Well if Europe is going to help ps3 to top spot its off to a poor start.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/playstation-launch-is-a-muted-affair/2007/03/23/1174153291466.aspx

Over 500 retailers around the country threw open their doors as the clock struck 12:00am, expecting the frenzy that accompanied the games console' s overseas debuts.

But most stores were virtually deserted, despite the 20,000 pre-orders Sony said it had received.

Even at the official launch event held at Myer' s Pitt Street store in Sydney' s CBD and attended by Sony' s local managing director, Michael Ephraim, media and security outnumbered PS3 fans until at least 11:00pm.

At midnight, about 40 PS3 buyers had arrived to collect their consoles, causing distress for the army of camera crews who turned up expecting to capture launch mayhem.

Desperate producers unashamedly asked the crowd to fake excitement when the cameras were rolling, while a team from 2Day FM let out bogus cheers to convince their radio listeners that a launch extravaganza was underway.

Almost sounds as bad as the GC launch in Australia all those years ago. There is a long way to go if sony expect to catch up to the Wii or the 360 if the launch is this underwhelming.

PS3...Yaaaay.

It' s simple. People aren' t going to come out in flocks to buy something that' s pushing a four digit price point. No amount of marketing is going to change that fact.

IGNs coverage of the Australian launch

http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/775/775302p1.aspx

We didn' t have to wander far - Toys ' R' Us was open too - there were a whopping 6 people in the store, and most were pottering around. Only one was getting ready to buy the console, and others looked to be killing time and enjoying the novelty.

The view from the back betrays exactly how many people are waiting. The TV media are down the front, bolstering numbers further, but we doubt they were buying.

Oh well, what can you expect from a bunch of crazy-talking ex-con sunjunky' s?

I' m sure fanboys will love to point out the lack of launch hysteria but I could care less.

I do wonder though, if the availability of ps3' s for pre-order would affect the numbers though. I mean, if it was me, and I was gaurenteed a unit, you wouldn' t see me there friday morning. I would just finish work and then go pick it up. Whereas the Xbox360 and Wii both had smaller numbers available for pre-order.

I guess we will see once the dust settles Dagashi. I' m sure ps3s sold reasonably well, though i don' t feel they would have broken any records here in Australia.

The only thing is that this news is everywhere now, and the problem is that it gives the impression that its not as sought after then it really was giving the uninformed consumer a negative view. Besides the media was all over this, radio, TV all expecting much more customer excitement then then got. What do you expect the media will say about it? I have a feeling its not gonna be good, and you know how media can sensationalize things.

I do hope sony does survive because i still want them there to compete against microsoft, so don' t i want them dead. The last thing i want is an uncontested xbox console on the market (because the Wii is not in the same market so to speak), so in a way i have some interest in sony succeeding, but as a Nintendo fan, i want them succeeding BEHIND the Wii (i no longer care in which order).

LOL Go CONVICTS!!!

Put it this way, i went to get mine last night from the GAME store i had it delivered to (because i ordered online but couldn' t have it delivered to work, so i had it delivered to the local store) and there was more than 100 people queuing at the downstairs store. Upstairs there were maybe 40 or so people but there was a constant stream of people coming and going.

I know that each of the GAME stores had 250+ pre-orders, and i heard them telling people that they' d have some free stock to sell after pre-orders had been fulfilled.

HMV and Virgin Megastores had midnight openings at the same mall but HMV was the busier. There weren' t many people at Virgin, and there were probably 30-ish people waiting outside HMV.

Fortunately for me i got seen to right away as i hadn' t pre-ordered at that store and was just picking up my machine as i' d already paid for it.

I know that there were a couple of hundred people at the official event in London. They had more than 600 machines and the first 100 in the queue got free Sony Bravias.

Australia may come under the PAL umbrella but it' s inconsequential overall. High sales are being reported in France, Germany and the UK.

The thing is, if people pre-ordered they have 3 days to pick it up, so why would they go and queue to get one, other than to pick it up for convenience sake?

I suspect Wii had a better launch, but Sony have definitely come through with the stock and dwarfed the 360 EU launch (though it' s not fair to compare because 360 launched worldwide almost simultaneously).

I' d probably suggest waiting until next week before calling it a success, failure or otherwise. I have mine and i' ll be setting everything up/registering/updating/etc tonight after work.

Nitro, what games (if any) did you get with your PS3?

MotorStorm, Resistance and Virtua Fighter 5.

I' ll be buying God of War II in a fortnight when it' s released, but i don' t know about other PS3 games. I have most of the multi-platform games on 360 already...

MotorStorm, Resistance and Virtua Fighter 5.

*jealous*

PS3 sucks! Boooo! Die Sony!