In an assault on the next-gen market of shock and awe that only the US Military was thought capable of, Sony has finally unleashed the PS3 onto the techno-hungry Japanese market. Next up: the US, on November 17. Can the Xbox 360 hope to gain any traction in Japan at all?

The scenes were wild. Pushing, shoving, and threats to stop all sales of the PS3 if anyone got injured in the line for a new PS3 at the Bic Camera flagship store in downtown Tokyo.

And by the time beleaguered store staff could even hope to estimate how many people were still in line once sales had begun, the PS3 was all but sold out, leaving many fans disappointed and jealous of the lucky few to own a PS3.

I’d have wanted a bodyguard to protect me from the hordes of fans all clamouring to get into Sony’s vision of next-gen gaming, and if I were mega rich, I might have even hired bodyguards to protect me from my bodyguards.

Unlike in the US, where pranksters purchased an Xbox 360 on launch day and promptly smashed it into pieces with a sledgehammer, and filmed themselves doing it, to the shock of those still in line, so they could post it onto the Internet to gain instant infamy, no such reports have so far emanated from Japan. They love their technology too much to destroy it so wantonly.

And with the PS3’s price far higher than the Xbox 360, it’d be a terrible waste of good money. Few have so much spare cash to be able to do that. Unless they’re Internet pranksters looking for fame on Youtube, of course.

But I’m sure we’ll hear of such reports come November 17 where 400,000 consoles will go on sale in the US, where the scenes at stores are likely to be just as frenetic. Only in America, as they say!

No-one has reported how many Xbox 360’s were sold in Japan on the day of their PS3 launch. Such figures are likely a closely guarded secret, but would anyone in Japan have decided to buy an Xbox 360 if they couldn’t purchase a PS3?

Given the Xbox 360’s poor sales record in the land of the rising sun, it’s hard to say. How would you feel if you wanted a PS3 badly enough to wait in line for hours and hours? You’d hardly be consoling yourself (excuse the pun) with an alternative games console.

Now that the PS3 is finally here (although Aussies and Europeans have a dreaded four month wait to contend with) the next-gen war has truly begun in earnest.

All the gaming world needs now are more PS3s and more amazing games to distract us from the realities of everyday life, from eating, to hygiene, to family and work.

And don’t forget the sales frenzy yet to come with Nintendo’s Wii set to burst onto the world scene in the next few weeks to amazing acclaim all its own.

It’s going to be a very next-gen gaming Christmas, with 2007 set to break all gaming records. It’ll be a year to remember!

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Entry was posted on Sunday, November 12th, 2006 at 9:06 pm under Media players, Technology.

Read more entries by Alex Zaharov-Reutt.
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