Their long wait almost over, hundreds of PlayStation 3 fans queued up in the chilly Tokyo night in the hope of getting their hands on one of Sony's hotly awaited new consoles at Saturday's launch.
From boys in baggy pants to middle-aged businessmen and even some grey-haired seniors, about one thousand people were already waiting in line by midnight outside an electronics retailer in the Shinjuku skyscraper district.
Playing handheld PlayStations Portables, browsing manga comics or having a snooze, they sat waiting patiently for the store to open at 7.00 am.
First in line was 22-year-old hair designer Todoroki Hirotaka and his friend Xu Minrui, a 23-year-old student, who both arrived at 6.00 pm on Friday.
"I love the PlayStation," said Xu. "It's a bit expensive but I'm going to buy it anyway. The games are the best," he said.
Further back in the queue, salaryman Ken, 32, told how he had played the PlayStation 3 at a game show and decided he had to have one.
"The graphics are spectacular," he said, "A lot different from the other PlayStations."
Sony Computer Entertainment only shipped 100,000 PS3 consoles for the launch in Japan and there was little doubt they would quickly sell out.
A bigger challenge could be in North America, where Sony will ship 400,000 PS3s for the debut there on November 17.
The success of the console is considered vital to a revival at Sony, which is in the midst of major restructuring including 10,000 job cuts under its first foreign chief executive, the Welsh-American Howard Stringer.
Sony last month slashed its operating profit forecast for this fiscal year by 62 percent to 50 billion yen (423 million dollars) because of recalls of millions of its defective batteries and swelling costs related to the PS3.
It now expects its game division to make a loss of about 200 billion yen this fiscal year after it cut the price of the PS3 in Japan by one-fifth over complaints it was too expensive.
Even so, at 49,980 yen (423 dollars) for the standard 20-gigabyte hard disc, the PS3 is still almost twice the price of the Microsoft's cheapest Xbox 360 at 29,800 yen, and Nintendo's Wii which launches in December at 25,000 yen.
"There's lot riding on it for Sony right now," said Standard and Poor's equity analyst John Yang.
"Sony's expecting the games division to post a profit in the next fiscal year but in our view that seems aggressive.
"The reason the PS3 is crucial for Sony is that it could serve as a real platform that brings hardware and software together, like Apple's iPod. If the PS3 fails, I think markets are going to start questioning Sony's credibility in the next few years," he added.
Sony was forced to delay the global launch of the PS3 by about six months due to problems with the high-definition DVD player, giving the Xbox 360 a one-year head start.
The company pushed back the rollout again until March 2007 in Europe as it grapples with production problems that mean many Japanese fans are also likely to go home empty-handed.
Despite the delay, Sony has maintained its forecast to ship six million PS3s worldwide by March 2007 -- a target some analysts fear will be hard to hit.
Sony has long dominated the home video-game market and shipments of the original version and the PlayStation 2 have both topped 100 million each.
But if the struggling electronics giant is to repeat that success with the PS3, it must also convince the average gamer to part with their hard-earned cash, analysts say.
"In order for PS3 to experience that kind of explosive growth that the PS2 had, Sony needs to convince the market that it is a home appliance," said Yang.
"I think they will have to substantially lower the current selling price to about 250 dollars or even lower and try to convince the market it's not only a game (machine) but also a good DVD recorder with Blu-ray technology.
"But it's a Catch-22 situation, because if they cut the price of the PS3 they're going to increase the losses in their game division," Yang said.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/061110/1/44q0i.html
Hundreds of Japanese gamers camp out for new PlayStation 3 
Just that don't have the *kaching*! currently... :cry3:
Linear Mode
