Boston Mayor Plans To Bill Sony For PS3 Crowd Madness
from the pay-up dept
Following the various messes caused by so many people lining up to buy Sony PS3s last week, Joystiq points out that Boston’s mayor has said he plans to bill Sony for the crowd control that was necessary when 500 people stormed the doors at the Sony Style store in Boston as the consoles went on sale. Joystiq wonders if other local officials will do the same. They note that some stores handled the crowds much better than others, in terms of how they organized those who were lined up — including whether they allowed pre-orders, or at least explained the basic process for getting one of the coveted game consoles. Either way, it may represent yet another cost for Sony to overcome in actually making the console profitable.
Comments on “Boston Mayor Plans To Bill Sony For PS3 Crowd Madness”
Hardly Sony's Fault
I don’t particularly like Sony, but really this isn’t their fault. Is the name of the mayor Jack Thompson?
Re: Hardly Sony's Fault
totally sony’s fault by M on Nov 20th, 2006 @ 8:28am
they created a false shortage to hype up the product. they knew what would happen.
I agree , they knew what would happen since they released it within their own country and seen the results. This was foreseeable especially the injuries. Not only should walmart be suied for the shooting incident but so should sony.
totally sony's fault
they created a false shortage to hype up the product. they knew what would happen.
Re: totally sony's fault
That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. Blame the company who makes the product for the actions of consumers who want to buy it. Pull your head out of yer ass.
Re: Re: totally sony's fault
No really, he’s right. Sony knew how many needed to be sold and they under-produced to give it more hype. “Oh now, there are a limited supply and you don’t know when more will be made so you better get one at launch.” It’s just a way of increasing the advertising because of all the news stories that talk about it.
Compare how many Wii stories there are versus PS3 stories and you’ll see my point. Sony did it intentionally, so did Microsoft with the 360, and also Nintendo with the Wii, though to a much smaller extent.
Re: Re: Re: totally sony's fault
right… it couldn’t Possibly be the fact that they are using completely new technology that takes Months to create the parts to assemble the console. They can make a super-computer processor in a week? dream on. Learn alittle about how things are made and stop believing everything you hear.
Re: Re: Re:2 totally sony's fault
You are so right Betaflame. It takes time to develop the hardware/software etc. And it might not be sony’s fault they didnt have enough units produced but it is clearly their fault they released it when they knew it wasnt ready and they didnt have enough.
At least by reading this thread should be able to tell who is a fanboy around here and whos not. I dont have anything against sony but I wouldnt buy anything from Microsoft or sony on release day. Neither one of these company’s have a very good track record for releasing quality hardware or enough to fill customers demand.
Re: False Shortage
There isn’t a “false shortage” – the BluRay drives are expensive and complicated to make, and 8-core chips aren’t any easier.
They’re manufacturing the things as fast as they can. If they SOLD OUT at $600 a console, you think Sony would make MORE money making more consoles, or LESS?
Or do you think Sony doesn’t like money?
Re: Re: False Shortage
Zealot:
Sony wouldn’t make MORE money by selling more consoles. They make money on accessories and games, which aren’t selling much since 90% of consoles are being flipping instead of being played.
The PS3 really wasn’t ready to release for this holiday but Sony pushed it out anyway, because Nintendo has the right game plan this season.
Re: Re: False Shortage
actually sony is loosing money($240 to $300 per console by most estimates on parts alone) so the more the sell now while the parts are so expensive the more money they loose. However regardless of their production issues it is not in any way sonys fault fo how people react. Each and every person who caused a preblem over the launch is completely responsible for their own actions, as we all are every day.
Re: Re: False Shortage
it is a false shortage because they could have done like what some of the other companies are doing and buy the blu-ray from samsung to meet the demand of just Blu-Ray players for the holidays. Plus, if they couldn’t meet the demand they should have held off on the launch. Sony wanted the chaos. Its free advertising on the local and national news. And yes the Sony Style store should be responsible for not supplying the proper crowd control.
