Forums > News > Need the police? Send the bill to Sony.
Ronald Diemicke (1181) on 11/20/2006 4:54 PM · Permalink · Report
According to WHDH-TV in Boston and Joystiq, Boston's mayor, Thomas Menino, is billing Sony for the man power of twelve police cruisers that were necessary to subdue the situation at the Sony Style store during the Playstation 3 launch. Supposedly, things got out of hand when 500 people waiting to purchase Playstation 3s rushed the store at 5am. The Mayor blames Sony for the insanity that took place at the store because of their withholding of launch numbers and lack of pre-orders.
Talk about crazy. I know there was talk that Best Buy sent out a memo to their stores to suggest the managers contact the police to request additional patrols the nights leading up to the console launch. You'd think with Sony realizing what was going on with the PS3 first hand that they'd have taken the same precautions. So many things could have prevented the situation from getting out of hand. Hopefully this sticks, but I doubt it will.
Is Sony in the wrong here? Is this what the police are for? Is any console worth risking life and limb for (despite how much you can sell it for on Ebay)?
BurningStickMan (17916) on 11/21/2006 2:55 AM · Permalink · Report
I lived in Boston for years, and Mumbles was always pulling stuff like this - attempting to charge mildly related entities for municipal clean ups, riot responses, whatever. He tried to foist the cleaning bill on local colleges after the Pats won the Super Bowl, on the grounds that most of the damage was caused by students (something that could never really be proved). Same when the Red Sox won the Series - though he probably NEEDED some help with the bill after that one.
Thing is, Copley is a relatively small, ritsy shopping center connecting two upscale hotels. There's maybe 30 shops in the whole thing. A crowd of 500 could easily obstruct other surrounding stores, or cause trouble for anyone trying to move through that area (a lot of people use the breezeways there to get around without being in the cold.)
It seems like Menino is closer to a responsible target this time. If the city had to dispatch officers to clean up Sony's mess (as in Sony did not request police help ahead of time) then maybe they're on to something. It's irresponsible for those employees to let a crowd of that size mass when they would have maybe 20 PS3s to give out.
Though there's an EBX on the second floor just a bit away from the Sony Store. I wonder why they didn't get hassled, or if that line was also part of this crowd of 500.
Mattias Kreku (413) on 11/22/2006 2:14 PM · Permalink · Report
I don't see how Sony is to blame for people being stupid and/or greedy? They had a release date set, they ran into manufacturing problems, they released as many consoles that they were able to produce up until said release date. End of story.
The ones to blame are the stupid/greedy people who were fighting and queuing to get hold of the very first Playstation 3's.
Doppelgamer (184) on 11/22/2006 3:52 PM · Permalink · Report
I prefer to see all as being responsible. In most situations, it's not one side which is solely to blame. Sony should have been more cautious to avoid problems with desperate crowds. Stores should have enforced the situation better, so as to avoid violent situations. Most importantly, the people in the crowd should have used their brains, and exercised some level of conscience before descending into barbarism.
The important thing is that all parties learn from this, and try to avoid these mistakes at the next event... Something I doubt they will do, unless they're one of the people punished or sued.
LepricahnsGold (142748) on 11/23/2006 4:04 AM · Permalink · Report
[q]Is any console worth risking life and limb for (despite how much you can sell it for on Ebay)?[/q]
Of course not. You can always wait a little while and get your own. And if you're getting it to sell (on eBay or anywhere else) it would only be worth it if it sold for upwards of $1,000,000.00. Maybe.