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[Wollan]

Early Friday morning, Sony was forced to shut down its company Website as it received 100,000 hits in the first minute that pre-order sales of its upcoming videogame juggernaut, the PlayStation 2, went online.

:O
I remember reading it but pretty damn amazing.

 

[MassiveAttack]

Next month...

 

[Mrbob]

I'm thinking September could be a distinct possibility for PS3 launch in NA.

If we look at the PSP it launched in Japan in December and NA in march, 4 months. Gave Sony enough time to have one million units ready for launch too. Don't know if PS3 will have that many at launch but it would be nice. They would all sell out on the first day too.

 

[Jonnyram]

Cool, bring on April
Should be an interesting month.

BTW... there is no magazine called Digital Dime, that's the name of the website. I'll try and check out the print mag later.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Next month...

That place was packed

 

[ThirdEye]

PlayStation 3 is NOT going to launch before E3. I don't see how anyone can think this.

Japanese people don't give a damn about E3.

 

[mashoutposse]

Ben-Nice of beyond3d wrote a nice history lesson for us

November 27th: 1998 - Sega RELEASED the Dreamcast in Japan at 260$. People thought the graphics were awe-inspiring.

Sony doesn't even unveil their next system until March 2nd: 1999. During the initial unveiling, no games were shown, no tech details, Ken talks about the Emotion Engine.

Sony finally formally unveils the PS2 all the way on May 11th, 1999, a full 3 months after the initial announcement of the system. But still, no games are shown, nothing but a few technical details on the system itself.

September 9th, 1999. Sega releases the Dreamcast here in the United States. System sells out, flies off shelves, gamers are amazed at Soul Calibur.

February 18th, 2000, Sony for the first time shows off playable PS2 games to the public during the Playstation Festival. Nearly a full year after the systems unveiling. Dreamcast still selling strong in the US, falls flat in Japan.

Playstation 2 goes on sale in Japan on March 4th, 2000. Not even a month after the initial playable demos of games were showcased. Even without any first party titles or big name titles, THOUSANDS of people line up to take home the console. Stores are sold out before they officially open and a little less then a million consoles sell. Sony later announces a 980,000 unit mark and 500,000 of those being sold through Playstation Online.

May 10th, 2000. Sony announces plans to ship the PS2 to the US in October.

September 20th, 2000 Sony announces difficulty of manufactoring PS2's for the US due to a new graphic synthesizer design that failed.

October 26th, the Playstation 2 is released in the US selling 500,000 consoles at launch with 100,000 consoles per week hitting stores after that, always selling out. PS2's remained sold out until March 21st, 2001 despite the 100,000 a week shipments


memories of goldfish...........they did the same for ps1 too

Actually, GT2000 was playable at E3 1999 and the March 4, 2000 launch date was revealed during the Fall 99 TGS in September. Still, I agree with the sentiment that an April release is by no means impossible.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

I remember the Japanese PS2 launch not having much of anything in terms of games and it still sold out the ass, April seems possible.

 

[SolidSnakex]

I remember the Japanese PS2 launch not having much of anything in terms of games and it still sold out the ass, April seems possible.

The games I remember are Tekken Tag, Ridge Racer V and 0 Story.

 

[Idioteque]

The games I remember are Tekken Tag, Ridge Racer V and 0 Story.

In Japan Tekken Tag didn't come out until a few weeks after launch.

It was released on the same day as DOA2.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

The games I remember are Tekken Tag, Ridge Racer V and 0 Story.

Yeah, I could only really remember Tekken and Ridge, the US launch was like a buffet in comparision to the measly anorexic plate of Japan's launch.

 

[Chrono]

So when in february is this playstation festival?

 

[MassiveAttack]

So when in february is this playstation festival?

Using PS Festival 2000 as a guide, it should be during the last two weeks of the month. The 2000 event was Feb 18th-20th (Fri-Sun).

 

[Vince]

PS2's launch lineup was similar. And it took Namco 6 months to remake Tekken Tag for PS2 and Ridge Racer V was done in 5 months. These guys work fast!

You really haven't seen me around if you think I'm laughing at you or April as a launch window; preaching to the choir my friend. SCE has an impressive manufacturing capability in place for their ICs, which they should since it's now 1H2006 and not 2H2005 as initially, and is working towards having a pretty strong infastructure in place; I don't know much about the games though.

I was laughing at teiresias's comment, the guy's a riot.

 

[Jonnyram]

In Japan Tekken Tag didn't come out until a few weeks after launch.

It was released on the same day as DOA2.

I don't think it was, because I got DOA2 while I was still in Japan but Tekken didn't come out until I went home so I couldn't buy it. Fantavision also came out about a week or 10 days after launch. If Tekken is ready for PS3 launch, it's unlikely to be online.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Interesting if true. Like I stated before, Sony seems to be following the same path with information release, and actual Hardware release that they did with the PS2 (possibly even the PS1). Alot of things harken back to the PS2 release, be it price of the actual system, date of release and probably even if launch games would suck.

Hopefully the US gets an Fall release for the PS3. I'll be picking one up.

 

[Shinobi]

I remember the Japanese PS2 launch not having much of anything in terms of games and it still sold out the ass, April seems possible.

Japanese launch lineups almost always suck...along with the aforementioned PS2 lineup, Saturn had VF1, Clockwork Knight, a butchered Rad Mobile and nothing else, PSX had Ridge Racer the overrated Toshitden and not much else, and DC had a barebones VF3, Godzilla and fucking Pen Pen. :lol PS3 couldn't do any worse then that...and like you said, it isn't gonna matter anyway.

 

[Spencerr]

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/075/075383p1.html

Hopefully their website is stable enough to handle the PS3 pre orders.

Explain your avatar now. Girl very hot.

 

[Shinobi]

Heh, "girl" being the key word there...