As you read this Japanese gamers will be ripping open their new PS3 console, putting on soft white gloves to avoid finger prints, and placing it next to their high definition TVs. Yes, that's right, being in the rest of the world sucks right now, because the PS3 has officially launched.
Gamespot has posted pictures of last nights escapades with queues of eager gamers hoping to snag one of the few PS3 consoles on sale. Gamespot wrote: "The first place GameSpot checked out was the Shinjuku Yodobashi Camera store, where back in 2004 Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi showed up to celebrate the official launch of Sony's first foray into the portable gaming market, the PlayStation Portable. Though one would expect to see a line of gamers forming as early as 4 or 5 p.m., security guards were constantly breaking up any groups of people, telling them that they were not allowed to loiter during business hours as it creates problems for neighboring stores. But as time passed into late evening, crowds nonetheless began to gather around the store, and by 8 p.m., the mass eventually grew to over 300 people. Approximately an hour later, Yodobashi staff began directing the crowds into an orderly line, and were expected to start giving out numbered tickets for rights to a PlayStation 3."
News source: Gamespot
"A similar scene was spotted at the Akihabara Yodobashi Camera store, but in a larger scale. At 9 p.m., the store was already teeming with more than 600 people. Although the store staff was not ordering people to create an orderly line, customers took the duty into their own hands and were already lined up around the block waiting for the store to open--the line was organized into orderly rows of two people side by side. Here, there were a considerable number of homeless people lining up as well. Most likely, they are being hired by scalpers to pick up PS3 units."
Check back throughout the weekend for initial reactions to the PS3 launch, and any reports of overheating, short supplies and dead consoles that plagued the 360 launch.
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