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PS3 on eBay pulls in $10,100
A PlayStation 3 pre-order up for auction on eBay ended just 45 minutes ago as of the writing of this post, fetching over ten thousand dollars. If this guy doesn't get his pre-order, and we have a feeling that's going to be happening a lot tomorrow, can the winning bidder get out of it? Yes, according to the notes on the auction, although you still have to pay for shipping (wtf?). His wife is getting in on the bling action as well, "my wife is first in line at our local Walmart and she is also garunteed a PS3 so I will have 2 of them at midight." We don't know anything about the winning bidder except he's apparently a Florida Gators fan. Let's hope he didn't type an accidental zero in there when bidding ... 10k for a PS3 is quite a stretch from the $600 asking price. We've emailed him for some answers, hopefully he hasn't had to hock his computer to pay for this baby.The guy who is reselling 100 PS3s is probably crapping his pants right now. Just keep the receipts for the Ferrari and the yacht in Bermuda. Impulse buys can be a real bitch.
Core gamers have heavy impact on economy [update 1]
Definition: a heavy gamer (also known as core gamer) is one who buys eight or more games per year and plays at least 10 hours per week. Correlation: according to a recent study by Ziff Davis Games Group, heavy gamers spend notably more money than casual gamers (those who buy at most one game per year and play five or fewer hours per week). Some relative figures: Heavy gamers spent $710 on clothing over the last six months, nearly double that of casual gamers. That equates to approximately $1,420 annually. Heavy gamers spent $116 on DVDs over the last six months (or $232 annually), while casual gamers only shelled out $64. Similar trends hold for consumer electronics, online music downloads, athletic shoes, and CDs. Conclusion: heavy gamers, by way of their spending trends, have an impact on the economy as a whole. Companies who take notice of the trend will try to cater more to the gamer audience. The effect is a greater push for in-game advertising, but to what extent? Lest they forget, gamers hate in-game ads. Keep in mind that the converse ("those who spend a lot of money buy a lot of games") is not necessarily true. See Also:Picture it: special status for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii console ownersEconomies of scale don't apply to virtual worlds?Joystiq's coverage on in-game advertising[Update 1: clarified some language in the conclusion.]
Gorenje Eye-Catchers: Get an iced out fridge for 10,000
Clearly there's one niche market that the über-rich must have been clamoring for to the appliance manufacturers of the world: how to combine a fridge with obscene amounts of shinyness? Fear not, Gorenje UK, the British division of a company from <strike>the former Yugoslavia</strike> Slovenia, has developed an extremely limited line of refrigerators (known appropriately as "The Eye-Catchers") lined with rows upon rows of Swarovski crystals (7,000 to be precise). Act now kids, because Gorenje is only making 10 of these, and they retail for £10,000 (nearly $19,000). For that price, the combined 331 L (87.4 gallons) capacity fridge-freezer also comes with a radio receiver, a "cookery book" (we assume that's a cookbook), voice messages and a voice alarm. You can catch a glimpse of one of these on the company's website, and at Harrods in London. This fridge too rich for you? Don't worry, there's a budget model priced at only £1400 -- but it only comes with 3500 crystals, so really, what's the point of that? More photos on the flip side. [Via Pocket Lint]
Video Sandwich: July 31, 2006
The talented Greykid Pictures just put up a preview for a potential PSP ad that they're working on. It seems just as racially insensitive as every other PSP marketing tactic used by Sony as of late, so I guess it has to be real. It seems to take Peter Dille's message about PSP's multi-use capabilities to heart, by showing off photos, music, games, and surprisingly, a lot of movies. It definitely gets a message across, unlike some other scary Japanese ads.Below, you'll see Lumines shoes. These are one-of-a-kind shoes embedded with so much bling that your eyes may melt off. I guess those kind of shoes keep on making us wonder what kind of drugs Mizuguchi smokes.
