I should be more excited. After all, a new game console only comes around one every six years or so. But I can't help but be depressed. I suppose I should have expected a certain level of chaos ad violence around the launch of the PlayStation 3 here in the U.S. I just didn't anticipate we'd be reporting on drive-by shootings and men with ski masks shooting people in line for the new game console.

I was dismayed to hear about the violence that had taken place Thursday night across the country. One person was shot outside of a Wal-Mart in Connecticut by two armed men (no word on the victim's condition); two other gunmen robbed a GameStop in Elk Grove, Calif. Two more people were robbed in a PS3 line at a Circuit City in Springfield, Oregon. Over the weekend, more reports trickled in about various muggings, beatings, stabbings and riots across the nation.

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Who's to blame for this? Is it over-eager gamers? I tend to think not. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that most of the jerks pulling the robberies and muggings are petty crooks looking to make a quick buck off of selling the PS3 on eBay or something. We can accuse some hardcore PlayStation fans for being a little overzealous, I suppose, and getting a little pushy and unruly in line. And we can point fingers at people who rioted in some of the retails stores, of course.

But what about Sony? Surely it bears some responsibility in all of this. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino certainly thinks so. An incensed Menino called out Sony and blamed the company for the outbreak of rioting and violence last week in my old stomping ground of Boston. Hundreds of people rushed the Sony Style store at Copley Plaza and Best Buy near Fenway Park. The mayor even declared that he would bill Sony directly for damages and city services related to the PS3 crowds. "It's something that should not be tolerated. It's wrong to take advantage of the public that way, wrong by the manufacturer and by the retailer," Menino said in The Boston Herald Saturday. Meanwhile, a Sony spokesperson said the company didn't foresee the chaos and violence around the PS3 launch.

I have to agree with Menino on this one. It's outrageous to suggest that Sony, which had created two previous PlayStations that each sold more than 100 million units worldwide, had no frame of reference that could prepare them for this event. Let's be honest: there's no way Sony can say that it didn't know this stuff was going to happen. The anticipation and hype surrounding the PS2 should have sufficiently prepared them to handle the crowds and hysteria around its long-awaited sequel. But apparently after six years, Sony either forgot what it had learned from its prior experiences or simply didn't care. I sincerely hope it was the former rather than the latter.

Okay, so what should Sony have done, you ask? After all, isn't it the job of the individual retailers and local authorities to handle the crowds? Yes, of course. But this is Sony's party, and the company should have devised a nationwide policy for every store selling a PS3 on November 17, whether its doors opened at midnight or 8 a.m. Sony should have taken the lead on this because it knows better than anyone how fanatical gamers are and how high expectations are for the PS3.

Policies on how lines were being formed and managed, for example, varied from retailer to retailer and even store to store. At several Best Buy locations, for example, eager fans organized lines and created roll calls lists with each person's name, only to have Best Buy employees tell them that their lists would not be honoured by the store. And most infamously, a Wal-Mart in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that decided it would incite a melee by having a musical chairs-like contest with dozens of desperate shoppers.

Sony should have constructed a simple policy for forming and managing lines at retail locations; the company should have demanded a stronger presence from store security and local police, for example. And you'd be amazed how helpful an official roll call list and a hundred yards of velvet rope can be in maintaining order. If the stores were unwilling to play ball, then Sony should have taken a line from the Soup Nazi and yelled "No PS3 for you!"

Yes, the retailers are at fault for a lot of this. But Sony is the captain of the ship, and I expected more from the company that a lazy, hands-off approach to such a major event. And quite frankly, to have Sony feign ignorance on this ordeal is insulting.