- 精华
- 0
- 帖子
- 49
- 威望
- 0 点
- 积分
- 49 点
- 种子
- 0 点
- 注册时间
- 2004-11-29
- 最后登录
- 2013-7-28
|
发表于 2005-3-25 13:18 · 江苏
|
显示全部楼层
ign
PSP Launch: Retail Report
The numbers aren't in yet, but we talk to those selling the system to find out how it's going.
by Nix March 24, 2005 - The PlayStation Portable is sticking its neck out there coming out in the middle of March instead of in the busy game buying months of Christmas. A lot of videogame buyers are still trying to pay off their credit card bills from a few months ago, and already, there's a system with over a dozen games calling. It's a rarity in gaming for a console to come out this far out of season, and even though Nintendo has in the past launched its Game Boy line in the summertime, this is Sony's first time out in the handheld arena. The company has to get this right and get the system moving.
Get out of the 'burbs, and things were a little more unpredictable because of the widespread competition. The Serramonte Center mall, just outside of Colma, was anything but dead (not usually the case for a city with a bigger population of dead people than live citizens.) The EB Games and GameStop were booked all the way through their pre-order allocation, and were taking tons of pre-orders on the second and ensuing shipments. However, step around to some of the outskirt locations connected to and outside of the mall, and business was much slower. It might have been that, with the two main game stores in the area so clearly closed out, many gamers got the impression that it was hopeless to try. A Circuit City just up the road had systems to spare, although they too expected to put a dent in that stack as soon as school let out and offices shut down for the night. Calls to different locations inside San Francisco were similarly hot-and-cold this early on -- some locations had a bunch of PSPs on shelves, while others could barely spare the time with all the other calls coming to tell us it was hopeless to try today or any time soon with how many people were already knocking down the door for ones they didn't have anymore to sell.
As far as game sales, things looked very positive on this front. We can't count the numerous stores that put together a pre-configured package deal to go along with the $249 PSP Value Pack itself, but even these stores said that they were selling titles above the one or two forced into the bundle. Most buyers were getting at least one game to go with the system (always a concern with a system launch, since some exploit the shortages and turn around the system at a premium on eBay.) Accessories were also surprisingly in high demand, even after the bundles and the deals. Cases were the obvious buys, as were car adaptors. In the stores that we went to, the games crossing the counter the most were Lumines, Twisted Metal: Head-On, Darkstalkers Chronicle (which sold out one store's entire case of stock in three minutes), and Metal Gear Acid (showing, in a little way, that IGN's controversial AC!D review won't penetrate the hardcore like bullets in a flak jacket. Ridge Racers and the action-RPG Untold Legends were also in high demand, but stocks on these games were incredibly low for unknown reasons. Gamers also asked for Tiger Woods, which was supposed to be out Wednesday but was not shipped to any store we visited (EA confirmed that the game is indeed out in certain locations -- stocks of various games have been wildly spread out amongst stores, so while some have plenty of one title, they may have virtually none of a game ready to buy around the block).
When we talked to SCEA reps at the Metreon Wednesday night, they said that with some games shipping as early as last Tuesday, some games have already charted on the Top 10s of weekly sales charts despite there not being systems to play games on.
Might a PSP like this one be yours?
If you haven't pre-ordered, there may be a chance ... if you hurry.
If you're still looking to be part of the launch, (which one clerk described, answering our question about if any other videogame system was selling besides Sony's handheld today, as "A PSP National Holiday"), chances are you might have a chance if you hit stores off the beaten path. But even those locations are expected to be sold through either tonight or this weekend. The big question is, how hot will PSP be in the coming weeks? It's not Christmastime, so it's hard for kids to convince their moms and dads that they need yet another game system (even as an early/late birthday present.) And will game sales continue at the pace they're going? (This will be critical for the success of the system, since some of the coolest games are due out in just a few weeks.) There are one million PSPs shipping through this launch period, but SCEA has not committed to numbers of how many more systems they will have past that -- stores said they expect to replenish stocks this week, but they do not know how many they are getting. A shortage can superheat up a product release, or it can completely douse the flames, so it's up to SCE to keep the momentum going, and it all depends on whether fans stay fired up after the hype of the pre-orders and the excitement of the launch titles pass by.
Stay tuned for launch numbers and all the official stats, but if you're just concerned about one system -- your system -- check around your neighborhood to see if you can find a spot that still has PSPs before it's too late.
Early signs are showing that the system is doing just that. We went to several retail outlets in the San Francisco Bay Area to check how sales are going in the city and suburbs. Sales are turning the receipts out at different rates depending on where you go, but many of the stores we went to this afternoon were already sold out of the system, and most expected to be through their first stock by the end of the day. The suburbs of San Mateo County were amongst the most busy. This, unbeknownst to most gamers in the area, is actually the US homeland of PlayStation itself -- Sony Computer Entertainment is located in the middle of the county in Foster City. The company takes this district seriously, since these are the retail outlets that SCE is closest to. We met up with a Sony merchandising rep at a Toys 'R Us (who was there on business, but walked out with a system and at least $250 on his credit card to pay off.) Word has it that SCE's Executive Vice President Jack Tretton was also on hand to watch the first line of buyers file in at an early morning opening (that guy, he's everywhere, he's everywhere!)
Most stores in this area did not open for a midnight sale -- they left that up to the Metreon to party up for the truly hardcore. Stores did open their doors early to allow buyers to get in before going to work (or going to school, although let's be realistic here -- if you have the cash on hand to buy yourself a PSP, you're old enough to play hooky.) Outlets with an 8AM opening were just about all sold out in this area by noon. There were some lines for these opening events -- not as much as a console or a Christmas launch (nobody slept over at any store that we know of, except of course the Metreon), but retailers told us the system was moving better than expected. None of the suburb locations we hit up had taken pre-orders -- as many of you who tried to put in for PSPs these past few weeks know, stores with pre-orders have been booked solid and past their initial allocation.
Midnight at the Metreon -- these lines weren't exactly the kind of common occurrences that PS3 might expect, but there were scattered early-morning lines.
"Demand for PSP is so high ... it could have come out in June or July and people would have still shown up at 7 or 8AM," said the manager of the San Mateo Toys 'R Us. We noticed in our travels a lot of clerks were on hand to do double-duty for the launch -- not to handle the business (although many stores had to set up their displays overnight or in the morning to get the focus on the new system), but to trade shifts so that the other could be playing PSP games off in the corner of the shop.
We heard a lot of griping under breath about stocks and dispersion of PSPs between bigger and lesser retail outlets, but from the folks we talked to who were able to go on record, PSP allotment was handled fairly evenly between stores, with around 100 PSPs per location.
大概意思应该是不少店在中午就卖完了。 |
|
川公网安备 51019002005286号
楼主
.
