PS3 Japan launch (the queues..)

LookingFor

So..er..yeah - the PS3 launches in Japan officially in a few hours.



People have been lining up since Friday afternoon (Japanese time), and some of the queues are getting crazy long.

Check some of these vids out:

Yodobashi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzc1QaxssYo

Shinjuku:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsmtfg9uWtY

Some people got theirs early..tested out upgrading the hard disk (to 120GB):

http://ruliweb2.dreamwiz.com/ruliboard/read.htm?num=19646&table=game_ps04&main=ps



Very nice.

As for most others, they're still in line. Check out the shinjuku video above, it's just madness. One blog is reporting 1400 people at one store, and it's only a couple of hours into the early morning there now.

You can check out the full user manual in english here, by the way:

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/index.html

It's a big manual..confirms lots of things. Suffice to say that this thing has a lot of options and can do a lot of different stuff. Personally I'm most excited about this:

http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html

Looks like Sony will allow any OS providers to put their OS on PS3, if they want. Yellow Dog Linux may only be the beginning.

Anyway, I like system launches I'd like it even better if I was getting one, but hey..

abelard

LookingFor wrote:

One blog is reporting 1400 people at one store, and it's only a couple of hours into the early morning there now.

With only 80,000 all across Japan, I'd say quite a few of them will be disappointed

KdjaCL

Shame theres bugger all games coming out for it for the japanese, sony screwing them big time.

kdjac

LookingFor

abelard wrote:

With only 80,000 all across Japan, I'd say quite a few of them will be disappointed

Yeah, it could be quite messy in some places. Some of the big chains are getting up to 1,000 units in their larger stores, apparently, but looking at some of those queues you'd wonder why some of them even joined the queue past a particular point.

Ho-Hum

Wow!! the Japanese really love Sony.

monument

The Irish do just about the same. Or at least not as near to the Japs as most others.

awhir

hmm will the wii be the same in japan

K.O.Kiki

Are we sure they're not just queuing up to buy a DS Lite?

Ciaran500

LookingFor wrote:

So..er..yeah - the PS3 launches in Japan officially in a few hours.

Pfft, the 360 launch was bigger than that

wba88

jaysus dats mad!

K.O.Kiki

You know what's mad?
Me jokingly referring to the DS Lite being a sellout still.

Then I saw *this*...

The Japs are fvcking mad...

rizzla

Isn't it at a seriously reduced price in Japan? I have a feeling most will be up on ebay at maybe even quadruple the price, there not stupid I can tell ye.

If you directly convert the price the premium package somes to about €400

awhir

400e hmm japan is pal soooooooo ..my cusion live is tyko so she could get me a ps3 l8r on and it will be a 1/2 of the price here

humanji

rizzla wrote:

Isn't it at a seriously reduced price in Japan? I have a feeling most will be up on ebay at maybe even quadruple the price, there not stupid I can tell ye.

I don't know about that. My brother is in Japan and a lot of the people he works with are of the mind that it's a great honour to have one of the first PS3's. It's crazy. They're not the money grabbing b*stards we are over here, that's for sure!

Makaveli

awhir wrote:

400e hmm japan is pal soooooooo ..my cusion live is tyko so she could get me a ps3 l8r on and it will be a 1/2 of the price here

Japan is NTSC (DVDs are R2 though).

awhir

waaa dam was 100% shure japan was pal.oh **** was the psp pal in japan?

Retr0gamer

It might have been if it was made to be hooked up to a TV.

I play a lot of japanese games and they are very much NTSC. You will also need a stepdown convertor due to the voltage ratings being different.

LookingFor

A Japanese news report of impatient crowds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjx6MlWZ2LE

And Ken Kutaragi handing out the 'first':




Also thought this was funny.. (it's the same guy!)

tman

awhir wrote:

waaa dam was 100% shure japan was pal.oh **** was the psp pal in japan?

The PSP has its own native resolution and framerates...

awhir

lol love the sound of japanese in speak so funny.

justfortherecor

I find myself being in a bit of a confused state today.

For the past few months I have become increasingly more adamant that I would not be buying a PS3. Sony had done nothing to change my mind with the decisions to screw Europe with its release date, bad release titles and of course, the price.

I had increasingly seen myself as a cert to buy the Wii. It actually appears to be innovative and it seems to be continuing in the same vein of gameplay as my favoured DS Lite (PSP hasnt been charged in a while). Price was also reasonable and it was coming out earlier as well.

But then today...
Seeing that all the hype, BS and hearsay about the PS3 was over and that it was actually on the shelves in Japan, well its almost changed my outlook. I honestly believed that if I was still in Tokyo I would have certainly been one of the people queuing last night to get my hands on one. After telling myself to get the Wii and forget about the PS3, seeing it actually coming out has simply made me think again.

What is wrong with me? No matter how pissed off I am with Sony, just seeing that beautiful black box in the hands of Japanese consumers has stopped me dead in my tracks, made me forget about the Wii and start anticipating the release of the PS3 here next March.

Damn you sony, and damn my impressionable mind!!!
I want a PS3!!!!

tba

GOD DAMMIT SONY!!!!

The PS3 is old hat release the PS4 already!!!!!

Fanny Cradock

justfortherecor wrote:

.

Damn you sony, and damn my impressionable mind!!!
I want a PS3!!!!

Repeate after me:

"You will give Fanny €500. You will give Fanny €500. You will give Fanny €500..."

Who cares what's going on in Japan! It's not like it going to be at your local xtravision any time soon.

Froot

Well a friend of mine pointed out that the PS3 release date will have a shiny new console and SFA to do with it.

In 18 months time, and onwards, it will be worth buying, but tbh I dont see myself paying that amount of cash for something which cannot provide an integrated online facility. ala xbox live, and has been f*cked about so much. I never owned a PS2 or a PS either, I couldnt think of one game that the playstation had that I wanted to play. Thats not a stab at the Ps or the PS2 but If they had nothing for me I dont see what the PS3 is going to offer.

ATM I'm playing the pc and the 360 and I'm happy with that.

Ri_Nollaig

rizzla wrote:

Isn't it at a seriously reduced price in Japan? I have a feeling most will be up on ebay at maybe even quadruple the price, there not stupid I can tell ye.

well people are trying to sell pre-orders for as much as 2,500euro so i guess thats a yes

/edit here is one now, currently at 750euro but 2 days left, wonder how much it will be by then?

justfortherecor

Theres a good number on Yahoo!Japan's auction site. There was a serious number of them for sale yesterday but there's still a few lingering around today. Average selling price is up around the 100,000yen mark (c.700€). I think there is usually a huge amount of last minute bidding.

http://list4.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/2084006668-category.html

Sure these wouldn't work in Ireland though, would they? NTSC and PAL and all that?

Retr0gamer

A lot of auctions will be fake so the sellers can gauge the price people are willing to pay.

awhir

There's no region code for PS3. It able to play all region games and moives

hmm sooo

Ri_Nollaig

im pretty sure its still region coded for movies

honru

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/foreigners-and-fights-ps3-jpn-launchs-dark-side-214130.php

Thought that article was interesting. Looks like Japan is becoming no different to the West when it comes to "touting" the lastest game console.