The Madness Has Got to Stop!

For anyone living under a rock for the past month or so, the new Sony Playstation 3 is being released today. There is so much hype surround the release of this new gaming system that there have been people camped outside of Best Buy locations across the country since Monday night. Alabama radio personalities Ace & TJ (heard on Birmingham's 103.7 the Q) were offering campers $1,000 for their place in line. The result of their bribery? Not one faithful gamer would leave their place in line. What exactly is so great about the Playstaion 3? If I had the answer to that I would have all the answers, but sadly I have no earthly idea what is so special about this console as compared to others. When I asked a gamer here in the office the differences were unclear to him. "There's really no big difference between it and the X-Box," he said. "It's got blue ray (A new high def technology) and more memory so you can build bigger games, but that's really it." Curious for more information on what makes this gamers' gem so special I consulted my dear friend Jeeves over at Ask.com. Here's what I found out: The most common difference mentioned on many of the websites is the blue-ray compatibility. Other differences include Playstaion web/store browser options, and of course, better graphics. The only draw back I was able to find (Ok, the only one that made any damn sense) was the low shipment quantities.
Not only the hype, but another aspect of the new PS3 that has piqued my interest is the prices most people are willing to pay. Best Buy is asking between $500 and $600 depending on which console you get. E Bay, however is a whole 'nother story. The going price for the PS3 on E Bay is anywhere from $2,000 to $520,100 a pop. Now, if I'm going to pay over $100 dollars for this thing it better cook, clean, and make a Versace suit in under twenty seconds.
But what I think of the Playstation 3 doesn't matter. More power to the gamers who have braved cold and rain to obtain what is apparently the holy grail of video game consoles. That's definitely not something I would do for a game system that will be upgraded in less than five years. Now, I'm off to watch the conclusion of several E Bay auctions.