Game on: Sony’'s new PlayStation is snapped up by black marketeers as it finally hits streets in Japan @ TimesOnline

BY THE time his moment of joy arrives, Taiga Ishikawa will have been roughing it for 28 hours, but no one could be better equipped for a night on the streets of Tokyo.

He has his red cotton slippers and bamboo sleeping mat. He has 30 comic books to read and a supply of cold coffee and cold noodle sandwiches. Mr Ishikawa is a 20-year-old computer game otaku — a Japanese nerd — and in just a few hours his vigil will be rewarded with a jewel beyond price.

At 7am today, the shutters of Asobit City game shop in the Akihabara district of Tokyo will open, and Mr Ishikawa will be at the front of the queue to become one of the first people to own the Sony PlayStation 3. The PS3 is the newest games console in the world, and an immeasurable amount of money and credibility rests on its launch.

For Sony, this is an opportunity for success after a dismal spell. For gamers like Mr Ishikawa it is the most powerful games system in the world, quite apart from its capabilities as a storage system for photographs, music and a player of new-generation Blu-ray DVDs.

Even before it went on sale, a thriving black market had sprung up around the PlayStation 3, on the internet and on the streets of Akihabara. The console for which Mr Ishikawa will pay 59,980 yen (£267) was last night attracting bids of up to $1,800 (£940) on online auction sites.

In Akihabara a dozen homeless men queued incongruously in front of a game shop to buy the console. Each was being hired by a middleman to circumvent the shop’s “one customer, one PlayStation rule” to ensure the biggest number of consoles for immediate resale.

Seven British students from Bournemouth University, who had paid £700 each for a week-long stay in Japan, were debating whether to buy the PS3 and keep it for themselves, or sell it at a handsome profit. “I played a display model in a branch of Starbucks on the other side of Tokyo last night,” Christopher Poole, 19, a student of television production, said. “It’s true that they’ve only got the first generation of games at the moment, but it was a bit disappointing.”

Japan Queues Up for PS3 @ Future NetWork

On Friday at 8 p.m. in Tokyo, gamers were already lined up to buy the PS3, which wasn’t to go on sale until 7 a.m. the next morning. There were two distinct lines of people who intended to get their hands on a system: one in Ikebukuro in front of Bic Camera in the gadget district Akihabara made up of around 250 people, and one in front of Asobit City Games, consisting of less than 100. (See photo below from Tokyo.)

Japan is expected to get around 80,000 units total on day one, so quantities will be initially tight in Japan, as with the rest of the world. Most major retailers will have 100 to 150 PS3s to sell, while smaller stores will get a paltry two to five units.

Although there is certainly great anticipation for the system, there is a low-key air about the launch. It’s almost as if many Japanese consumers were dissuaded to line up because of the well-known shortages that are anticipated. Nevertheless, the system is likely to sell out in the first hour or so.

Amidst complaints from gamers, some stores in Akihabara have decided to sell the few PS3 through lottery drawings--if chosen by number, customers win the right to buy a console.

As for software, the latest polls from ITmedia indicate that 30 percent of the people who are going to buy a PS3 will go for Ridge Racer 7, 25 percent for Resistance: Fall of Man (a good figure for a country known for being relatively anti-FPS) and 24 percent for the new Gundam title. Genji: Days of the Blade recevied only 5 percent of peoples' attention bringing up the tail-end of the poll.

The PS3 is set to launch in North America with around 400,000 units on November 17.

Sony Japan Announces PSP Firmware 3.0 @ Elektriq

After months of speculation and hundreds of articles speculating about the big 3.0 firmware update, it seems that the Sony Japan site has finally released some info about it.

Here's our trusty old friend Altavista translating the announcement:

"In addition, since selling in late November version it raises also PSP "PlayStation portable" Advanced Capability addition and strengthening of security are done via the version rise of continuous system software, in 3.00 and starts raising the cooperation function of PS3. As for everyone of the PSP user with the update to of version 3.00, for PSP which is transmitted inside PLAYSTATION Store "of PLAYSTATION Network"besides the fact that it reaches the point where utilization it can receive the game software, the remote play function of PS3*to enjoy 3 also it becomes possible to receive, (in PS3 of the HDD loading of 20GB from the fact that it is not wireless LAN function, it is not possible to utilize remote play)."

Yes, it's a bad translation, but you can see all the juicy bits there. It seems that the PSP's 3.0 firmware upgrade will come a few days after the release of the PS3. You will probably be able to get it from the PlayStation Store. The 3.0 update looks like it will be big on PS3-PSP interconnectivity. Also there seem to be some kind of "security updates" in there. Are we people missing something?

But think about it for a second. We seem to be missing something else too. Go on, we'll give you a moment to think... where's the PS1 emulation? Frankly, we don't know. Did Sony forgot to mention it? Possibly. Has Sony forfeited that function? We don't want to bet on that either. From the looks of it, we'll have to wait until the release date for more info. Stay tuned, we're gonna be covering every bit of it.

Microsoft, Forget Japan, You Want Korea! @ KotaKu

The country is largely untapped. There is Nintendo, but the products are poorly distributed. Sony has a foothold, but there isn't blind brand allegiance. PC gaming rules the land. Enter Microsoft. Tae Lee, the company's global product manager, says:

Personally, I've been pushing the Korean region as one of the biggest markets for us. Per capita, a Korean spends more money on entertainment than any other country in the world. In terms of online gaming, consumers spend more money toward that.
And that means Korean gamers might very well warm up to not only the 360's games, but also the 360's micro-transactions. Japan? Meh. Korea? Cha-king!

Rough patch for Sony @ Japan Times

Sony Corp., which has built its fame through a global brand presence and innovative products, appears to be facing a difficult time. The Sony group's operating profit in the six-month period through September nosedived by 90.9 percent from a year before to 6.22 billion yen, although sales were up 9.7 percent to 3.6 trillion yen.

Behind this are the massive global recalls of its defective lithium-ion battery packs for laptop computers; a delay in launching the PlayStation 3 (a next-generation video-game console) due to problems with mass-production of the machine's Blu-ray disc drive; and a price cut on the PS3 in Japan to compete with Nintendo Co., its rival in the video-game machine business.

The battery recalls and the delay in the production of the Blu-ray disc drive could pique concern about Sony's in-house ability to develop mainstay, state-of-the-art technology. It is hoped that the company will mobilize its experience, wisdom and knowledge to overcome its technology-related problems and develop new hit products that will enchant consumers.

The lithium-ion battery packs caused lap-top overheating or short-circuiting problems. It is thought that microscopic nickel particles trapped inside during the manufacturing process caused the problems. When Dell recalled Sony battery packs used in its laptop computers in December 2005, Sony put forward the theory that the computers themselves were responsible for the problems. This suspicion apparently delayed an investigation and response by Sony.

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