Regulation of gaming console supply and demand

Would you favor some sort of regulation crafted to curb the huge gap between the supply and demand for new gaming consoles?

I realize it may seem ludicrous but in light of the violence and fraud arising from the shortages of the PS3, it seems like some sort of solution is in order.

Is this a societal problem, a disastrous side effect of Sony attempting to ramp up demand, or an unavoidable side effect of any console release?

I don't know if I would go so far as to suggest that government should step in but it would be nice if there were public pressure put on Sony to not pull this kind of bullshit in the future. Is it really responsible to release only 400,000 units in the US just to ensure your price point is met?

After having spent the entire night at a mall, THINKING I was first in line to get a Wii, finding out some people mysteriously got in before the Mall opened, and then returning home empty handed because they only had 3 in stock......yeah, I'd like a little regulation. It kind of pisses me off that people are getting their hands on hard to get consoles and selling them for 3 times their price on eBay.

My ire was focused on Sony up there, but yeah, Nintendo's not much better IMO. I think the only reason they released more is because their pricing structure allows for it, without diminishing demand.

Dear People,

You're going to have to wait for your video gaming systems. Suck it up. Don't take it out on me. Don't take it out on the people who got lucky and got theirs. Please kindly shut the fuck up and go home.

Signed,
Angry Electronics Retail Employee

And no, I don't think regulation will help. What are you going to do? Force companies to produce more units?

I think it really has to be something that the public forces the companies to consider. What would be effective would be a boycott but for obvious reasons, that's not a viable solution. I don't know what the answer is.

Obviously, this is the fault of the people who have gotten so crazy, not the companies. I'm just suggesting that there's something they could do to avoid the situation.

You're never going to be able to stop the stupidity of people or their unreasonable demands.

Yeah it would be great if Sony and Nintendo were able to keep up with demand but they can't and I sincerely doubt that there's anything that can be done about that. It's not like their purposefully holding back units. That would be terrible for business.

The only solution I have is to physically slap every person who gets angry at me because I don't have their stupid video games. It's a lousy solution but I think it will make me feel better.

I can understand your emotion with you on the front lines as it were. I'm not saying they are holding back units but if they were, it would certainly make it easier to hit their price point.

What's better for them?

Selling 400,000 units at $500 each (and many hundreds of thousands more to come since the limited supply has made everyone niagara wet for the future shipments)

or

Putting out 4 million at $300 each, selling 2 million of them and then having them sit on the shelves even at that price because the market is so saturated?

It makes more sense for them to put out more units regardless of the price they are selling for. The demand is there and 4 million units at $300 wouldn't be a hard sell at all. People are more than willing to put down the money.

Right now Microsoft is cleaning up (at least at my store) because the demand for next-gen consoles is EXTREMELY high and they are the only ones readily available. There is zero benefit to Nintendo and Sony being unable to keep up with demand.

Not that I can think of any way to stop it, but I really think it should be illegal to buy a console at launch only to resell it on Ebay.


As little as I feel for the people who get jacked paying double the price for their system, I feel for the true gamers that just barely could afford their own system but got shafted because some profiteering asshole decided to screw everyone over just to make a quick buck. Sure, it's capitalism and that's supposed to be what this country's all about, but it's basically a new form of scalping. How is that legal?