PS3 unleashed in Ireland

23-03-2007

by Ciara O'Brien

After months of waiting, Irish gamers have finally got their hands on a Sony PlayStation 3, with the consoles going on sale early on Friday morning.

Eager fans queued outside a number of games stores, that had opened at midnight especially for the occasion, to ensure they were the first people to get their hands on the new console, which includes a Blu-ray high definition DVD player, wireless capabilities and a 60GB hard drive.

Some games specialists have been taking pre-orders for the PlayStation 3 since last year even though it is the most expensive console to go on sale in Ireland with a EUR630 price tag.

However, the queuing may not have been strictly necessary. A quick ENN survey of several city centre games shops in Dublin on Thursday found that the consoles were still in plentiful supply. One high-street retailer admitted that although it had taken some pre-orders for the machine, customers who made the trip to the store on Friday morning would more than likely walk out with a console.

Another music retailer carrying the consoles said it didn't have many PS3s but hadn't taken any pre-orders at all, and early birds would more than likely be able to get a console first thing on Friday morning. Yet another high-street chain store had only taken pre-orders for about a third of its PS3 stock allocation.

Games industry sources said the reason for this state of affairs -- apart from the hefty price tag, of course -- could possibly have been the lack of advertising compared with its predecessor, the PlayStation 2. Cryptic "This is living" ads have been running on some TV channels in Ireland to advertise the date of the launch, but in true PlayStation style, they fail to mention the name of the console or the manufacturer. The source said the ads for the PlayStation 2 were much more widespread, despite being equally puzzling.

The PS3, which was originally due to launch in Europe four months ago, is still expected to sell out in "record time". Only 20,000 of the machines were allocated to the Irish market by Sony.

The Japanese entertainment giant is already playing catch-up in Europe and the US, where Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii have made serious inroads into the games market, and some analysts aren't convinced that Sony will triumph in the next generation console wars.

"Sony has gone from being the king of consoles to face stiff competition in a market where, for the time being, it has been side-tracked," said Ovum senior analyst Carl Gressum.

A recent report from Ovum advised Sony to work on its corporate communications and rein in some of its executives.

"Learn from Apple on corporate communication, and how to work with the press and media," it said. "Sony has too many outspoken executives and too little control of what they say and do."

Ovum analysts also advised Sony to bring down costs, and re-establish confidence in the PS3 in the market. "The market is losing faith in the PS3 because of the market competitiveness and poor execution from the PlayStation Group. The market needs assurance that Sony is back on top of things and in control," it said.

These analysts also believe Microsoft and Nintendo have plenty of work to do to keep their current momentum going. For example, in order to make a success of its IPTV service it recently launched in the US, Microsoft will need to reduce the noise of its console's DVD drive and fans.

Nintendo, meanwhile, will need to come up with new games and content that takes advantage of it innovative interface to keep gamers interested.