durf.org

This is an interesting read. The PS3 launch happened yesterday morning, and it was all over the news . . . Crowds of people lining up for hours in the predawn dawk of Yurakucho to get the goods from Bic Camera. Excited gamers who couldn't wait to get their hands on the latest and greatest—to take it home and start playing all weekend long.

Or not. The mail in that link describes a different situation—a bunch of Chinese people who were paid maybe ¥20,000 each to stand in line and get one unit each, which they then carried around the corner to give to some Japanese guy.

"Thank you for your patience!," welcomed the cashier to the first PS3 buyers. "What game software would you like with your purchase?"

"Hai," the consumer nodded, not understanding the question.

Most cashiers soon figured out that the men and women standing in front of them didn't speak Japanese. Some would then repeat the same question in English, and would all get the say reply, "Only hardware."

Based on my observations of the first twenty PS3s sold at Bic Camera, they were all purchased by Chinese nationals, none of whom bought any software. After making their purchase, television crews asked for interviews but all were declined. These temporary owners of PS3s would then make their way down the street where their bosses waited. After several minutes, a dozen PS3s were rounded up, as their Japanese business manager paid out cash to those who waited in line for them. I witnessed a homeless-looking Chinese man, in his sixties or seventies get paid 20,000 yen for his services and was then sent away.

These things will probably all end up on Yahoo Auctions. (Ebay doesn't exist over here, so these are the big ones.) Most of the PS3 units for sale there now are listed at around ¥80,000 and up . . . but I wouldn't be surprised to see that number go lots higher.

I doubt very much the numbers will go as high as they are in this auction, which seems to have been hijacked by some people who want to mess up these auctions by making absurd bids (and then failing to do a thing after winning, no doubt). ¥1.4 million is the high bid as of this post. Hah.

Sony needed to have a lot more of these ready for launch. The Nintendo DS Lite is still impossible to find on shelves, so all you can see is oceans of software for the things . . . I predict similar sights in the Sony PS3 sections of game stores for months to come. Plenty of cool-looking games that nobody can play. Unless they hire a Chinese guy to stand in line and get them a machine, I guess.

Heh . . . One of the units has been bid up to a billion yen. Yeah, these guys are serious all right.