PS2?  P.S: Y?

26 October 2000. The day the video gaming world stood still ... in line, for hours, waiting for their coveted and muchly anticipated Playstation 2. In theory, anyway.

Not I, however. No, I was curled up in my comfy computer chair at the local store opening time of 4am, having just ordered the special edition of Shenmue online and being deeply engrossed in Chrono Cross on the original Playstation.

My erstwhile companion and, as those of you who've visted his 1-Up! website know, video game junkie? Watching Chrono Cross progress while mudding.

But we were almost unable to have such an idealic Thursday, 26 October 2000. For we were almost one of ... the preorderers.

Allow me to take a moment to set the scene. It dates back to 9 September 1999, a date which, karmically enough, was also my birthday. I didn't get too sleep much that day, as I was outside our local mall all night long, waiting to be told we could go in and pick up our shiny new Dreamcast. But I didn't mind. Mike was almost beside himself, he was so excited. He'd never gotten a system on opening day before, this was his chance to experience the mind-numbing dullness that creeps in around hour 2, as the temperature continues to drop and your stomach starts complaining of neglect. Then, of course, there's the chaotic maelstrom that is the store itself once they finally open their doors to the foaming masses ... especially when their computer systems go down. Ahh, but that's a story for another time. What is important to note here is that there are virtually no lengths that my family will not go to for the heady rush and euphoric contentment that comes with a gaming experience.

But not the PS2.

I'm sure Dreamcast owners already know where I'm coming from. You remember when you first got your system ... brought it home, plugged in all the necessary cables, and then popped in that first game, which I'm laying 100 to 1 odds was Soul Calibur. A thousand jaws collectively dropped at the gorgeousness that is this game, a game now a year older, but not showing a single sign of its age. Then you likely popped in Sonic Adventure to get the heart pumping, and Ready 2 Rumble for some yucks. And need I even mention NFL2K? My friends, I loathe sports and sporting games, but I made us go back out release day and pick up a copy because it's just that fun.

Yes, no sleep for me on my birthday, but no amount of sleep could've made up for the Dreamcast experience.

Which brings us forward in time a bit, to February or March of 2000. There was, of course, a tremendous buzz about the PS2 already building, and we wanted in. As soon as preorders were being taken, we were there. "A mere $10 is all you need to be in on the action on 26 October 2000," the signs and clerks all cheerfully advocated. "Well gosh darnit all if that's not damned reasonable," we just as cheerfully replied, and slapped down not $10, but $40 dollars. Thus began our monthly trip to Electronics Boutique, whereupon we would hand over $20 apiece, content with the knowledge that soon, the latest in gaming consoles would be ours.

All this, of course, without seeing a single game for the station.

Flashforward a few months, to the PS2's release in Japan. Not long after, Japanese systems began popping up here and there, particularly in one independant and largely import game store. "Ooo, let us go marvel at the Playstation 2 which will soon be ours, and revel in its greatness," said we. Expectations high, ready to be amazed, we watched someone playing Ridge Racer V.

"Wow, that's ... uhm, really ... unimpressive."

Yeah, it moved smoothly, and yeah, it had, like, rounded polygons and stuff, but where was the wow factor? Had I become jaded in the year since owning my Dreamcast?

I went home and popped in Soul Calibur. Sure enough, I was still impressed. Odd.

"Well, maybe it's just the fact that it's a racing game," we said, not being huge fans of racing games. "Just wait 'til Tekken Tag Tournament!"

It came. We saw. We dismissed its ass.

"Dead or Alive 2, yeah! That's sure to be awesome on the PS2!"

Not that I'd want the jiggle-fest anyway, but if I did, I'd take the visually superior version for my Dreamcast any day of the week.

So what were we getting the PS2 for again? Oh yeah! Opening day adrenaline rush! Besides, let's face it, it's Sony, and if there's one thing Sony's learned in recent years, it's how to handle a game console.

Then we got a call from EB. "If you're going to want, like, things to actually do on your PS2 when you get it on opening day, we'll need more money." We'd been told that pretty much everything would be available in mass quantities, just waiting to be snatched up by our greedy little hands with our $10 minimum deposit, but apparently not if we wanted extra controllers, memory cards, games. For that then, we'd need to be more out of pocket now. Luckily, by this stage, we had almost $200 in our PS2 account, so we told them to go ahead and reserve the required accessories. We were both still debating on what we actually wanted to play on the darned thing, so we held off on that one for the time being, and would just take our chances later on down the line.

Things went by smoothly, if somewhat boringly for the next month. We still hadn't decided what games we wanted for the System Of 5 Million Racing Sims, but figured that if push came to shove, we'd just run our old PSX games on it and marvel at the graphic difference. And maybe rent a new Dreamcast game until something decent came out for the PS2.

Until The Call. Another from Electronics Boutique. They were now saying that we would have to pay everything up front, else they couldn't gurantee us anything on the 26th. Whug? What happened to "A mere $10 is all you need to be in on the action on 26 October 2000"? What action were you talking about, exactly, the action of getting up at 1am, standing in line for three hours and waiting and hoping that I'd be able to snag a system I'd been giving you money towards for 7 months?

You know what, screw you EB, and screw you too, Sony.

That day, we revisisted the store and got back the $280 dollars they'd been hording for us. It almost broke their in-store bank, but hey, they sure took the money easily enough, you'd better believe we weren't leaving until every single dollar was back in our hand. And no, we do not want store credit, thank you so very much. They were extremely apologetic, and the manager explained to us that Sony had backed them into a corner, promising ample supplies and the abiltiy to fill all preorders received by the cut-off date (which we were well beneath), and had then turned around with a month to go and said "Tee-hee, we lied. Here's 100 systems for your 500 preorders, you have fun now. Tee-hee." I of course exaggerate to make my point, but the bottom line is that Sony had promised distributors that they could meet the demand, and they'd dropped the ball. But who was going to bear the brunt of the 400 tired, disappointed, shafted and totally pissed off customers? The distributors.

I don't blame EB. They were stuck in an extremely nasty position, and they tried to handle it in the most fair way they could think of. And they notified their customers well ahead of time. This is 100 times better than some of the other horror stories I've heard from friends and aquaintences with preorders, who went through the Release Date Rush, only to get up to the counter and be told "Oops, sorry, we're all sold out." To add insult to injury, a high number of them were also told "And guess what? You're shit out of luck until next month, too! Too bad, so sad." I hear one Wal-Mart almost had a riot break out at this news, and I'm betting they weren't the only ones across this vast country of ours.

While I disagree with their methods of handling the customers, ultimately, it really isn't their fault. The blame for this lies wholly and squarely on the shoulders of Sony. With a preorder cut-off date somewhere around May, they had more than ample time to see how many systems they would need and get the things churned out. Obviously, I have no contacts with the company, so I'll be waiting to see what reports creep up in Mike's gaming magazines to explain this nationwide shortage of promised systems. I will also watch with interest to see how, if at all, it has affected the PS2's popularity. I know that there are some fans out there, like myself, who don't enjoy being ridden by a company, and will wait until the prices drop a bit from it's current, hefty $299 tag. If that means we'll be waiting until next Christmas, then so be it. Perhaps by then, they'll have a game or two worth actually owning the system for.

Until then, I'll be replaying Crazy Tazi for the billionth time, anxiously awaiting Phantasy Star Online, and still drooling with delight as I attempt to collect the final few thousand points I need in Soul Calibur.