Apparently, the PS3 is out in Europe

[Bounty]

So, who's been queuing to get their hands on one?

Sony launches its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console in Europe on Friday, attempting to reclaim its title as the powerhouse of video gaming.

The company trails Microsoft and Nintendo in sales of next generation consoles and the launch has been beset with problems in the last year.

But the PlayStation brand remains strong with gamers and one million PS3s will hit shops on day one.

Some gamers have been queuing in London since Wednesday afternoon.

Sony has declared its launch of PlayStation 3 to date as a success, saying early sales are faster than those of its predecessor PS2.

It believes that the combination of a high-definition Blu-ray DVD player, online capabilities and gaming powered by the Cell processor will convince gamers to spend £425 (599 Euros) on the machine.

Sales figures from the United States, where the console launched last November, suggest that PS3 is being outsold by rivals. Recent figures from sales trackers NPD show that the Nintendo Wii is outselling the PS3 by more than two to one.

But the NPD figures also show that the PS3 is selling slightly faster in the US than the Xbox 360 did at the same stage in its release.

Sony has overcome initial stock shortage problems, which were caused last year by production problems for the blue diode laser which reads high-definition Blu-ray discs.

"They did not have enough of those to launch globally last year," said Peter O'Donovan, principal analyst at Gartner.

"A global launch was their intention. The situation is a lot better now.

"There is a lot more product flowing out of Sony now in terms of PS3 boxes for Japan and US."

More than 200,000 consoles will be available on launch day in the UK.

Virgin's flagship store on Oxford Street, London, will open at midnight on Thursday despite concern from police about potential muggings.

The Metropolitan Police said: "Officers have expressed their concern about this planned event, which may well encourage young people to travel into central London late at night, potentially putting themselves at risk of becoming victims of crime."

Sony has said it has put several measures in place to ensure people attending the launch get home safely. Other shops in central London have now abandoned plans to hold similar midnight openings.

Mr O'Donovan added: "The Wii is definitely outselling the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at the moment."

But analysts expect Sony's brand will help the PlayStation edge ahead of rivals by the end of 2007.

Mr O'Donovan said: "The real issue for Sony is whether they can get back the momentum they had with PS2. The only thing that is going to drive that is the number of titles available."

John Hoolihan, editor of Computer and Videogames.com, said the initial line-up of games for the machine was "fairly decent".

"It lacks a must-buy, stand-out game. Six months down the line we will see Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Turismo and more PlayStation bankers."

He added: "PlayStation is still the world's most successful gaming brand ever.

"Whilst Sony will be a little disappointed looking back at their launch campaign, for the average gamer in the street PlayStation remains the number one gaming brand."

Mr O'Donovan said he expected Sony to eventually re-take its position as the leading player in the industry.

"We expect PS3 to outsell Wii and 360 in a couple of year's time."

Microsoft, the current leader in the next-generation console market, is still bullish about the long-term fortunes of the Xbox 360.

Neil Thompson, head of Xbox in the UK, said: "The Xbox 360 offers a better gaming experience than PS3 for £150 less."

He added: "The only debate is if you want to watch Blu-ray movies and pay the extra money for that feature.

"We prefer to offer the consumer choice."

Microsoft sells a HD-DVD player add-on for Xbox, which plays high definition movies in a rival format.

Mr Thompson said it did not matter which high definition DVD video system wins the format war.

"Whatever format wins it is highly likely we will offer a solution," he said.

Mr Donovan seems to live on another planet. In another dimension. Somewhere in a galaxy far, far, far away.

[Vympel]

It's out at midnight here as well. There's a significant amount of hype. More so than the Wii, media wise, anyway.

[Bounty]

It's out at midnight here as well. There's a significant amount of hype. More so than the Wii, media wise, anyway.

Not over here. There are a few store displays and contests, but apart from that I barely knew it launched tonight.

[Jon]

Hype here is minimal. I did have a laugh when I opened the newspaper this morning and saw a full page advertisement spouting 'Get your PS3 with ONE game for just £475!'

UK resistance have some good coverage of how the launch is going here; http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/

[Bounty]

Hype here is minimal. I did have a laugh when I opened the newspaper this morning and saw a full page advertisement spouting 'Get your PS3 with ONE game for just £475!'

UK resistance have some good coverage of how the launch is going here; http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/

...that's just sad

[wautd]

As far I can tell, it's being hyped more than when Xbox360 or the Wii were launched (both by the media and PS fanboys - what is it with Sony fanboys always being the most obnoxious of the big 3 by the way?).

