy asks "Who here is getting a Wii?" The army behind all raise their hands.



The seven strangers are no longer smug, and decide maybe there is something to this Wii thing so they ask me about it. I explain they decide they actually want to buy units and KEEP them.

Maybe it's just me, but it's my belief that the majority of the people are pre-ordering PS3s just to attempt to resell them for a markup on eBay. This is likely a reaction to the XBox360 price gouging that occurred last year. I'd say that the PS3 has exactly zero games I'm interested in. For the population at large, I'm convinced that World of Warcraft has distracted them from the happenings of the outside world (and of video game consoles), and that gamers that actually want to play games on their game system instead of ebaying their game system are getting the Wii.

In the way that Elmo TMX is this season's holiday gift, so too is the Wii. I believe, that just as the PSP languished on store shelves, so too will the PS3. They will sell out of the PS3, but look at the numbers they're shipping to Toys R Us -- 6 to 8 per store, and of those, at least one is the stripped down "Core" version. Nintendo is shipping almost double that number of Wii's, and they are guaranteed to sell out (such is the way of Nintendo game systems).

The Wii is this season's gotta have it game system.