Screw chrome! Silver is the real bling
Our fine friends at Luxist have dropped the curtain on this swanky piece of 360 luxury: a solid silver faceplate. The faceplate is made by (presumably very rich) Christofle -- the name just begs to be italicized -- and designed by (also presumably very rich) Andree Putman. There will only be five (count 'em, five) manufactured in the whole wide world, and, at a cool €1000 ($1250), you'll be hard pressed to get one any time soon. Still, if you're dying to be the King of Bling or...um...the Duke of Krunk, you can go check them out in the Collette boutique in Paris.[Via Luxist]
Let your chrome glow
It looks like the long awaited chrome controller shell from Team Xtender is nearing production. More than just a shell, this mod puts LEDs in each button, making your controller glow like radioactive skittles. Who wouldn't want that?See a nice glowing shot after the break.
We couldn't resist
Though people like J. Allard and Peter Moore manage to attain a psuedo-celebrity status, Nintendo's executive figures seem to have a following second to none. Shiggy, Iwata, and "The Regginator" are bonafide stars in the gaming industry. Luckily for us, they decided to cash in and take it to the next level. Bling bling.
Pink SLVR L7 available through Cingular
While not quite as hot as the $75,000 diamond-encrusted version, Cingular new pink SLVR L7 will surely find a market among the hoards of people that seem addicted to devices in that most feminine of colors. Even though its sporting a different shade, this model has the exact same features as the black L7 -- iTunes, Bluetooth, EDGE, MicroSD, and a VGA cam -- and costs the same too, priced at $199 with a two-year service agreement and pledge of eternal loyalty to Cingular/AT&T Wireless.
MobiBlu squared: crystalized 1500i and new pics of Cube 2
Given MobiBlu's efforts to convince consumers that the company's tiny 1500i audio player can be worn as jewelry, it seems only fitting that someone has taken them literally, and produced a customized version of the player encrusted with shiny crystals. The DAH 1500i Crystal is a 2GB version of the player, and is available in the UK for £169 ($307). Of course, if you care more about music than about showing off your zirconium collection, you'd probably prefer to skip this one and wait for MobiBlu's upcoming Cube 2, which DAPreview reports will boast a 0.67-inch, 64x48 JPEG-capable OLED display (though we tend to think actually checking out pics on such a small screen probably isn't the best idea), SRS WOW HD, FM tuner and some sort of docking station. Still no word on pricing, availability and whether MobiBlu will try to convince 1500i owners to pick up a Cube 2 so they'll have a set to use as earrings.Read - 1500i CrystalRead - Cube 2, official page (via DAPreview)
Nokia's 8800 back in black
You know, we have to hand it to Nokia for keeping their luxury 8800 handset worthy since its launch over a year ago. Already available in original stainless steel, a limited Aston Martin Edition, with over-the-top gold plating, and even as a candybar-style knockoff -- she's now resurrected herself in Black stainless steel. And that £799/$1429 price tag makes this the most expensive version yet. You go old girl, you go. [Via CrowdedBrain]
The $75,000 Motorola SLVR
We can't help but think the jewlers involved here could've found something a bit more snazzy to glue 260 diamonds and a platinum plate to, but that's just us. This extra extra shiny edition of the SLVR was recently shown at the Fresh Art "Zoom" Exhibition, and sells for a mere 75 grand. It seems quite ironic that after spending enough money to ice up a $75,000 version of the SLVR they couldn't manage more than cameraphone pics to promote it, but perhaps it's a subversive method to make their product appeal to the everyman. Right.
Blingbox 360
Apparently the folks from Xbox's German division had some spare time on their hands — and some spare crystals! The gang decorated an Xbox 360 with thousands* of tiny crystals, paying a special homage to Tomb Raider's Lara Croft in the process. The unit is now valued at $11,000. Did we mention they're gonna give the thing away?*Gamerscore Blog cites two very different crystal counts: 43,000 and 3,000.
