The Japanese PS3 launch: weather report
by Jonti Davies 
{ Nov 13th 2006 at 1:15PM }
Gamers queue with umbrellas erect in Akihabara.
Some important information remains missing from the avalanche of hyperbolic "PS3 LAUNCH CHAOS!" stories which hit the web on Saturday, following the PS3's (inevitable) Day One sell-out: What was the weather like?
Joystiq camped out overnight in Tokyo to get its system, and at dawn all fingers were still present and correct. The frost didn't bite. In fact, at a low of 10 degrees Celsius, Friday night in Tokyo was unseasonably mild. The sun began to colour the sky just past 5.30am on Saturday morning, turning to a pink haze by 6.30am before arriving at a grey cloud conclusion as the first Tokyo game stores opened their doors to all those who wanted a PS3 for breakfast.
Dramatically, as the first customer at Shinjuku's Yodobashi Camera made his way to the register, the heavens opened. And from 7.01am until the evening, there was nothing but drizzle in Tokyo. The perfect day for staying inside with a warm PS3.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nintendo_Fanboy @ Nov 13th 2006 1:27PM
lol but how is this newsworthy?
John @ Nov 13th 2006 1:35PM
i wanna ps3 dammit lol!
i love my xbox but ther will always be a special place in my heart for playstation...and for nintendo
http://www.petitiononline.com/ps3/petition.html
Todd @ Nov 13th 2006 1:40PM
"following the PS3's (inevitable) Day One sell-out"
I see other news that says 88,400 units sold in 2 days. If there are 100,000 units available for the Japanese launch, then it's not exactly sold out is it? So what's the deal?
crono141 @ Nov 13th 2006 1:44PM
Didn't japan's numbers supposedly get cut to 80,000?
If that is true, then where did the other 8,400 units come from?
Hank @ Nov 13th 2006 2:18PM
?
Antaeus @ Nov 13th 2006 2:57PM
OH SHI- CONSPIRACY THEORY
copa @ Nov 13th 2006 3:01PM
If Jonti is reporting on the launch, I would like to hear his perspective on the Kotaku reports that most of the lined-up shoppers were in fact gold farmers, and not local consumers excited about playing the PS3.
mesocool @ Nov 14th 2006 1:12PM
The place where they had nearly a 1,000 people lined up had clear skys! Sucks to be at the wrong store!
The ZeroCorpse @ Nov 13th 2006 3:47PM
OK, so I've played the PS3 now, and I have to say I was completely underwhelmed. Here are my observations:
1. The unit itself is HUGE. I swear it's bigger than original 3DO was!
2. Apparently, demo units aren't running at Sony's much-vaunted "Full HD" and are instead running at 720p on the display screens.
3. The graphics in NBA Live '07 absolutely suck ass. During the team intro, the players are all jaggy and look like they have white matte lines around them. The lighting is completely unrealistic and the colors are garish. That's one game that- in my opinion- looks like crap compared to what I've played on the 360.
4. The trailer for Genji was equally disappointing. Besides the fact that you CANNOT EXIT THE TRAILER, and that it's a typical Japanese hack-n-slash, it's pretty graphically boring, and doesn't look much better than the last Onimusha I played on the PS2. Again, this poses serious questions about the system's graphics abilities.
5. The Sixaxis is pretty standard. Nothing amazing about it. It's a DualShock with an extra button and no rumble. Interestingly, on the demo units the middle button doesn't do a damn thing.
6. NOBODY was in line to play it. People were walking by, ignoring the thing. I checked it out because I'm a gamer and had to at least see what all the fuss from the Sony camp was about. When I let go of the controller, nobody rushed in to pick it up.
7. The console itself sure is shiny.
8. The menu is pretty much the PSP menu with a few extras. The junk they put in the demo units is pretty lame. There are some videos, some music files, and a few game trailers, along with the playable NBA Live. The system menu is completely disabled, so I couldn't switch it to 1080p to see if that made any difference. Basically, it felt like the PSP all over again, and that made me want to avoid it.
9. The screen they have it connected to is pretty nice, anyway.
10. There is no way the game demos I saw will make this system worth more than the Xbox 360. If Sony wants to compete, they'd better bring it a little better than what they've got on the demo systems, because last year's launch 360 demo of King Kong, Call of Duty 2, and Kameo looked MUCH better from a consumer standpoint.
All I have to say is that if you spend more than retail price for this hunk of junk, you're an idiot.
velocitystrike @ Nov 13th 2006 4:02PM
@4....why is that important? Surely its better that they're there at all, than them not being there and you knowing why.
Also, maybe, just maybe, Sony didn't think it necessary to tell you that there were 88,840 PS3s ready for sale. Maybe they just wanted to get down to business and sell them, eh?
*cough*
Diddy @ Nov 13th 2006 4:25PM
Yo fools Diddy got Ps3 days ago and I gave it to Mr T's pet monkey cos ima playa hater!
Pulse @ Nov 13th 2006 7:07PM
ZeroCorpse, you know how I know you are the idiot
1. Its a demo unit, noone cares about demo units. There were 360 units all over the place in England when it released, and I felt exactly the same way when playing 360 for the first time, my impression was "This? Is the hyped up console they were all talking about?" in fact, at the time, I was so annoyed with what I had played I knew thier were Xbox original games better then the sad excuses for games they had on the booths.
2. The same way noone ran to play on the PS3 is the same way no one ran to play the 360 units after I had played them, obviously there were a few curious, not by the 360 itself, but mainly by the jump from last gen to this gen, being it the first games console out and all.
You cannot base your facts on a booth, or demo unit, thats stupid, I've played a 360, and know full well the games in booth are nothing compared to the real experience of a 360, I still have no interest in it, but that doesn't change the fact that what was on booth for demo play is nothing. I'm sure I'll feel the same way about PS3 if I tried it, only when I buy it does it make the difference.
The ZeroCorpse @ Nov 14th 2006 2:27AM
Umm... Pulse...
I worked the 360 launch at a major retailer. When we got our demo unit, there was a LINE for it. People crowded around it, and many weren't even gamers but people who were just admiring how great the King Kong demo looked ("Is that the movie? Is it on DVD already?"). We had people coming into our store who were LOOKING for the 360 demo unit because the competition (Wal*Mart, in this case) had turned theirs off (Wal*Mart employees said they didn't want crowds in their electronics department). People played it for hours at a time even during slow times in the store. The anticipation and impressions were just higher for the 360 than I've thus far seen for the PS3.
I've worked on the launch of EVERY MAJOR CONSOLE SINCE 1992. I know a thing or two about public reception of game consoles, and the PS3 was basically ignored by the crowd today. That does not bode well, nor does it change the fact that the graphical capabilities looked pretty bad on the games being shown. Next-gen games shouldn't have white matte lines around animated on-screen characters, nor should they have severe lack of anti-aliasing on the cinemas or in-game cut scenes.
And again, I shall say that it takes a particular idiot to pay more than the retail price for the PS3 (or any console, really). It's not anything special. To use the common insult directed at the Xbox 360 last year, this thing seems more like the PlayStation 2.5 than the PS3.
Hey, I'd have been stoked if it had surprised me in any way. It didn't. It was less than I expected, and I didn't expect much.