Sony’s PlayStation 3 goes on sale in Japan

(11 Nov 2006) SHOTLIST 1. Wide pan of people crowding round store to buy Playstation 3 (PS3) 2. Medium of people in crowd 3. Medium of man with loud speaker 4. Wide of crowd, zoom into medium of people in crowd 5. President of Sony Computer Entertainment Ken Kutaragi and Bic Camera President Hiroyuki Miyajima listening to countdown then pulling ribbon, pan to crowd 6. First customer is presented with a Playstation 3 by Kutaragi 7. Cutaway, media 8. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Ken Kutaragi, President of Sony Computer Entertainment: “At last we begin Playstation 3. Please enjoy the next generation of entertainment as much as you possibly can.“ 9. Various of customers purchasing a PS3 10. SOUNDBITE: (Japanese) Vox Pop, PS3 Customer: “The picture quality is excellent. Our television is high definition, so we can enjoy really good quality vision when we play.“ 11. SOUNDBITE (English) Vox Pop, British customer who travelled from London to buy PS3: “It’s unbelievable, it’s unbelievable. I played it at the gameshow, it’s unbelievable. I played it in the shops when they recently launched the booths. It’s unbelievable“ 12. Woman showing her PS3 to the media 13. Various of people queueing to buy PS3 STORYLINE Sony Corporation’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) went on sale in Japan on Saturday in what is certain to be a global sell-out launch of the much-awaited upgrade to the popular video game console. Throngs of eager games fans lined up for several hours around the Bic Camera electronics retailer in downtown Tokyo to get their hands on the limited supply of the machines available on the first day. But some buyers were turned away even before the store opened at 0700 (2200GMT Thursday) with the retailer, which did not reveal how many units it had in stock, saying that it knew from the length of the line around the building that they had already sold out. Sony, plagued with production problems, has only managed to produce 100-thousand PS3 consoles for the Japan launch date. When it goes on sale in the United States on November 17, some 400-thousand PS3 consoles will be available. The sales date has been pushed back in Europe until March. Clerks with megaphones, struggling with an enthusiastic crowd, asked shoppers to stop pushing and warned that they would stop selling the console if the rowdiness led to injuries. Despite the hype and buyer enthusiasm that preceded the launch, Sony will be losing money for a some time on each PS3 sold because of the high costs for research and production that went into the highly sophisticated machine. Powered by the new “Cell“ computer chip and supported by the next-generation video format, a Blu-Ray disc, the console delivers nearly movie-like graphics and a sense of reality in gaming, including detail for sword-wielding soldiers or faces in a crowd, as well as subtle textures such as shining metal or pulsating human flesh. The more expensive model with a 60-gigabyte hard drive, costs about 60-thousand yen (600 US dollars.) Sony expects to lose 200 (b) billion yen (1.7 (b) billion US dollars) in its gaming division in the fiscal year through March 2007. Game makers like Sony must retrieve the returns for the exorbitant development costs for the machines by selling game software. But developing games for PS3 is a costly and time-consuming task because the machine is loaded with cutting edge technology. Only five games will be on sale on the PS3 Japan launch date. The red ink is coming at a time when the Japanese electronics and entertainment company, known for the Walkman portable audio player and “Spider-Man“ movies, is struggling to stage a comeback. Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: