Instead of buying a PS3...

If you're thinking of getting one of your kids a PS3 for the holiday season maybe you should think of presenting them with a few other options that will run about the same price.

Things you could do instead of buying a PS3:
- Fly to London (and get a cheap hotel room)
- Pay your rent for a month
- Buy 300 big macs
- Buy 4 Nintendo DS lite's
- Buy 3000 bandages
- Order 60 Large cheese pizza's
- Buy 250 gallons of gas
- Get a laptop
- Get some books from the library and return them really, REALLY late
- Buy 4 Ipod Nanos
- Buy a 1988 Mazda 323
- Pick up 3 flat panel monitors
- Buy 15 shares of Sony Corp (judging from PS3 sales I would NOT recommend this)
- Take a skydiving course and do 4 jumps
- Hire a personal trainer and have 17 sessions at the gym
- Pay for two months worth of groceries
- Buy 30 years worth of toothpaste
- Buy 210.8 gallons of soda
- Pick up 225 pounds of tuna (canned)
- Buy a 360 AND a Wii (and a couple of games)

Or...you could do the right thing:

Provide food, shelter, and clothing for two children for AN ENTIRE YEAR and still have $150 left over for something nice for yourself.

In North America alone, about 200 000 PS3's have been sold. That's 400 000 children fed, clothed and sheltered for an entire year. Maybe we should all take a break from video games and put our money to some real use this holiday season.

Sony sales figures; More PS3s coming by airfreight

Buoyed by the sales of their, now officially, last-gen console, the PS2, and the PSP handheld, Sony PR man Dave Karraker reports that week-over-week sales of PS2 hardware rose by 116.5%, and PSP hardware rose a whopping 280.5% at the top 5 North American retailers for the period ending November 26th.

For those of us who already have a PSP, or no longer give a hoot about the last-gen, Sony adds, "[We've] been airlifting additional shipments of PlayStation 3 systems into the North American market since the launch on November 17. We were able to get a fresh supply of PS3s in the hands of retailers prior to Black Friday, along with games and peripherals.

"We will continue to utilize airfreight delivery for the PlayStation 3 to assure a steady stream of systems for North American consumers through the end of the year. Our goal remains to have one million units in the pipeline by December 31, 2006."

As if you didn't know already, Sony also stated that they sold every PS3 shipped to America in the past week.

It should be comforting to know that, for now, SCEA can still make a buck somewhere because we know they're really hurtin' with every PlayStation 3 they make and sell.

[Gamasutra]