Re: totally sony's fault
it was not a false shortage, it was their inability to produce enough blue crystals for the blue ray drives for their systems
Re: Re: totally sony's fault
So are you the one thats going to tell business what levels of stock they have to have before going live with a new product? Oh wait it will prolly be some nanny govt business oversight agency right? You libs…
False shortage hype or not, you can’t blame Sony for the actions of others. Blame the shops that didn’t allow for pre-ordering, or not doing like one Best Buy did, where they handed out vouchers to the first people who lined up until they had all their systems accounted for and told the people to go home, if you didn’t have a ticket you weren’t getting a PS3.
Re: Re:
It was the SONY style store their billing
Re: Re:
Actually, you can bill them for it. They incited a riot and did it quite intentionally to get people excited about their amazingly crappy product.
Re: Re: Re:
It’s crappy based on what evidence?
The stores need to be charged, not Sony
Stores that handled it correctly didn’t have problems, so the stores need to be charged. In the case of Boston, it’s a Sony style store, so it’s still Sony taking it in the pocketbook. But if it’s a riot at Best Buy elsehere, Best Buy should be the ones paying.
Go Wii!
Re: The stores need to be charged, not Sony
I totally agree, take the stores accountable. And since the fiasco happened at the Sony Style store then this is perfectly logical to bill Sony.
Re: Re: The stores need to be charged, not Sony
I have a better idea, round up and arrest anyone starting a fight, throwing things, stealing a console from and knocking down a lady, or even starting a yelling match. Then when things have calmed divy the bill up amongst the problem causers since they are the ones who could not behave in a civilized manner. Oh and that goes on top of any criminal charges they are responsible for.
Re: Re: Re: The stores need to be charged, not Son
What a unique concept…holding people responsible for their own actions…
http://www.thatpoliticalblog.com
Re: The stores need to be charged, not Sony
the wii sucks and so do you
of course it's billable
When any company throws a party or event that is expected to draw major crowds. They are required to have police details.
THis has been so hyped up, how could it have been anything less than a major event?
I think that all the police details are billable.
pre-order, yes.
vouchers, no. with pre-orders, you are gauranteed to pick up an item for like a week or whatever after it is released. (at least every pre-order i’ve had has had an extended period of time to pickup the product. after that, you wait or get a refund)
vouchers are something else. vouchers are reserved for a short time span. (normally 1 hour to 1 business day) after that, boom. the item is up for grabs. so people would line up to get the “leftover items”
but either way, there will be people lining up to get the voucher/preorder the very moment that time comes. so instead of waiting on nov. 18, they’ll come in june 1st or whatever. still the same crowd. different date. that’s all.
does any municipality have the authority to charge sony for causing the disturbance? i really don’t know. i mean, i can be arrested for starting a riot but i am just practing free speech. i never said to riot. i just spoke passionately about the subject. others decided to throw rocks, set cars on fire, break stores…i never said to do that. yet if i’m the leader, i can get arrested, right?
so why not sony? they are doing the same thing. they hyped up the crowd to gather, never said be meand and whatnot. however it was their presence that caused it. where do we draw the line? individuals vs. corporations?
come on people. debate!!!
I live in Boston. Mumbles Menino is a retard. Good luck with that bill. Yeah, right.
BILL them all and let God sort it out
Personally I think both the store and Sony should be charged. Yes the stores should have been more prepared but Sony did nothing to help the situation by constantly changing the expected delivery counts. It is also unfortunate that almost none of these units were sold to people that actually intended to keep them.
Re: BILL them all and let God sort it out
I really don’t see why it is sonys or any stores fault. What about the people that caused the disturbance, why isn’t their fault?
Sony didn’t force them to stand in line all night, the store didn’t force them either. No one forced them to rush the doors.
This is the same mob mentality that comes into play during sporting events, but no one blames the sports teams for causing the disturbances, why should this be any different?
Re: Re: BILL them all and let God sort it out
Wow, you can tell you don’t live in the UK… Sports teams get in trouble all the time for their fans running riot, getting fined etc… Now if they can be blamed for their fans, then Sony can be blamed for this!
Re: Re: Re: BILL them all and let God sort it out
All that shows is that the UK is just as screwed up as the US with no personal accountabality for much of anything.
