I just picked my Wii up at Target this past Saturday (just outside Salt Lake City, Utah). I got there 20 minutes before the store opened and was the first person to get one (they got in about 16 or so). When I came back less than two hours later to buy a game and component cables they had two left...

It spent weeks calling around varios Gamestop stores everyday, and had zero luck (they usually get shipments between 10am and 1pm). I finally spoke to a Target employee (manager) and he told me the best way to get one at Target was to come in everyday right at 8am when they open and check if they got any. He told me that really cannot say when they get shipments, but they stock them at night and will usually sell out within a few hours after the store opens. So far, the Wii has been everything that I expected and then some...

@Porsche 911,

Do you honestly think that you are going to be able to buy a PS3 for anything less than $800 the first three months or so due to the shortages they are going to have here in the US by only having 400K consoles availabe?

I am also not sold that I want my game console to be my movie player, nor has either Blu Ray or HD-DVD taken off yet. I think M$ was smart to wait it out and offer a stand alone player. As for the HDMI vs Component HD argument, I have hooked up both to my HDTV television, and there is not a noticeable difference between the two. Maybe Sony made HDMI standard so they could push their DRM on everybody...

Hahahaha!! Sony is playing right into my hands.. I have over a one year head start on them and have tons of great games available right NOW! All of those poor US PS3 customers who think they are going to be able to find one of these for even close to the retail price are going to fall right into my hands when they realize that there will only be a handful of consoles available and most of those will be on Ebay for $1000 or more!! Hahahahha..

Wait until I announce Halo3 and a price cut right before the holidays here in the US... Hahahhaha

Well, I am not surprised in the least. I also don't think that they (Sony) will make their release date either. You know that Bill Gates has a big smile on his face right now. MS and Nintendo are going to own this holiday season and MS is going to have a HUGE lead over everybody in the next gen console wars.

Game developers must be furious.. I would not be surprised to see more 360 exclusive games coming out in the near future. I am not even sure that Sony will own Japan anymore with all of the hype the Wii is making, and the fact that the PS3 is so expensive.

A couple things. First of all, the price on this add-on HD-DVD drive is pure specualtion at this point. The source for this information does not exactly have a good track record for reporting these types of things.

Secondly, even if it is $200, who says that MS will not lower the price of the 360 over the next 2-3 months? There is a ton of speculation that they will indeed lower the price of the 360.

This format war (BR/HD-DVD) is not turning out to be much of a battle.. The truth is, nobody seems to be rushing out and buying either of these players or the movies.. Time will tell, but I like the fact that I can wait and see what the outcome will be and who will win. From my personal perspective, my upconverting DVD player looks almost as good as the HD-DVD and BR players I have seen and costs way less....

Lastly, I have never been a fan of using my game machine as my movie player.. I would most likely buy a dedicated player anyway...

How is Apple and iTunes a monopoly??

Definition of monoploy from Websters: "Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service."

So are you telling me that Apple sells the only personal audio player in France? Are there not MP3 players? Are there not CD players?

Are you also telling me that the only way to purchase music is from iTunes? Has France found a way to block all the other downloadable music sites on the Internet? Has France yanked CD's off the shelves of all the music stores?

Maybe, just maybe, people buy the iPod and iTunes because they like it.. Because they feel it is the best player for them and it suits their needs. The bottomline is if you do not like the iPod and iTunes don't buy it. If you happened to purchase music on iTunes, simply burn it to a CD and either listen to the CD, or import it into your own MP3 player..

Give it a rest France.. Seems like you have bigger problems than DRM....

I hear all of you guys in UK/Europe getting upset at the expense of tehnology compared to the US, but isn't most of the reason your high taxes?

Don't get me wrong, I think the PS3 is overpriced, but you cannot totally blame Sony/Microsoft if your country adds a pretty high tax to the goods that are sold in your country.

To me, there is nothing really exciting or innovative about URGE.

No way am I going back to spending $10-18 for a CD that has, maybe, 3-4 decent songs on it (there are always exceptions to this rule, sometimes the whole CD is good, sometimes there is only one good song). The record companies ripped us all off for years and if they had it their way, we would all still be buying CD's. Like it or not, iTunes legitimized pay for play music and forced the record companies to offer digital download alternatives.

Personally, I think it is great that we have freedom of choice and selection. For those of you who hate Apple/iPod, then don't buy it. For those of you who hate Windows/subscription services, then don't buy them. There will NEVER be a service/player that satisfies all consumers needs. It is called choice. I own both types of players (iPod/WMA) and they both have their strengths and weaknesses (although I do favor Apple since I use a Windows PC only when I have to).

Haha, Ken Kutaragi is an idiot.. What a ridiculous analogy, pretty clear to me that Sony is backpedaling...

Sony fanboys, did any of you watch the presentations put on by MS, Nintendo, and Sony? MS and Nintendo's were very exciting, and people walked away blown away and ready to play the consoles right then and there.. Sony's was.. Well... A big GIANT letdown... Because of all the delays and rumors, I think people were expecting something HUGE, and they got, well, less than what Sony originaly promised...

Mark my words, Sony is going to lose the console war in North America and Europe when the game developers announce that games will cost $60-80..

Japan will still blindly buy the PS3, becasue it is Japanese and they tend to buy products from their own country.. But... The Wiiii is new and fresh, and Japan is going to buy them up like crazy and really cut into Sony's marketshare...

Look at their stock price.. Since the announcement it has dropped considerably.. Sony is scrambling right now...

#5..

Paul, the pricing for the HD-DVD drive has not been announced yet (I have heard anywhere from $100-200), but who knows...

I still do not see the major advantage of Sony having Blu-Ray players at this point in time:
- Blu-Ray has not won the format battle. As it stands right now, they are behind HD-DVD in coming to market and on pricing (Blu-Ray hardware is about twice as much as HD-DVD hardware, and the discs themselves are more expensive.
- If Blu-Ray losses the format war, that means people are paying a premium price for a player now, that will be obsolete in the future.
- The majority (I think the number is 90%) of folks do not even have an HDTV, or one that will support HDMI/HDCP (HDCP will be utilized down the road). So, this is not a big advantage.
- Game developers do not need 25GB-50GB discs to produce a game. A DVD is more than adequate. Maybe in the future, but probably not in the next couple years.
- This is still yet to be determined, but it goes without saying that games that are produced on Blu-Ray discs will cost more (especially from 3rd party developers).
- Even if BluRay clearly wins the format war, most folks will just buy a dedicated Blu-Ray player anyway when they cost about $50-100.

There is no doubt that Sony has placed their chips on the table and has gambled the future of the PS3 on Blu-Ray. Lets be honest, its not about Wifi, or bluetooth wireless controllers , or the Cell processor, or even the games (I think everyone by now, including (360 and PS3 fanboys), gets the fact that there will be little differnce in graphics between the consoles. It is about Blu-Ray.. That is the reason why the console has been delayed and the reason why the PS3 has such a premium price...