I can tell that the holiday season is right around the corner, and not because my local Wal-Mart has had its Christmas lights up for three months already or because I caught the people at the grocery store last week dusting off their Seasons Greetings Muzak Collection. Nope, the telltale sign for me that it’s about time to start planning the epic holiday light display this year is that even two months prior, I can already smell the eBay power sellers burning up keyboards as they prepare to throw the season’s hottest items up for the richest wallets…
Of course, in the grand scheme of things it’s not exactly Monopoly or Clue that’s driving in the big bucks – not that there’s anything wrong with Clue – but when it all comes down to it, we’re talking the video games when serious bank is involved. This year in 2006 we’ve got the other two major competitors in the industry – Sony and Nintendo – bringing out their latest generation of consoles, trailing Microsoft’s release of the X-Box 360 last year. Mind you, each of them have their pros and their cons, and seeing how I’m typically about five years behind the console wars myself these days, I’m one of the last people to actually be telling you which one should be at the top of your holiday shopping / begging list this year! So instead we’re going to tackle a couple of other related topics that have really got my goat where gaming and holiday shopping are set to collide in 2006.
My big beef with the welcoming of this new technology into our society this year, along with last year and many years before it, primarily lies in distribution, and before you get off pointing fingers for me pointing blame at the corporations, don’t worry – I’ve got a little saved up for the consumers this year, too! But first and foremost, we do have to address the producers themselves because without them, these systems would never even make it to the shelves. Oddly enough, though, even with them, most of us won’t see a single PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii on the shelves until sometime next spring because if there’s one thing these companies have proved that they suck at, it’s giving their consumers what they want.
Now you can argue the basics of supply and demand that you learned in Economics 101 all you want, and I’ll even agree with you in the effect that making these systems too available isn’t in each company’s best interests, either, but nonetheless I still think that they’ve made a big mistake in shortchanging production quantities as much as they have for each of these releases. Point in case – just explain to me how it makes sense to knowingly ship out, say, 10 units to a store that you know will have dozens upon dozens of people waiting in line, many even spending the night, in hopes of getting your product. I don’t get it…
I don’t get how you can have pre-orders for these products, and then not ship enough on your epic “launch day” to even satisfy your customers that put down their money months in advance. And you know that when they’re at the point of camping out for the product, they’re pretty much willing to spend whatever price you want to set, whether it be via bundling extra games and accessories or even just tacking on extra charges, and you still can’t fill those hands when they come into the stores. I haven’t been caught up in anything to warrant standing in line for the better part of my weekend, but you’d better believe that if I do, I’d better walk away with my prize at the end of the day or I’m going to be one mighty unhappy, unsatisfied customer.
I may show up at your store at 3am ecstatic about getting the latest and greatest video game system to date, but personally my level of enthusiasm for your product is drastically going to change if you don’t even have the courtesy to make sure your product is there for the purchasing after my efforts!
Often when having this discussion, I hear excuses on behalf of these companies that in reality, they can only manufacture as many as they can manufacture prior to the launch date. And my response to that is simple – either adjust your launch date or start manufacturing earlier! I don’t buy it, that multi-million dollar companies investing quite significant shares of their budgets on these massive franchises, and when all is said and done, somebody in a boardroom somewhere is satisfied to see that the Launch Day Plan serves to send merely a couple of thousand systems to the metropolitan areas, and even less to those out in the sticks? Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City – these aren’t exactly Mom-and-Pop stores, and yet most were lucky to get a dozen X-Box 360s at launch last year. Now I understand that they’re going to shortchange things to some extent to fuel supply and demand, but unless they were only predicting to have a couple of dozen customers at any given store on the biggest day in X-Box history, that’s just inexcusable…
But of course, if someone wants something bad enough, they might just be willing to take things into their own hands in order to get it, and although I’m not referring to all of the violence and mayhem that comes along with crazy people not being able to buy their kids what they want for Christmas, that’s certainly not helping the effort in my eyes. I’m actually more concerned, however, about the eBay effect and just how much of a bane reselling can be on a production line that’s already failing to such a drastic extent. Now waning away from responsibility on the manufacturers’ side to more of an issue of ethics on the personal, it’s my opinion that both sides are to blame in the entertainment shortages we saw last year and will no doubt see again this year over and over.
So what’s my problem with somebody wanting to make a little profit off of their time in line, you ask? Last year it wasn’t uncommon to see the X-Box 360 selling in stores for anywhere between $400 and $600 flying out of the proverbial auction houses online for $1500 – $2000, or even more if the bundling had been done right. And it doesn’t take a market analyst to predict that the PS3’s especially will be going for even more because of their higher selling price to boot. It might stand to reason that most of us will never work a job that offers us two grand or better for a day or two of sitting around, waiting in line. It’s a tempting thought, I know…
But ultimately I’m against it and I say this because even though you may have nothing but dollar signs in your eyes, I’d bet my hat that there’s at least one person farther back in that line who’s hoping for a system because he or she actually wants to play it. Although the profit margin is attractive, there are still those out there who are in it for the game and your profiteering in line holds them back from that. Maybe it’s a group of college kids, maybe a Mother or Father who doesn’t really know much about it except that their son desperately wants one for Christmas, and if it weren’t for your greed, maybe they’d get one. Now instead of lines filled with gaming enthusiasts and loving parents, we’ve got handfuls of folks who don’t really even know what it is that they’re buying – just that there’s some quick money to be made and they want a piece of it.
Seriously, think of how you’d feel standing in line behind the guy who got the infamous last one, knowing all too well that he’s never played a video game in his life and is just there for his $1500. Those of you who did exactly that will no doubt have little qualm about touting, “It’s our right if we waited in line – what do you care!” But for the guy who’s actually in line to get the latest game, it’s just not right. Sure, it may be legally well within your rights, but at the end of the day there are a lot of things to do legally that we don’t do because they’re just not ethical. Or at least, most of us don’t do them…
And at the end of the day, no – I don’t fault the crazy guy who actually pays $3000 on eBay for the system, although don’t get me wrong, I do think that anyone willing to pay that kind of cash is absolutely nuts. But if you’ve got the money, you’re one of the few who have access to these things at that point, so knock your socks off. Unfortunately, mind you – the other side of that coin is that many of those $2000 or $3000 Buy It Now prices are going to be getting clicked by people who really can’t afford it and end up putting that guy’s 300% profit margin on a credit card instead. Granted, that’s an entirely different can of worms to be discussed at a later date, but I still can’t help but reason that for every additional system in the store itself – whether thanks to manufacturing or simply the absence of an eBay reseller – one situation like that might be avoided.
Let’s face it, folks – the prices are high enough for these things already that we don’t need to be adding fuel to the fire ourselves to make a quick buck, and anybody who does should be ashamed of themselves. Sony, Nintendo – in a few weeks we’ll see whether or not either of you actually learned from Microsoft’s mistakes last year, and so far just from the production rumors that I’ve heard, Nintendo is at least preparing a considerably higher production volume than its competition – I hope its enough.
And as for the Greedy Gus’s of the group, did we learn nothing from the legends that were Bill & Ted? Be excellent to one another, and I don’t just mean to your fellow resellers – money’s great and all, but karma can be fun at the end of the day, too. Give it a try – it is Christmas, after all…
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