DUBAI, 28 November 2006 — At the Sony Hall during GITEX, more than 5,000 people were ushered into one of four dedicated booths and allowed a first look at the PlayStation3 (PS3). A full overview of the product was given to the visitors including gaming demos, Blu-ray movie previews, music and photo slide shows as well a glimpse of some future online features.
The PS3 “peek” was created because Sony Gulf had planned to showcase the gaming console at GITEX. When the delay of the product was announced, Sony had to come up with a strategy to capitalize on the PS3 without actually having the console in hand. The PS3 preview was the company’s ploy to keep excitement high in the market and allow local gamers to feel as if their best interests were being served. Truth be told, Sony is attempting to rake in as many dollars as possible from the holiday season in the highly competitive North American market. Sony is also concerned that many gamers and traders will simply abandon Sony’s local channels and buy the PS3 wherever they can.
“In addition to highlighting why this is such an exceptional product, we also communicated a key underlying message to visitors,” said Tim Stokes, Sales and Marketing Director, PlayStation Division (Sony Gulf), “that was that there are plenty of good reasons for customers to wait until PlayStation 3’s official arrival next March and not be tempted to buy a gray import.”
Stokes pointed out reasons such as the absence of local warranties, the incompatibility of Blu-ray movies available in this region, high cost, plus the fact that unofficially imported PS3’s will not have been submitted for safety and compliance testing by the local telecommunications regulation authorities. Even worse, unofficially imported machines will not have access to the PlayStation Network.
Yes, that’s right, Sony plans to hit back at those individuals who are desperately committed to its console. These gamers are willing to spend extra money by either buying the machines abroad or purchasing them from local traders who are charging exorbitant prices. Sony will penalize these game crazy individuals by making it so that their “gray” PS3 machines will not have a warranty and they will not be able to play online or download content through the PlayStation Network.
“To register a PS3 online requires a mailing address. For a machine purchased in the US, a US mailing address would be required for the online registration,” Stokes said. “This means that a US machine purchased on the gray market in the Kingdom cannot be registered with a Saudi postal address. In fact, PlayStation Network content will not be available to users registering from Saudi Arabia until the official product launch in that market.”
Stokes also advised that for individuals wanting to use their machines as Bu-ray players, all PS3s are currently only able to play Blu-ray movies from Zone A/1 North America, Central America, South America, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Saudi Arabia has been lumped in Blu-ray Zone B/2 with Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In a nasty twist that will affect many expatriates in the Kingdom, China, Russia, Central and South Asia have been designated Zone C/3.
Sony claims that potential customers are not deterred by a few months additional wait for the PS3, but that’s not the thought that was expressed by many gamers at GITEX.
“It’s our own fault,” said 20-year-old Hadi Marzouk, a student working on a degree in Computer Science at a Dubai university. “We learned to love PlayStation and the company helped us by making the machines easy to chip. This allowed us to play many games we couldn’t have played otherwise. Now they are cracking down and the market belongs to them, so they can do what they want. Nintendo hardly has a presence and the Xbox 360 has no distribution in the region. This is what happens when there is no competition and people don’t develop resources locally.”
His friend Adel Shuaib, also a university student, added: “Sony can try to do what it wants but when companies put forward restrictive policies, this challenges people, especially IT-enabled people, to overcome those policies. In the Middle East, where there are already so many people telling young people what to do, the last thing we need is a company that profits from our business placing restrictions on us.”
