Homeless and Chinese Nationals Paid to Queue for PS3

£100 for queuing - as once again gaming meets business...

13 Nov 2006

This morning, following on from the PS3 launch craziness that SPOnG’s man in Tokyo told you all about on Saturday, there has been a spate of all-too-predictable ‘Shock! Horror!’ news stories. Right up there are those relating to various unscrupulous individuals (and, in some cases, shop owners) making a quick few hundred thousand Yen by selling on the most desirable consumer tech on earth right now.

Perhaps the most saddening news over the weekend was that certain Japanese ‘business people’ were paying local homeless people as well as Chinese nationals to queue for PlayStation 3s.

These are then being sold on auction sites at massively inflated prices: as we put this live, PS3s are currently changing hands on eBay for anything up to £1,200 (¥270,000).

SPOnG’s man in Tokyo told us yesterday that, “Yes, there were a lot of homeless people and Chinese people in the queues – it seems that certain wealthier business types didn’t mind paying them anything up to around £100 for queuing!”
\ advertisement /

/ advertisement \


Our man also added, “Many seasoned gamers were saying they’d never seen anything like it. I’m surprised rioting didn’t break out at some stores!”

Read SPOnG’s full account of Japan’s PS3’s queues of shame over the weekend right here.

In other PS3 gaming news, we've been playing a little more with the latest PAL versions of both Resistance and Motorstorm (pictured right), so we'll be bringing you full, detailed previews on both in the very near future.


Share this item on... N4G digg Slashdot NewsVine del.icio.us Reddit Fark RSS News Feed JavaScript News Gadget Google Gadget



Comments


2 comments posted.

First comment

Posted by king skins
Can you get the online features working on your Debug kit now?

I'd like an update on how that is working out.

Latest comment

Posted by Joji
Hey, if some homeless guy can get a few bucks to feed himself for a while why not, at least they are providing a service and it beats sitting about begging for handouts.

Who says the homeless are useless?

Post Your Own

Quick sign-in Forgotten your password?
Don't go posting anonymously! Log-in or register for the unadulterated experience

(Go on, give it a check through)
Humans Rule OK
Show us that you're not an evil robot that's going turn us into dodgy meds junkies. Enter the letters, numbers and symbols shown on the left in to the box below.

Companies


Competitions


There are no competitions running right now.

If you've entered one of our recent competitions, then check out the winners

Polls


Xbox 360 NXE

The New Xbox Experience makes me...


See Results | See All Polls

Latest Features


Review// Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip19|Nov
Review// Mirror's Edge14|Nov
Review// LocoRoco 2 (PSP)14|Nov
Review// Call of Duty: World at War14|Nov
Feature// Japan Video Games: Olsen Gets a DSi13|Nov
Review// Resistance 210|Nov
Review// Fable II6|Nov
Preview// Grand Theft Auto IV (PC)4|Nov
Preview// Tom Clancey's EndWar4|Nov
Review// Fallout 331|Oct


. . .