Japanese gamers stood in line for hours Saturday just to get a chance to purchase one of the 100,000 PlayStation 3 video game consoles offered by Sony, and quite a few went home empty-handed. It was the first launch of what is projected to be a global sellout.

Hundreds of people lined up for several hours around Bic Camera, an electronics retailer in downtown Tokyo, to get their hands on one of the video game consoles. It sold out even before the store opened at 7 a.m., and would-be buyers were turned away from the store.

Because of production setbacks, Sony Corp. has managed to produce only 100,000 PlayStation 3 machines in time for its debut in Japan. When it goes on sale in the United States on Nov. 17, some 400,000 PS3 consoles will be available there. The sales date has been pushed back in Europe until March.

"Standing in line today is the only way to make sure I got one," said Takayuki Sato, 30, among the buyers who queued up at Bic Camera, snaking around the building in a complete circle.

Powered by the new "Cell" computer chip and supported by the next-generation video format, Blu-ray disc, the console delivers nearly movie-like graphics and a realistic gaming experience.

But game makers like Sony must recoup the exorbitant development costs for the machines by selling software, and programming its cutting-edge hardware is a costly and time-consuming task. Only five games were on sale for the PS3's Japan launch date.

In an unprecedented move, Sony slashed the price for the cheaper PS3 model in Japan ahead of its launch by 20 percent to about 420 U.S. dollars in what some critics said was a desperate effort to maintain market share in the face of intense competition with Nintendo Co.'s Wii console and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360.

Wii goes on sale Nov. 19 in the U.S. and Dec. 2 in Japan. The Xbox 360 has had a year head start.

The PS3 was supposed to launch worldwide sales in spring of this year but was postponed in March to November. In September, the European sales date was delayed by another four months.

Although Sony is claims it will ship 6 million PS3 machines worldwide by the end of March next year, Mitsuhiro Osawa, analyst for Mizuho Investors Securities Co., thinks Sony may fall short of that target.

"There may not be enough machines to go around, and people will buy Wii and Xbox," Osawa said. "For all you know, it may take Sony five years to get back the money it's invested in PS3, even 10 years if it doesn't watch out."

Source:Xinhua/Agencies