MIGS06/Arcadia: No PS3 love for Montreal
by Scott Jon Siegel 
{ Nov 15th 2006 at 9:45AM }
Last week, Montreal was the place to be for video games, between the industry-oriented Montreal International Game Summit, and the consumer-oriented Arcadia Festival. Both events featured show floors, allowing attendees to try out all the latest consoles and games ... except for the PS3, that is.Despite the strong presences of both the Wii and the Xbox 360, Sony failed to make the Playstation 3 available to play at either of the major Montreal events this past week, raising some interesting questions about Sony's dedication to the Canadian market.
François Décarie, event promoter for the Arcadia Festival, cites delays of the console in the European market as reason for Sony failing to commit PS3s to the events, as well as the company's general shortage of launch units.
In a brief interview with Joystiq last week, he remarked "You know, in Europe it's been delayed until March or something like that. We've talked with [Sony], but with the uncertainty of when they're coming out in the market, it was difficult for them to commit ... Not only that, they were talking about 2 million units, now apparently they're not getting the 2 million units for Japan and North America, meaning that you would have how many for North America? A million? And you make the equation, and you come down to say, well, how many available in Canada for them? And it was a bit of a risk for them to come here. And we understand, and we respect this."
M. Décarie remains optimistic that Sony will be present at the 2007 Arcadia Festival: "Next year, we're pretty sure that once they get everything together they'll come back to the festival. They were here last year. So, I guess this year for them it was a difficult year to commit."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DiahrreaMan @ Nov 15th 2006 9:53AM
First post?
Society is begining to feel the hit from Sony's blunders...wonder if they can redeem themselves.
Hakobus @ Nov 15th 2006 10:20AM
Interestingly, there were 4 playable PS3s at Digiexpo in Finland earlier this month.
dotmadhack @ Nov 15th 2006 10:39AM
Sony keeps making these little mistakes here and there. With losing rumble, that dual shake Wii-mote knockoff, lack of units, delayed date for Europe, PS3 backwards compadability problems, now people are questioning if Sony has an intrest in the Canadian market. I wonder if people will eventually grow tired of Sony and look elsewhere for what they want.
ELiteGamer @ Nov 15th 2006 11:17AM
Dumb move on ps3 to isolate a country that has a very strong purchasing power
ackmondual @ Nov 15th 2006 11:04AM
So far, all these issues mentioned in #3 are minor, but they could certainly add up to become major.
Conjure the forumula....
how many minor issues == a rootkit fiasco?
In a way, the US release date for the PS3 is also gonna be in March... for the rest of us. I'm guessing that's about how long it'll take for supply to become more ample here. By then, the manufacturing process should als be improved to churn out more PS3's from the assembly-line
Simon @ Nov 15th 2006 11:32AM
Not to come across as a huge Sony-hater, but to me, the lack of PS3 was actually a good thing. It gave gamers the chance to try the Wii hands-on and be a little more open-minded to what it might offer.
Todd @ Nov 15th 2006 12:24PM
Sony hates Canada. So let's see, Sony has alienated all of Europe and Canada. What about South America?
Pierce @ Nov 15th 2006 1:05PM
another brilliant move on sonys part.
i mean whats the point of getting people excited about a system when the stores only getting 2 units? just dissapointment ...only makes sense to support the xbox and the wii in this fashion. clearly sony isnt in this to make money.
Play Beyond ..what they really mean is buy another system cause we dont want your business.
Some_Guy @ Nov 15th 2006 4:58PM
That was a stupid move by sony, im not 100% sure but doesnt EA have a big studio in montreal and so does Ubisoft. In fact I think Ubisoft's montreal office was responsibly for creating the Prince of Persia series and also the Splinter Cell series, can anyone back me up?
If i was in charge over there, I'd tell sony to screw off for next years festival, give them a 1 year ban.
Daniel @ Nov 16th 2006 2:23AM
SOme_guy: Ubisoft Montreal is actually where the company's main office is situated and they are indeed responsible for making those games you mentionned including the forthcoming Rainbow Six: Vegas.