Scalpers and Gamers: America Queues for PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 is moments from detonation in the US, dragging both gamers and scalpers out into the cold for an average wait of three days camped out on the curb, in the thousands of shanty towns that have appeared from coast to coast.

SPOnG made a trip out to the Silverdale, WA branch of electronics retailer Best Buy, braving severe storms, falling trees and flooded roads, all so we could speak to some cold people and write about what they were doing, all so you could read about it, probably in your pants in between downloading pr0n on bittorrent. Anyway...

We were greeted with a peculiar sight. The camps that spring up for game launches are strange places. A mixture of tents, tarpaulin bivouacs, chairs and other outdoorsy stuff, since console launches are often crammed in before that immovable capitalist deadline - Christmas. The sight of one queue-camp contrasted with the normal people doing normal people stuff in strip mall parking lots, often with one queue-camp (outside Best Buy) right across a car park from another similar queue (at Frys or Electronics Boutique) is a strange thing. If it weren't for the mobile phones, laptops and other valuable trinkets, one could be forgiven for thinking a bunch of homeless people had washed up outside of a national electronics retailer...

Another point of note is the fact that the camps are not particularly friendly. 'Outsiders' are not generally welcomed, there is a mutual scorn felt between queuers and passing shoppers and an escalating tension is present. These guys have been there since Tuesday. At this stage of the game, they're not looking to give up their slots, and gawpers and interlopers are seen as a threat.

SPOnG went to photograph the scene and many in line turned away. Perhaps they're bunking off work, perhaps they've lied to loved ones Perhaps they don't want to be thought of globally as pathetically sad - willing to become homeless for a working week in order to buy a games machine which really doesn't have a must-have launch title. Or even worse, sleep out in the cold at an hourly rate that won't even yield a minimum wage when the prized console is finally hawked...

SPOnG did meet some talkative folk, a bunch of young men camping out who you could only describe as being 'nice lads'. The group of four, Jay Holmes, brothers Brandon and Nathan Reinhauerand and Mike Degrow. "We've all been here since Tuesday afternoon." explains Holmes, "Though some people got here a few hours before us." Apparently, there was something of a game of chicken that played out. No one wanted to be the first out, yet no one wanted to miss out. Within hours of the first camper pitching up, a line of 20 followed him. Our group were eight, nine, ten and eleven in a line which had reached around 45 people. Everyone was expecting to pick up a console apiece.

So, the critical question. Were they buying as gamers or scalpers. The truth lay somewhere in the middle. The foursome had decided to buy one machine each, keep two between them and sell the other two to the highest bidders at auction. Seems fair enough! The idea is to double the price of their sell-on machine to cover the cost of buying what is a very expensive luxury. But were there core scalpers? "I think nine out of ten people in the queue are buying them just to sell. It's a pretty hot item right now," explained Holmes. How did they feel about the fact that they had been forced to camp out because the pre-order largely went to people interested in scalping them for a quick buck? Anger and frustration is aimed more at Sony than scalpers. "Well, it seems that Nintendo really has its act together," offered Brandon Reinhauer. "Sony's been really lacking and been bad at delivering the machines to people that want them. We hear Nintendo is shipping 60 systems to this same Best Buy so [the queuing] might just be a marketing stunt by Sony. They're supposed to have 20 60GB versions per store and six 20GB. We've been hearing rumours that they've not been able to ship that many. The US was allocated 440,000 and we've heard it's down to 200,000 or 250,000... There's 45 people here so more than half are probably going to be disappointed tomorrow. I guess they're hoping that we'll not be able to buy them. There's a chance that our credit cards won't go through, then there's a system up for grabs."

"We all double-checked our bank accounts so we're ready," Noted Holmes.

So is there tension between the scalpers and gamers? "So for it's been pretty friendly. There's a community environment that forms and everyone sticks together. There's probably going to be conflict early tomorrow morning when people are saying they're in line and we've been waiting here since Tuesday," continued Holmes. "We're not going to back down from any conflict that might arise, but so far, it's been alright and people are friendly. We've bonded with the group next to us pretty well."

So how's the weather been? SPOnG would have been on location a day earlier but severe storms closed bridges across the state, with falling trees and flooded roads, power outages and collapsing banks causing general chaos. "We had originally only brought sleeping bags and things. Then it started to sprinkle slightly so we went and bought a tent. By six o'clock in the morning it was pouring down with rain and the heavy rain did not stop until late that night. The wind blew the rain in and the whole area here was drenched."

And how has the rest of the world reacted to the temporary nylon and canvas city that's sprung up? "People driving by haven't been too friendly," says Holmes, a veteran camper from the Xbox 360 launch. "Around 4AM every night there's been people driving by and honking to wake us up. It's funny how many people will drive by and honk as though they are the first people to think of it. They don't know we've heard it 20 times a night already. I was here at this store for the Xbox 360 launch and we were water-bombed. That was awful because as soon as the water hit, it started freezing. That was bad. But so far there hasn't been anything as extreme as that, just generally obnoxious things to try and make us more uncomfortable I guess."

The issue of games is one no one was really that comfortable with. Resistance: Fall of Man is what everyone's clinging to, but the lack of a killer app is undeniable. So is it more about owning the hardware? "We're picking up Resistance and Ridge Racer," SPOnG is told. We ask if the group is aware that Resistance isn't as good a game as Gears of War. "I'm getting Gears of War tomorrow too," says Holmes as the rest of the group nod sagely, perhaps aware for the first time that their shiny black boxes will bear little fruit for probably another year. "The Blu-Ray player is a big deal," Holmes continued. "The only other player on the market is $1,000 so it's a good deal. I also am interested just to see what it's capable of, though it's true that we'll not find out for two years or so."

Were the group aware that Japanese auctions have been hit by something of a campaign aimed at thwarting the activities of scalpers? "No, we'd hot heard of that. It's possible it could happen here too. I know there's a lot of people who are not happy with the amount that are going to be sold on. Like I said, from what I heard, most of the people here in this line are going to be selling them and people are annoyed because they want to play them."

It's also not a particularly ambitious way to make $1,000 really is it. Standing still for most of a week in the cold and the rain doesn't strike SPOnG as the pinnacle of modern capitalism. "It depends how much they sell for," Says Reinhaeur. "People could be making $8 an hour, they might sell higher and then it's $30 an hour. I guess we'll see. They're probably sell for about double retail at least. "

Aside from the vitriol aimed at Sony's production delays, Best Buy's information black-out also received some flack. "One of the most irritating things about being here is that no one in the store will give us information," continued Reinhaeur. "It doesn't seem to me that it would be hard to go back, look, find out how many there are and tell people. Nobody seems to know how many PlayStations are back there. Target has told people that they have eight units, so anyone after eighth in line was told they wouldn't get one. Whereas here, people have just piled up because we just don't know..."

We'll find out soon enough, as SPOnG will be on-site at the moment of truth on the morning on Nov 17th. Will there be carnage and fighting? Will there only be five machines? Or will there be an excess of machines? Expect an on the spot report as soon as we've posted our nine PS3 auctions...