I'd still be suprised if it'll be a success here in Belgium tough, but I've learned to never underestimate stupidity.

[Bounty]

As far I can tell, it's being hyped more than when Xbox360 or the Wii were launched

Excuse me? It gets praised by Sony fanwhores, but have you really seen any significant hype? Where?

[wautd]

Hype here is minimal. I did have a laugh when I opened the newspaper this morning and saw a full page advertisement spouting 'Get your PS3 with ONE game for just £475!'

UK resistance have some good coverage of how the launch is going here; http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/

...that's just sad

Sad, but in a very, very funny way. The cameraman filming the event cracked me up. I know schadenfreude is bad but...

[weemadando]

There's been a lot of press, merely because Sony has been buying column inches. Just take one look at News.com.au and its various business, entertainment and IT sections to get an idea of how much money Sony has clearly dumped into cash for comment here.

[Stofsk]

There's been a lot of press, merely because Sony has been buying column inches. Just take one look at News.com.au and its various business, entertainment and IT sections to get an idea of how much money Sony has clearly dumped into cash for comment here.

I wonder if Media Watch will take a look at that?

[Stark]

There's been a lot of press, merely because Sony has been buying column inches. Just take one look at News.com.au and its various business, entertainment and IT sections to get an idea of how much money Sony has clearly dumped into cash for comment here.

It being PS3 season, I struck up a discussion of the PS3 with the guy at EB while I was buying Stalker. Hilariously, the big sellers he gushed about were downloadable content (ie, trailers etc) and the whole chatroom meeting people thing. So to him, $1000 buys you stuff you could already do. When I pointed out that the bottleneck for me getting 'zomg awesome HD trailers' is my connection, not my lack of a PS3, he didn't seem pleased.

[weemadando]

There's been a lot of press, merely because Sony has been buying column inches. Just take one look at News.com.au and its various business, entertainment and IT sections to get an idea of how much money Sony has clearly dumped into cash for comment here.

I wonder if Media Watch will take a look at that?

Articles on News.com.au from JUST THIS WEEK:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
And a feedback piece

And that's without taking into account them mirroring these articles across their subsidiary sites as well.

And I'm guessing that most people too would have picked up on the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the PS3 while noting the attacks on other brands (XBox360 "reliability issues" etc).

[weemadando]

There's been a lot of press, merely because Sony has been buying column inches. Just take one look at News.com.au and its various business, entertainment and IT sections to get an idea of how much money Sony has clearly dumped into cash for comment here.

It being PS3 season, I struck up a discussion of the PS3 with the guy at EB while I was buying Stalker. Hilariously, the big sellers he gushed about were downloadable content (ie, trailers etc) and the whole chatroom meeting people thing. So to him, $1000 buys you stuff you could already do. When I pointed out that the bottleneck for me getting 'zomg awesome HD trailers' is my connection, not my lack of a PS3, he didn't seem pleased.

That was the reaction to all of the PS3 BS from GDC that we had on Chez Geek too. "Wow, that's great and all, but I can't stream a HD trailer over Australian broadband as it is. Let alone stream a goddamn media heavy MMO environment along with the trailer."

[wautd]

There's been a lot of press, merely because Sony has been buying column inches. Just take one look at News.com.au and its various business, entertainment and IT sections to get an idea of how much money Sony has clearly dumped into cash for comment here.

I wonder if Media Watch will take a look at that?

Articles on News.com.au from JUST THIS WEEK:

1

Errr... maybe it's just me, but isn't that the same controller as the PS2 one? What happened to that boomerang?

[Bounty]

I wonder if Media Watch will take a look at that?

Articles on News.com.au from JUST THIS WEEK:

1

Errr... maybe it's just me, but isn't that the same controller as the PS2 one? What happened to that boomerang?

The Wiimote. Sony saw the motion control, dumped the boomerang and released a PS2 controller with basic tilt detection and no force feedback.

[Vympel]

They should really just admit that the PS3 launch was a massive cockup and just move on gracefully. This money they're spewing forth all over the place is just cause for embarassment and mockery.

How they stuffed up so badly when the PS and PS2 did so well, I don't know. Oh wait, yes I do. Their console is ridiculously expensive.

(games are not an issue, the first games out for the PS2 sucked balls too).

