Playstation 3: Shootings, beatings and robberies- oh my!

Culture & Society Forum

1 shot in Conn. Playstation waiting line

Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. - Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new Playstation 3 game system to go on sale in Putnam early Friday and shot one man who refused to give up his money, authorities said.

About 30 miles away, another shopper was beaten and robbed of his new Playstation 3 just minutes after he bought it at a store in Manchester, police said.

Nationwide, short supplies of the PS3 and strong demand led to long lines of buyers, some waiting for days outside stores. Once the doors opened Friday, customers pushed and shoved their way to the shelves in several cities to get at the limited supply.

The attacks and robberies in Connecticut appeared to be the most violent.

It was about 3 a.m. when the two gunmen in Putnam, a town of about 9,000 residents in northeast Connecticut, confronted 15 to 20 people standing outside a Wal-Mart store and demanded money, said State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance.

"One of the patrons resisted. That patron was shot," Vance said.

Vance said the two gunmen fled after shooting Michael Penkala, 21, of Webster, Mass., in the chest and shoulder. Penkala was in stable condition at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, Mass., with injuries not believed to be life threatening, Vance said.

Police were searching for the suspects, both believed to be in their teens, Vance said. He said one was wearing a ski mask and brandishing a handgun, and the other had what appeared to be a shotgun.

In the Manchester attack, the shopper told police five men surrounded and beat him as he left the Shoppes at Buckland Hills with the new Playstation.

Police Sgt. Chris Davis said the alleged attackers pushed one of colleagues out of the car as they drove away. That man, a 17-year-old from Windsor, was charged with robbery, larceny, assault and breach of peace. His name was not released.

In Palmdale, Calif., authorities shut down a Super Wal-Mart after some shoppers got rowdy late Wednesday. In West Bend, Wis., a 19-year-old man was injured when he ran into a pole racing with 50 others for one of 10 spots outside a Wal-Mart.

In Lexington, Ky., someone fired BB pellets from a passing vehicle at people waiting outside a Best Buy store, according to WKYT, whose own reporter said she was among four people grazed while she interviewed buyers in line.

A Best Buy in Boston, aware it had only 140 of the consoles, got smart about the big sale — its employees gave out tickets to the first 140 people in line so everyone could go home until the store opened.

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-HECK!

You can just here the 'ding' echoing the aisles.

-HECK!

You just know that the 49 others in the race thought it a satisfying crunch. Can you imagine, racing in a parking lot on foot for a line position, and some idiot runs into a pole like that?


That would make victory that much sweeter.

Kidding me? I would side check a fool into the poll to snag a PS3. Actually, I would just join the melee with no intention of buying it.

-HECK!

It's just insane. I mean in a year's time, who's going to really give a toss?

That's what I'm doing. I'm heading down for a PS2 here in a few weeks now that it's old old news and the price is down to nothing.

I may get one after the first big price drop, if I hear good things.

I read that Sony are losing like 300 bucks on each console sold as it is, so it sounds pretty good.

I saw on the news where people are paying up to 25,000 dollars for play stations on ebay. that's what I'm gonna do next time something new comes out. Buy it for a couple hundred and sell it for thousands

i checked ebay and they're going for around 1-2 thousand. Maybe a couple of days ago it was 25. Why does everybody have to be "the first"? Do they really think we'll praise them for having no lives?

maybe, it was yesterday i think on the news. They were interviewing people and showed the screen with ebay and how they were seeling for 11,000, 6,000 some 3,000, and the highest was 25,000. i thought that was super crazy

I have pre - ordered one but they don't come out in the UK until 2007 for some reason.

I HEARD SOMEWHERE THAT THE NEXT SHIPMENT HERE WONT BE UNTIL MARCH OF 07.

I can wait. My PS2 is great and I own about 4 games I have never played. I am good for a while.

I was at a Sony store and they had a demo PS3. Some douche kid wouldn't get off of it so I couldn't play it. I almost pushed him out of the way.

-HECK!

One day, someone is going to sue for injuries due to those ridiculous events they hold every year when these gadgets come out.

