Tampabay: The game is at hand

The game is at hand

By NATALIE BAUGHMAN

ST. PETERSBURG -- Ben Kaplan said he would do just about anything to get a Sony PlayStation 2, the new video game console that became available nationwide on Thursday.

So Kaplan and three friends spent Wednesday night camping outside Best Buy in St. Petersburg to buy the $299 device before the store sold out.

"I'm just crazy about that type of thing," said Kaplan, 25, who waited for 13 hours to buy his PlayStation 2. "When I got home and tried it out, I realized it was 100 percent worth it."

Around Tampa Bay, like the rest of the nation, the story was the same as the Sony Corp. released 500,000 PlayStation 2s to 20,000 retailers in the United States. The corporation launched only half the number originally planned, creating a classic situation of not enough supply to serve the demand.

The PlayStation 2 can be used to play video games, watch DVDs or listen to CDs. By spring 2001, a broadband connection will be established that will enable owners to access the Internet.

Shoppers around the Tampa Bay area formed lines outside local electronics stores as early as 8 a.m. Wednesday. Many flocked to stores like Wal-Mart, which are open 24 hours, so they could buy their PlayStations at midnight Wednesday. If a 24-hour store sold out, customers would move on to another that opened later in the day.

Almost 100 people spent the night outside a Target store in Tampa, but only 45 PlayStations were available. The case was the same at Tampa's Circuit City: Dozens of people gathered outside the doors at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, only to find that there were just 16 PlayStations available, said customer service representative Dina Iskander.

At the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Spring Hill, Hernando County, hopeful buyers began lining up at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday. The store received 33 units. All were sold within minutes after midnight, co-manager Greg Larson said.

Hundreds also flocked to a Wal-Mart in Inverness in Citrus County early in the day Wednesday, but the store had only 18 PlayStations in stock, said assistant manager Suzy Fields.

For Kaplan's group of friends in St. Petersburg, the wait to get a PlayStation wasn't grueling; it was a party. They brought a reclining chair, a couple of cold drinks and even hooked up an original PlayStation to their car battery so they could play video games all night long.

Kaplan was one of 94 people to buy a PlayStation 2 at Best Buy, said employee Dan Levy. About 125 people spent the night at the store, hoping they would be among the few to take home the coveted video display terminal.

Brandon Webb took the morning off from work Thursday to buy his PlayStation 2. He waited outside Sears Roebuck and Co. in St. Petersburg from 7:30 to 10 a.m. Thursday but didn't get one of the 15 in stock.

"It's absolutely ridiculous that I didn't get one," said Webb, 20. "I was the first one in line, and I was told they would be sold on a first-come, first-served basis."

But Sears had decided to use a lottery system the night before, said manager John Bond, because store employees thought it would be difficult to tell who arrived first. Store employees handed out tickets to customers at 10 a.m. They drew the winners 15 minutes later.

Jackie Kanner has known since last summer that she wanted to buy the PlayStation 2 for her 13-year-old son, but she said she didn't want to spend any time waiting in line. She ordered the device through Babbage's in St. Petersburg instead.

"Ordering ahead of time was definitely the way to go," Kanner said. "It's crazy that people stayed up all night to get these things."

Sony has blamed its PlayStation production problems on difficulties in producing an advanced graphic chip designed to generate advanced video effects for its new game machine. The company has been criticized for its insistence on making the chip itself at a Japanese factory, rather than farming out the work to a more experienced chip maker.

The company plans to release 3-million PlayStations by the end of March, keeping them on track with their production goal for the fiscal year.

- Information from Times staff writer Mike Konrad and from Times wires was used in this report.