Re: BILL them all and let God sort it out
Oh really? There are ~399,990 or ~199,990 [can’t remember the figure] PS3s up for resale?
Standing in line for hours, sometimes days, just to get a freakin’ video game console??? GET A LIFE!
Anyone catch the video of the guy smashing a PS3 in front of guys waiting in line? SWEET!!!
Re: Re:
i agree
Mayor Menino blunders again
In typical Menino fashion, he’s screwed up again. This guy is a massive ass clown. When the Patriots won their 1st Super Bowl and college students in Boston went crazy in the streets, Menino blamed the Students and Universities. The following year the Patriots again won the Super Bowl and the college students again went crazy. There was a death or two among all of the craziness and again the Universities and students were the ones blamed.
Menino never learned from the first Super Bowl that there should be an increased BPD presence in case the city residents and students repeated their actions.
It wouldn’t have been to hard for Menino’s office to have said “hey look at all the coverage predicting mobs of people gathering for this game console release just like they’ve gathered for previous game console releases. We should either increase our city police force for the night or better yet, encourage the retail stores to take responsibility and hire some additional private security for the night”.
Some stores did this on their own but the ones who did not are now causing problems for Sony. It should be problems for the retailer.
I have an idea
How about bill the New England Patriots for home games, as well as the Boston Red Sox, or any of the colleges when they have games. That’s the government’s job…to maintain order. This is ridiculous.
rioters vs stores
I’m a geat proponent of personal responsibility.
if people riot, the rioters should be held responsible.
Sony was not irresponsible in their release of their product.
I’m not a huge fan of sony, but I Still have to say leave them alone in this case.
I don’t recall california suing itself for casuing riots after the rodney king court ruling.
really. personal responsibility.
200 guys show up in a place, camp out for 2 days waiting for 100 items. yeah, there may be trouble.
is it the responsibility of the seller to keep the dopes under control? no.
if the cops see a giant group camping on a city street for days, maybe they should tell them to scram. come back in a day.
arrest the guy who threw the brick, that’s waht I say.
Sony not to blame
First off i would like to say for those whothink its sony’s fault you guys need to learn something!!!. It your actions that cause this to happen.If people wanna get stupid because they feel like they need something and start riots or start fights well they are all morons.People need to understand that we allhave the ability to make decisions and well everybody makes the wrong decision, so ask your self is it sonys fault you made the wrong decision????
He cannot win this. If anything, this is putting more publicity on the PS3 and taking attention away from his failure as a mayor. This isn’t a console/sony flamefest as a few people here are starting to make it seem like.
Also, I remember reading this story when it came out, it was much longer than a paragraph, and IIRC, the rioting happened at a walmart or something. Hold on… I’ll see if I can dig up the link.
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=167837
There is a slightly more indepth story about it, although with a bit of wording bias and personal opinion thrown in.
Besides, this is America, remember what it stands for! To go against a corporation is foolish and suicide. If sony gets billed, the demo*cough**cough* –terrorist win!
Question: when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series (and the preceding playoff games), were the Sox owners billed for the crowds and riots that occurred? How about the crowds that gathered all over the city when the Patriots won the Super Bowl? What about when a large political rally (say, protesting the war in Iraq) gathers? Do rally organizers have to pay for the cost of extra police coverage? I seriously doubt it.
Taxpayers (individuals, families and businesses) pay the police to be ready to handle WHATEVER happens. They don’t pay the police to only protect them during those times when everything is calm and NOTHING is happening.
If you bill Sony for the madness surrounding the PS3, then fairness dictates that you also bill the Patriots, the Sox, any organizer of political protests. And then logic dictates that you also bill extra for someone who reports a mugging, gets into a car accident, or asks a police officer for directions. Because heaven forbid that the police officers we pay for actually be required to … do the jobs we paid them to do without taxpayers paying extra money — money, I might add, that the officers involved wouldn’t even see a cent of.
Shortage
Wow, I can’t wait for the city to prove the intentional shortage accusation.