With that being said, I wouldn't spend $600 on that thing if they paid me.

If they paid me $600 I would buy one.

Nah, I couldn't imagine going nuts over a video game and stabbing fools to get it first. People are paying in the thousands to get it.

I know this chick when the X-Box 360 first came out bought two of them. She sold one online for more than what she paid for both. So she basically ended up with a free 360 plus a few hundred in cash. Crazy.

-HECK!

After the root kit fiasco, Sony are not trustworthy and don't deserve support, but no doubt they'll get it.

I might even buy a ps2 one day, but at the moment I'm enjoying the Xbox I bought about 6 months ago and it's a fantastic console.

A lot of people I know have the X-Box and they love it. I will stick with Playstation though. It will be a while before I grab a PS3 though. Too expensive and the fact they can't play all the PS2 games blows.

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I'm not saying playstation don't make great consoles, they do, and the ps3 will be a good machine without doubt but I don't like the way companies are trying to tie people into their format and their technology. Apple do it with itunes and the ipod. Sony will try to do it with Blue-ray.

This whole Blu Ray / HD DVD struggle feels to me like a rich man's BETAMAX / VHS. Pisses me off, to be honest, cause I ain't got either.

PS3 will be pretty cool, I can feel it; but I'm not gonna bother wasting money on it at this point. I may get a Wii in a little while; my wife wants one.

I was leaning toward the Wii, then I seen the controller, looks like t.v. remote.

It killed it for me.

Yeah, I don't quite understand the controller at the moment. I'm still trying to work that one out...

Pee on that. The wee is trying to create a new controller scheme that won't work. Sucks. Not ready yet. It's like trying to put the steering wheel on the other side. Won't happen in 'Merica.

The controller grows in spurts. Nintendo had two buttons. Super Nintendo had more, PS had more, etc. You can introduce the trigger/toggle buttons, but to reinvent the wheel is stupid. It's a gradual controller evolution.

-HECK!

PS3's new controller looks suspiciously similar to the old one. Xbox still has the ultimate controller. Especially perfect for first person shoot 'ems.

I don't think I've played a computer game at length since Oregon Trail. Actually, I had a few on my Commodore. Made a Plinko game once.

There was also this dope game called M.U.L.E.

-HECK!

Oh man I remember Oregon Trail, that was back in the day.

retards. who wants to waste 600 dollars on crap that fast.
anyways, its a cool looking system - minus the fact that the release games blow.
And HD DVD player option is cool, if you have a tv that supports Ray play, and your rich. sony is limiting their scope in a very broad way. so what. it sold out.
here's some numbers for you on the sell out between ps3 and nintendo WII
which is what i'm getting because of metroid prime 3, zelda, mario, and Dragon Warrior.
plus, download old super, turbo16, etc games to it.


Two days after its official launch, Nintendo Wii quickly sold out in many stores from North America. According to media, in United States Nintendo sold about 600,000 devices within a few minutes after launch. The success of Nintendo Wii was the same in Canada. Canadian retailers sold out of Nintendo's new Wii video game console on launch day, CBC reported.

wii sells 600,000 day of launch


Sony sold only 266,739 PS 3 consoles. There's no doubt about the PS3's technical chops - it's actually a mini supercomputer with a new multicore cell chip that is 40 times more powerful than the ultra-successful PS2 that it supersedes.

wow, sony behind .
i'm sure they sold more by now, this is just release numbers. trying to find another source of info to confirm numbers...

Yeah, that is exactly what killed it for me. I'll use the t.v. remote for the t.v. and use a gamepad for gaming.

The controller just looks odd. Plus, swinging the thing around in the air for sports games. Meh. I play baseball when I play baseball. When I play video games, I sit. It's my lazy time.

-HECK!

Here's the deal. I'm a fregin working man. I slave all day, don't sit in no fancy office.

I get home, I'm tired. I want to take off some stress. Hitting some buttons on a pad don't take no effort. Swinging my arms around with some gay *** remote is like doing some kind of freaky Jane Fonda jazzercise. Just don't float my boat.

Now that's comedy.

-HECK!