Daddy, why are those people camping on the sidewalk?

Last night our family went out to buy the kids some new shoes.  As we were leaving the store my oldest son pointed to the group of people gathered outside the store in sleeping bags and blankets, huddled around laptops, televisions and game consoles.  At first, the site just didn't make sense; these people obviously weren't homeless with all of these electronics.  But then we noticed the sign, "PS3 Line Starts here ->" and it  all made sense.  Well, no, it didn't make sense, but at least it was a little less confusing than before.

I may be getting a little long in the tooth, but I don't think this sort of action would have made sense to me even when I was a teenager.  What is it about a gaming console that makes it worth sitting in front of a store all night hoping that you will be one of the lucky few to get the box?  There's hardly even any games for the  PS3 yet, so it's not like these people can go home and start playing  their new games.  I assume the PS3 will play PS2 games, but I honestly haven't kept up with it's design the last 6 months or so.

I can only really assume that there are two reasons for sitting out all night for this console: the bragging rights to say you were one of the first to have the PS3 and to turn around and sell the box onEbay that day for a couple of hundred dollars more than you bought it for.  Maybe it's worth it to some people to have those bragging rights, but I think this sort of fame would be very fleeting as the consoles start becoming more and moreaccessible to everyone.  I can understand making a couple of hundred dollars by auctioning off the box, but if you can't make money in a more efficient way than this, you've got bigger problems.

Are the console companies artificially making these boxes scarce to increase the public demand or have we become such a culture of immediacy that people can't wait the few weeks or months it's going to take for these systems to reach greater distribution?  Of course, the answer really isn't A or B, it's a feedback loop between A and B; the console companies create the demand, people buy into the hype, which creates more demand.  I won't be surprised if we we hear of riots or shootings in some of these lines.

Where's 'Tickle Me Elmo' when you need him?