Menino is an ass who does anything possible to avoid being responsible for anything personally. He has no grasp or logic or cause and effect. He probably will bill Sony, and the idiots that like him will think it’s a great move by the pothole mayor. Typical Meninostan insanity.
yes, I’m from MA. I’ll parhk my cah in your ass.
Some one mentioned it here already; it is the governments job to keep the peace.
This sort of stuff happens, it isnt like it wasnt expected. It happened with the Xbox 360, and the Playstation 2. Hell, it even happened with Tickle me Elmo. And you know what? Didnt they make a movie about hot holiday items with Arnold Swartzenegger? — Yeah, they did.
So who is to blame? Please, the officials in Boston had to of been blind to not see this coming.
HE is just unhappy because he didn’t get one.
does this mean the PD must take watch when the newest blockbuster movie comes out? Starwars 7? what about the new release of halo 3 or the latest ATI/nvidia graphix card? elder scrolls 5?
if sony purposfully incited people to act that way, they are responsible. NO different than someone starting a riot.
however, i find that very hard to prove.
so, i don’t think sony will be charged. however, i think they knew about their product and didn’t take the steps to provide a “safe launch”
ohwell. just my 2 pence.
Re: Re:
What exactly is a “safe launch” anyway??? How is it the responsibility of a company selling a product to see that the consumers lining up to buy one act in a courteous and non-rioting manner?
Sue Sony to hell
1. I don’t think tax payer money should go to pay cops for security to support a private event like a video game premier. People pay off-duty cops and the city all the time for security for non-public events, this is no different.
2. People, learn how to read, this wasn’t just any store, it was a SONY store so it makes sense that they get the bill.
3. This is all about Sony getting some free publicity. If they wanted to avoid this they could have just made all the available consoles available for online ordering only and sold out just as fast (maybe even faster).
4. Those of you who compare this to LA riots, how silly. In that case, who do you send the bill to? LA city/county didn’t start the insurrection, the people of LA did.
5. Unlike the erroneous statements made by others above, sports franchises often do reimburse the city from damages caused by rioting AND most times pay the city to help provide security during events so why should stores be any different.
Where does the city put the tax money? The city should have an alloted budget for similar situations like this.
I think everyone involved should be help responsible..
– Any customers who got arrested should pay fines that will help offset the cost
– Any company, not just Sony, that purposely creates this kind of environment should have to contribute to any damage it may cause.
For anyone who thinks the companies that do this are innocent. Think about this, they knew this would be an incredibly popular item, yet they only released enough to average 35 per store and then they sold them at a loss. They just wanted to be the next Elmo.
You have to give them credit though. This is better advertising than they’d get with a superbowl commercial and the loss they took was probably less than that commercial would have cost.
I think everyone involved should be help responsible..
– Any customers who got arrested should pay fines that will help offset the cost
– Any company, not just Sony, that purposely creates this kind of environment should have to contribute to any damage it may cause.
For anyone who thinks the companies that do this are innocent. Think about this, they knew this would be an incredibly popular item, yet they only released enough to average 35 per store and then they sold them at a loss. They just wanted to be the next Elmo.
You have to give them credit though. This is better advertising than they’d get with a superbowl commercial and the loss they took was probably less than that commercial would have cost.
Why bill Sony?
If the people in Boston have no self control then companies should not do any more intro releases in that city.
The funny thing is...
He’s already billed the general public for the police time. It’s called taxes.
I don’t know how many damn churches, funerals, gay pride parades(never seen on of these actually) I have seen that require police security. Is he going to bill them?
Who to sue?
Just a thought .
Why not sue universal? they seem to be suing lots of companys now. why not give them a little bit of frivolousity ( if thats even a word ) LOL!! These stores pay property taxes, and all the employees pay income taxes, the mayor should sue himself for bieng an ass . Then Universal should sue the mayor for using the words ass and mayor because they probably think they own the words in some of their songs. by the way I’m playing GTA right now and cleaning my guns . anyone wanna go for a ride?
I might need a good lawyer
Anyone really know a good lawyer?
Funny
This is funny. Love the comments. Give me the bill and I’ll burn it, problem solve.
