Saturday was the big day in Japan for the PS3 launch, and thousands waited in the rain for their chance to get hold of the new PS3 console on day 1. Some stores instead of selling to ‘first come, first served’ handed out raffle tickets – even if you were amongst the first in line you still may not have got a new console if you didn’t get a winning ticket.
This Friday is the big day for the US, where limited preorders for the PS3 already sold within minutes, and demand is also expected to be high. Sony are expecting to ship 100,000 consoles a week to stores, so hopefully if you can’t get hold of one on day one then there will be more coming in the next few weeks.
It will be interesting to see how the battle of the next gen consoles plays out in the coming months – XBox360 have already got a year head start, but this doesn’t seem to be bothering anyone. The new Nintendu Wii is also going to launch a few days after the PS3, also at a respectable price of $199, which could really mix up the battle between the 360 and the PS3. Microsoft will also be adding the external HD-DVD player for the 360, but at an additional $199, this puts the 360 in the same price category as the high end PS3 if you are also looking to gain a next-gen hidef DVD player in your console.