Sony’s US President Jack Tretton was interviewed and was asked the following question:
“And now we’re seeing a lot more unites on store shelves.”
Jack answered:
“If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that’s been on shelves longer than five minutes, I’ll give you 1,200 bucks for it.”
Of course Tycho and Gabe over at Penny Arcade took him up on his offer! Click the picture above to see their full comic.
Tycho had this to say about the whole fiasco:
It is not difficult to lie to people… If there is stock, you don’t say that there isn’t stock. You don’t say this ever. You can say there isn’t as much stock “as people are saying,” which isn’t strong but creates doubt. You could say that the stock is primarily the 20GB model, because the response to the “consumer proposition” on the “premium model” was “stronger than they expected.” I feel kind of dirty now. But the right response, the one that makes a “ding ding ding” sound, is that the stock exists not because it hasn’t sold, but because they are being bought and swiftly replaced by new stock. Also, if there’s more time in the interview? Say that you’re “leveraging synergies.” Synergies are basically awesome, and they’re even better when you leverage them.
So far DU readers have found over $60,000 worth of PS3 bounty. Think Tretton will pay up anytime soon?
Genious marketing, actually.
They’re still overpriced.
PLEASE, John discuss in on either cranky geeks or twit 🙂
I was at the local wal-mart yesterday and was checking out the electronics section – No Wii’s in site – but 4 60GB PS3s sitting in the window waiting for some unsuspecting fool to buy one.
I’m still laughing so hard I can hardly type!
So, I read this — then called my local Best Buy. Got a helpful young lass who asked if I wanted the 20 or 60 gig? Turns out they only carry the 60 which is why she asked.
So, I asked her how many of the 60’s did she have in stock? 12? Yes, 12!
I said, gee, I’ll drive into town, right now. She replied — don’t hurry. We’ve had ’em for 3 weeks. They aren’t going to disappear before you get here.
Ive been trying every big box retail store I drive by for weeks to find a Wii. Anybody having success getting one of these?
The guys at Game Stop (that was the store name iirc) said people come in in the morning and wait for their shipment to arrive…
Fry’s in Renton had about a dozen PS3s just piling up in the store this weekend. And they had been there for a lot longer than 5 minutes…
I am STILL looking for a WII.
Not wanting to pay the $500.00 plus for one at the Ebay sites….if I wanted to pay that much for a system I would BUY A PS3…..
PS3’s are everywhere. I saw one at Target yesterday just sitting there. The Best Buy near me has a bunch also.
I was in my local FutureShop (I’m in/around Toronto) and they had 4 PS3s just sitting in the aisle. I also popped into two different Best Buy locations over the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and they had three sitting in each store. There are no Wiis in any of the stores I visited.
Heh, kinda makes those guys who camped out for the first ones look like morons now.
Waitaminute…they looked like morons then, too.
Futureshop – 4 Units
Walmart – 2 Units
and I’m pretty sure the two EB Stores in my city have some too.
I’m pretty sure the guy was only making the $1,200 offer to the interviewer… and only for one unit. I think that would hold up, if you scrutinize his wording.
But hey, a little free advertising for the PS3 – there’s no such thing as bad press, right?
I work at Fry’s Electronics. Roughly 50% of our call volume is people looking for Wii’s and/or accessories . . . of course, we can’t keep it in stock. By contrast, we’ve got about a dozen 60gb PS3’s sitting on the shelf . . . and a disproportionate number of open boxes from customers who weren’t satisfied and brought it back.
Last week I was in Costco. They had a pallet with approximately 16 of the 60 GB models. I guess I am going to be rich, right? The system is a non-starter at $600.
I have not heard a single one of you state that you saw a PS3 “on store shelves”. You mentioned windows, on pallets, in cases and ‘in the aisle’, but not one of you has seen them on store shelves.
So, his faith in his $1200 dare appears to be well founded…
Os.
I wish I had known this, a whole floor display at a local Best Buy would have cashed me about $12,000 over Christmas. Not to mention the 6 my local walmart has. I have seen so many PS3 on the shelves everywhere, and yes they were actually the systems and not just the display boxes.
The best place to find out whether or not an item is readily available to anyone who wants one is ebay. About 2 days after the PS3 release the systems were selling for retail and a day or two after that they were seliing for less then retail. Wii were fetching about $100 plus and last year 360’s at that time were getting 3 to 4 x retail.
The proof is in the pudding there son…. Sony’s launch was a disaster plain and simple, and anyone from Sony saying it wasn’t is just straight up propaganda