Sony has completed the first part of its truncated PS3 roll-out with a chaotic Japanese launch on Saturday. With barely 100,000 units making it onto the shelves (80,000 if you believe most reports), the phrase 'onto the shelves' is something of a misnomer: most machines were pre-ordered months ago, the rest sliding straight into the sweaty hands of gamers who'd queued all night for the privilege.
UK videogame magazine PSM3 sent reporter Joel Snape to stand in line at the AsoBit store in Akihabara and blog on the experience. Apparently, there was a friendly and ordered atmosphere - some gamers bought food for their fellow queue inhabitants - home-baked cookies were being passed round at two in the morning. Joel tells me he even felt safe enough to grab half an hour's sleep - with £800 in his pocket and his respectable second place in the queue up for grabs.
Elsewhere, scuffles were reported outside some shops - especially where people in the queue were unsure of whether they'd been allocated a 20 or 60GB package. According to a Business Week article, several stores were unsure of how many machines would actually turn up in Sony's delivery trucks, heightening the tension yet further. Meanwhile, the BBC reports on how a few less committed gamers were paying homeless people to queue for them. Although Joel saw this happening in his queue he was unsure about how successful the tactic was - "they were all gone in the morning, I think maybe the shop staff moved them on..."
In the end, apparently only five launch titles were available: Resistance: Fall of Man, Ridge Racer 7, Sega Golf Club, Gundam: Target in Sight and Genji: Days of the Blade. While native gamers were favouring Gundam, the many western gamers in the queues were snapping up copies of Ridge and Resistance.
Almost immediately, units began appearing back in shop windows and on auction sites at vastly inflated price points. If you're thinking of cashing in at the forthcoming US launch, queues have already started forming so you'd best book your flight sharpish...
Joel's PS3 blog, together with photos and video, can be viewed on the PSM3 website.
