Japanese customers queue for long-awaited PlayStation 3

Sony’s PlayStation 3 made its highly anticipated debut in Japan to long queues today, with local stores selling out of their supplies of the video game console.

Throngs of people lined up for hours around Bic Camera, an electronics retailer in downtown Tokyo, to get their hands on one of the consoles.

This pattern is expected to be repeated around the world.

“Standing in line today is the only way to make sure I got one,” said Takayuki Sato, 30.

But would-be buyers were turned away even before the store opened at 7am.

The retailer refused to say how many machines it had, but a spokeswoman said the store had sold out of its entire supply by 1pm (4am Irish time).

Plagued with production problems, Sony Corp. has managed to get only 100,000 PlayStation 3 machines ready in time for its debut in Japan.

When it goes on sale in the United States on November 17, some 400,000 PS3 consoles will be available there.

The console’s European launch has been pushed back until March.

Ken Kutaragi, the head of Sony’s game unit known as the “father of the PlayStation,” said he was thrilled by the reception to the PS3.

“I am so happy so many people are waiting,” he said in an informal countdown ceremony at Bic Camera. “Thank you for waiting. Please enjoy next-generation entertainment.”

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

Sony will be losing money for some time on each PS3 sold because of the high costs for research and production that went into the highly sophisticated machine.

Game makers, including Sony, must recoup the development costs for the machines by selling software, and programming the PS3’s cutting-edge hardware is an expensive 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 in what some critics have scorned as a desperate effort to maintain market share in the face of intense competition with Nintendo’s Wii console and the Microsoft Xbox 360.

Wii goes on sale on November 19 in the US and December 2 in Japan.

Tatsuya Mizuno, analyst for Fitch Ratings in Tokyo, believes it will be hard for Sony to maintain the 70 percent market share domination it has built with previous PlayStation consoles, and Sony will be likely to lose some of that market to rivals, especially Nintendo. Sony has sold more than 200 million PlayStation series machines over the years.

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

Although Sony is sticking to its plan to ship six 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.”

Others were more upbeat.

Kazuharu Miura, analyst with Daiwa Institute of Research, said the initial losses weren’t surprising and the PS3 business was likely to produce solid profits for Sony by 2008, even if the machine’s market share may slide to as low as 60 percent.

“Success of a game machine doesn’t depend on market share but on whether it can get a return on its investment,” he said.