PS3 is out in Japan.

Great news to gamers fans all over, the PS3 is out in Japan for over 3 days now. 80,000 units was launched in Japan, as all were snapped up very quickly.

Early impressions of the unit was as good as the hype, but minor gripes are to be found. Overall, the PS3 is said to be very good, great graphics and very slick.

However, the PS3 launch was marred with several moments of chaos, un-organised and stranger still, profiteering for the early purchasers. Seems that the enterprising Japanese resellers (or profiteers) employ Chinese immigrants to line up on their behalf to get the PS3 units. Even a bigger embarrassment is that there were TV crews lined up to interview the first few "adopters" of PS3, only to find that they don't speak Japanese well. It was spotted that they later "hand over" the PS3 to the real purchases, for a fee. So i suppose I should be shopping for a PS3 on Ebay??

All these are hearsay and reviews read, as we Msians cant get our hands on a PS3 yet, we have to wait till March 2007 for an Asian version - the same fate that befalls the European launch. The Asian and European launch window is still unconfirmed, as Phil Harrison, president of SCE Worldwide Studios, have declined to guarantee that the PS3 will indeed launch in Europe come March 2007. This is due to the production shortages for the PS3 worldwide (for those uninformed, the PS3 is a region free game / Blu-Ray DVD console). Given that even Europe's launch is not guaranteed at this moment in time, our Asian launch could suffer the same fate.

So all I can do now is gawk at the other sites for pics, reviews and tidbits on the system. Sigh.