They won't pay
It’s not like the Sony store is going to pay. Why would they? The legal arguement for the city is very bad at best.
Gun Manufacturers
So, with this reasoning, might the Boston Mayor also charge the makers of firearms (rifles and handguns) for the Hospital bills and funerals and property loss for all individuals who use these products to kill, maime & destory?
I think NOT… What ever happened to making people accountable for their actions?
That started going into the toilet with the plea aggremenst and softening of sentences for those who do the crime but do not have to do the time.
Stuff a sock in the bleeding heart liberals and ACLU and then this country may get back on track to what it once was. . . . .
typical
I did a quick Google and sure enough just as I suspected the mayor Tom Menino is a democrat. How typical of him to blame business rather than the individuals actually responsible.
http://www.thatpoliticalblog.com
GROWNUPS FIGHTING OVER GAMES
its a shame that people don’t realize or care at how they are manipluated by corporations and media… and then we try to make excuses for them…and blame others for the problems that they cause. Both sony and the people rioting over a GAME are the problems. PEOPLE NEED TO GROW UP AND EXCEPT RESPONSIBLITY (COME ON 20-30 + YEAR OLD MEN/WOMEN FIGHTING OVER GAMES…WHAT IS AMERICA COMING TO!!!!!
Re: GROWNUPS FIGHTING OVER GAMES
Why is Sony responsible? That makes no sense at all.
To all the morons above...
If you think that anyone other than those who actually committed criminal offenses are responsible for this, then you are…well, my subject notes that.
False shortage or not (and that is no crime), Sony in no way told people to go crazy and be anti-social. Each individual made a choice. Be it to stand in line peacefully, rob/attack people standing in lines, or anything of the sort.
Does Sony have a new mind control device that I don’t know about? Oh wait, how would I know? We’ve all been implanted, the end is near.
Boston Mayor
Sounds like another liberal punk mayor trying to talk big when he knows nothing will happen. Later
yeah, the democrats blame business for public acts
while the republicans blame people for the actions of businesses. it all works the same. if a does something, it’s b’s fault.
for every dumb thing a deomcrat does, there’s a republican behind him doing something just as stupid.
here’s one, let’s not tax large business or right people, because they are rich, they will employ people, who will give the gov’t money in the “poor peoples” taxes. or lets not tax the rich, because they pay too much, and they are better off “investing” so corporations will grow, and pay employees more. no need for minimum wage.
NO NEED FOR MINIMUM WAGE? then, why do business send jobs overseas? because they get cheap labor. if there is no minimum wage, who’s to say big corporations won’t pay less than a dollar a day for wages? i know mcdondalds loves to cut costs, so i wouldn’t put it past them to pay as little asthey had to.
so it goes both ways.
Sheer Madness
This entire “consumer rage” could have been avoided with simple pre-payment procedures. However Sony, preferred to benefit from the “free” advertisement of people acting like a bunch of neanderthals. Business are responsible for the riots they incite – it’s that simple really.
SonyStyle is should have known
Sony should have known that there would be a lot of people on their release date.
Knowing that, then they should provide enough security, plain and simple.
The police are right in billing sony. This event is beyond norms and goes beyond the regular responsibility of police.
Childish
Just shows we live in a crazy world. People camping out for days, trampeling over each other just for a game machine. So the person who got one can act childish and say, I Got One Before You..I Got One Before You!! It’s no wonder the world is going to hell. Sony may not be responsible for people’s actions but they sure contributed to it. Sony knew what would happen if they only supplied stores with 3 – 6 Playstations. In the court of law, Sony could be held liable for indifference.
Personal Responsibility
You’ve got to be kidding? I can’t believe how many people think it’s okay to send the bill to anyone but the people who got unruly. So much for personal responsibility for your actions.
If anyone should foot the bill, it should be the people who required crowd control. Allowing the blame to fall anywhere else only propagates our litigious mindset.
#64 - you got it. THAT is the answer.
People need to be held RESPONSIBLE for their actions because, eventually, there will be nothing else left to blame if we keep blaming everyone BUT our own selves!
The American Way
Blame someone else (preferably someone with money) for your problems… It’s the American way.