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

It just goes to show that adversity is necessary for companies. When a corporation starts to believe that it can't miss, it will start churning out shit products and making ridiculous decisions. If they had simply dropped the BD-ROM drive and used a derivitive of Intel's Core 2, they would have had a machine that was every bit as good and able to be sold for $300. Microsoft would have been screwed, and Nintendo probably would have had to shoot for the $200 price point.

[Praxis]

I wonder if Media Watch will take a look at that?

Articles on News.com.au from JUST THIS WEEK:

1

Errr... maybe it's just me, but isn't that the same controller as the PS2 one? What happened to that boomerang?

Wow, you ARE out of touch.

E3 2006 Sony showed the PS3 controller, which was just a wireless PS2 controller with the L2 and R2 buttons turned into triggers and a tilt sensor.

It's been like that ever since. The boomerang controller was never seen outside of E3 2005.

[SAMAS]

They should really just admit that the PS3 launch was a massive cockup and just move on gracefully. This money they're spewing forth all over the place is just cause for embarassment and mockery.

How they stuffed up so badly when the PS and PS2 did so well, I don't know. Oh wait, yes I do. Their console is ridiculously expensive.

(games are not an issue, the first games out for the PS2 sucked balls too).

Well, to be fair, Nintendo kinda pulled a 3rd-gen fuckup with the N64. Although they did alright with it in the end, they completely lost the lead they had with the NES/SNES.

Looks like Sony's hit the same wall.

[Mange]

There has been some ad campaigns in Sweden, but nothing too much IMO. I did read one review in one of the bigger evening papers and the reviewer was very negative. The headline was "Throw it in the garbage". He claimed that the Blu Ray player was worthless as the picture was very poor and that the games weren't revolutionary and when games which are fully adapted to the PS3 are released, then the machine will be cheaper (it now costs $860). I haven't seen the PS3 myself, but the reviews I've seen don't seem to agree with his claims.

[Rightous Fist Of Heaven]

The launch cost is 699 euros here in Finland. Without a single truly interesting launch title and the absurd price, I wont be buying it anytime in the near future.

For comparison, I paid 450 euros or so for the better version of X360 +Perfect Dark Zero +Second Controller +rechargable battery for the second controller when the 360 launched here. So in essence, fuck Sony. I have better use for 700 euros.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Wow, you ARE out of touch.

E3 2006 Sony showed the PS3 controller, which was just a wireless PS2 controller with the L2 and R2 buttons turned into triggers and a tilt sensor.

It's been like that ever since. The boomerang controller was never seen outside of E3 2005.

You forgot the loss of rumble.

[Chris OFarrell]

There's been a lot of press, merely because Sony has been buying column inches. Just take one look at News.com.au and its various business, entertainment and IT sections to get an idea of how much money Sony has clearly dumped into cash for comment here.

I wonder if Media Watch will take a look at that?

Articles on News.com.au from JUST THIS WEEK:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
And a feedback piece

And that's without taking into account them mirroring these articles across their subsidiary sites as well.

And I'm guessing that most people too would have picked up on the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the PS3 while noting the attacks on other brands (XBox360 "reliability issues" etc).

The Australian article (third down) is brilliant at that. Praising the PS3 charging 1000 dollars for cool looking lines and bemoaning the X-Box 360 for only being able to plug in USB thumb drives for storing files....

Uh huh...

Anybody else want Sony FAN SERVICE!!

Mark my words.

There will be a launch rush of the Sony fanwhores who will buy ANYTHING with a Playstation logo on it.

Then it'll drop like a rock.

The 360 will continue to sell well with a solid base established, excellent features and increasingly awesome games being put out.

The Wii if Nintendo can get their shit together with their games will also continue to sell excellently.

Hell, the two systems really complement each other, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if in a year a great many people -if not the majority- have BOTH systems.

Meanwhile the PS3 will slowly gather dust as the increasingly shrill fanboys and fangirls insist that Blueray will save the day with da awesome games!
As many people dust off their old PS2's or find a cheap second hand PS2 at their store and get back into the groove that way.

Sony of course will flat out refuse to support the second renascence of the PS2 and cash in on games sales or anything, which in turn will accelerate the downward spiral.

PSP? Whats that?

Presenting a somewhat more rational report on the PS3 launch in Australia, not paid for by Sony.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/playst ... 91466.html

[Ritterin Sophia]

Well, since they're still talking about a shortage, can I assume Baghdad Bob's still in charge of Sony PR?

Anyhow, about problems with the 360, does anyone know if they fixed the whole gouging your CD thing? I'd like to know since my BD is in eight days, and I was intending to buy one with the couple hundred dollars I normally get.

[Loner]