Hot video game briefly in stock at local store

By GWEN ALBERS Western News Reporter

In a town where no secrets are sacred one was kept.

Libby's Pamida avoided the mayhem experienced nationwide with Friday's release of the PlayStation3. That's because it's believed that no one knew Pamida had two of the video games in stock.

"I don't think (anyone) expected for us to get them in," said Melissa Cichosz, community relations specialist for the Highway 2 West store. "I thought we would've had a bigger rush on them."

Word eventually did get around town. By mid-afternoon Friday both games had sold for $599.99 each, Cichosz said. She wasn't working at the time and is not sure who purchased them.

After about six months of delays, 400,000 PS3s were sent to the United States for release Friday. The number far outweighed the demand for the much-anticipated console.

There were reports of sporadic violence across the United States and Canada, where people waited in line for days to snap up one of the consoles. The most serious reported incident happened in Putnam, Conn., where a man was shot while waiting for the console to go on sale. The man apparently confronted two armed men who were trying to rob those in line, according to news reports.

And in La Palma, Calif., police said a man who thought he was meeting with two buyers after advertising online to sell two PlayStation3 videogame consoles, was attacked and robbed. One of the two sprayed the victim with pepper spray then the pair fled on foot with the consoles.

The victim had advertised the consoles on craigslist, a popular Web site, and was attempting to sell both for $5,000.

At Pamida in Libby, no one camped in the parking lot and no one stood outside the doors when the store opened at 9 a.m., Cichosz said. No one seemed to know they were available.

"We didn't know we were getting them until a week ahead of time," she said.

The local store received numerous inquiries. Cichosz suspects they were not from Libby folks.

"They wanted to know if we had them and if they could do charges over the phone so we could mail them, but we don't do that," she said.

"It's nuts," Cichosz continued. "Some were outside (elsewhere) for weeks for a video game that's only supposedly has a couple of games to go with it and can only be used on high-definition TVs."

March would be the earliest Pamida expects to receive more of the PlayStation3s, she said.

The PlayStation3 is 200 times faster than the current PlayStation2, according to a Web site about product information. Its Blu-ray discs can hold up to six times as much data as current-generation DVDs. The PlayStation 3 includes video chat, Internet access, digital photo viewing, and digital audio and video.