Game on!
Sony’s PlayStation 4 launched on Friday — a week before Microsoft unveils its rival Xbox One — and was gobbled up by mobs of crazed customers.
Brooklynite Joey Chui, 24, was first in line for Sony’s official bash in lower Manhattan — he queued up Wednesday, waiting more than 24 hours to get his mitts on the new machine.
The long wait may really pay off. At xCubicle, a video game shop on Essex Street, co-founder Patrick Chen, 30, said he’ll sell his stock of PS4s at a sweet markup over the $399 list price to customers in countries where the device won’t be available for weeks or months.
“It just doesn’t make sense for us to sell it here,” said Chen, 30. “We would rather sell it . . . for someone that really wants it and is willing to pay a premium.”
The PS4 definitely cranks out richer, sharper video than ever, he said. But it will meet its match next week.
The $100-pricier Xbox One is bigger and comes with a high-tech motion sensor, Kinect, that lets gamers use their whole bodies in play. Xbox One, with voice recognition, will also start up quickly from sleep mode with a simple spoken command.
Chen and his colleagues dismantled a PS4 to see how it looks under the hood alongside its beloved predecessor — the still hugely popular PS3, with 80 million units sold
“It’s basically a PlayStation 3 that can’t play PlayStation 3 games,” he snarked. And he’s not anxious to spend a fortune on mandatory PS4 updates for games that still play great on the PS3. He called the pricey upgrade routine “a little ridiculous.”
It’s also a bit of a gamble. While store lines were long and eBay bids already climbing for the PS4, scattered complaints about defective machines appeared in trade publications and on Internet forums.
“My PS4 is BRICKED out of the box!!!” a Reddit user, “ill1cit_28,” howled to his fellow gamers.
Forbes reported that some PS4s had shipped with bent prongs on their backside plug-in ports, but Sony said the problem is “isolated” to a “handful” of consumers.”