A few hours to go
In a few hours the long-awaited Playstation 3 will finally hit the European markets. It is amazing how such a product release is turned into a massive event. In France, for instance, MTV Group has announced that it will provide a 24-hour nationwide coverage through its MTV and GameOne channels.
In fact, Playstation with its tremendous market penetration has become more than a product. It is now a trans-generational, transnational totem with faithful crowds all around the planet. Instead of a late night prayer to prepare their spirit for the next day match as you can see in some old reportage, nowadays pro footballers prefer to meet around their electronic altar to reiterate their performance on the digital fields. And this altar is branded with a P and a S (although it has nothing to do with Dan Brown's Priory of Scion).
But recently the other schism, the Nintendoism, has reshuffled the gamers' religion with its Wii (Funny enough, in French men use their "little Jesus" to wee, so my religious metaphor seems to have deeper roots than it seems).
Video worshipers
The Wii has indeed outsold the PS3 wherever the later was available. So I am looking forward to seeing if the PS3 will manage to create the same enthusiasm as its predecessors. I still have a vivid image of news reports showing massive queues and crowds fighting to get their device for the previous releases.
To a certain extend this TV commercial was just a repeat of the real life events:
But we are now just a few hours away from the first sales, the first market response, the moment of truth... I can picture the Sony marketing team sitting in its boardroom, holding hands, praying for the success of their marketing efforts. Would they be crucified shall they fail?
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