Over 15 Martin gamers were waiting for only four Playstation 3s which launched last Friday at 12:01 a.m.

“We gave them 20 seats for people who waited Playstation 3, and they waited for two days”, Wal-Mart worker said.

Similar situations occurred across the country: there were not nearly enough Playstation3s available for people who want to buy them on its launch date. ABC news reported that only 400,000 devices launched on Nov.17 in North America. This supply and demand problem has run the price of a Playstation 3 high at eBay, mimicking the prices some its users paid for an Xbox 360 during its initial release period.

On eBay.com, the PS3’s price is currently running from $750 to close to $2,000, four times the shelf price at stores. It is important to note that the actual price depends on the capacity of the hard drive: the gaming console comes with either a 20 GB hard drive for $499 or a 60 GB hard drive is $599.

One UTM student said, “I wanted to buy a Playstation 3 for selling on eBay so I could make a big profit. However, people waited for days prior to the launching day [to get the console]. So, I quit.” The U.S and Canada had some cases of violence among people waiting in line to buy a PS3. The worst violence happened at Putnam, Connecticut, where a 21-year-old man was shot in the chest early Friday morning. He was standing in line with 20 people at the Putnam Wal-Mart.