While I was at this year’s Eurogamer Expo, some people were injured with broken shins because they were giving out…
While I was at this year’s Eurogamer Expo, some people were injured with broken shins because they were giving out free Call of Duty Ghosts Prestige Editions at the Call of Duty booth. However, that might pale in comparison when compared to the PlayStation 4’s EU launch. In various retailers in France and Germany, it had people — who didn’t pre-order — diving under security gates like Indiana Jones and scrambling like mad just to be able to snare one.
Apparently queuing or giving stubs/tickets so people can fall in line and wait their turn isn’t something often done in these stores.
These videos from NeoGAF gave us chills, most places either gave out numbers or had security line them up and slowly walk them into the shop, but nope, not these retailers.
First up, this video from retailer Auchan, in France. Another from the same retailer in France — Go check the Facebook videos now to witness how wild some people are when it comes to consoles.
Here’s one from Media Markt in Germany:
If that’s not enough, here’s a .gif of a German electronics store being raided by what looks to be people running away from a zombie horde or something.We’re not done just yet, more and more people have been recounting their tale of not being able to get a PS4 and what’s the atmosphere like. We’ve compiled some of the posts in NeoGAF to give you an idea what people in EU are going through right now.
From user DrM:
Here is the story from Graz, Austria from one of our forums: People lined up at 2 am– They let them in front of the store at 5 am, crowd very calm and waiting in a nice line– When store opened at 9 am, security guards just moved aside and over 120 people rushed into the store– rushing mass overtuned several shelves, throwing goods (laptops, PS3s..) on the floor– fights erupted when they grabbed all consoles and security guards had to step in
Another NeoGAF member, Binabik15 adds:
So I was in a small games store in Tübingen, German, which has rouhly 40% university students in its demographic.I just wanted to SEE a PS4 for the first time, not even buy it.
No chance. Not even a demo unit.
The cashier was on the phone, probably placating a would be customer.
He first complained how someone could be so stupid and go “Oh, we didn’t think so many people want it” and went on to tell the person on the other end that it’s “like Porsche deciding to release a 911e model for 5000€ and then going ‘Oh, we couldn’t have posdibly known that one million Gemans want it’”. He the said “the console could have been 600€ and still would have sold every one of them”.
I smiled, accepted the fact that I won’t get to see a PS4 today and left. Should I have waited and asked him if he was talking about Xbone?
It seems some people have to wait as late as February next year to get their hands on Sony’s new console (from NeoGAF user Markimark89):
Well that was indeed something….Was at a media markt in germany. There must have been like 50 people waiting for the store to open. Some minutes before the store opened one of the female clerks came with a tablet and filmed the whole rush to the gaming corner XD
But in the end it was a waste of time… even though one of the clerks told me beforehand that there are some ps 4s for non preorders, when everyone rushed to the gamecorner the guys told us that they only have enough for the preorders….
Damn… even though the ps 4 was not for me i’m kinda pissed …
Looks like my friend has to wait until february too.XD
But it’s not all doom-and-gloom though, some people did manage to nab a PS4 even without a preorder! On a happy note, Georgiee85 gives his tale:
“PS4 GET!Thanks argos! Big queue outside and they had to turn a lot of people away as all stock was reserved from 6am.Today is a good day :)”
Did you manage to get a PS4? If so, how was the process? We’re hoping it’s nowhere near as unruly as the ones above.