The videogame wars heated up yet again this weekend, when Sony Corp. launched its PlayStation 3 console in Japan. Japanese gamers stood in line for hours Saturday for a chance to buy one of the 100,000 PS3 consoles offered by Sony, according to an article by People’s Daily Online and other news reports. It was the first launch of what is projected to be a global sellout.
The people lined up for several hours around Bic Camera, an electronics retailer in downtown Tokyo, but the consoles sold out even before the store opened at 7 a.m., and would-be buyers were turned away from the store, People’s Daily Online reported.
Because of production setbacks, Sony only produced a limited number of PS3 machines to launch in Japan. The company plans to have about 400,000 consoles for sale in the United States on Nov. 17. The sales date has been pushed back in Europe until March.
Sony competes head to head with Microsoft Corp., developer of the Xbox 360, which is already on the market, and Nintendo Co., which is about to launch its latest console, the Wii, on Nov. 19 in the United States and on Dec. 2 in Japan.
In October, the Japanese site of Amazon.com received advance orders for its entire first lot of game consoles in 18 minutes, MarketWatch.com reported — Cheryl Meyer
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