PS3: Rarer than Diamonds

PS3 is out, but you’re not getting one.

People stood in line before 7AM at a store in Japan for a chance to buy the Sony PS3 space heater (good grief, they’d have to be giving away $1000 bills to get me to do this). Sony could only build 100,000 of these for the Japan launch, so stores had a very limited supply. The riot squad was standing by with megaphones, just in case things got ugly.

The launch in the U.S. is likely to inspire violence, too, with only 400,000 of these things to go around for the whole country (compare that to the Nintendo Wii supply, which we're told is 4 million units available worldwide, starting November 19). Think back to the Tickle-Me-Elmo riots of recent years or the Cabbage Patch Doll Wars of the past. And sorry, Europe, like the Holiday Barbie of a decade ago, your PS3 will be replaced by an IOU letter from Santa this year.

Let’s hope for Sony’s sake that the limited supply inspires people to pay the high price tag for this much ballyhooed, much delayed, newfangled console with its futuristic Cell processor. Sony needs some cash now, or you won’t be seeing many more of these things next year.

Via AP and AP again.