I suppose I should write something about the Japanese PlayStation 3 launch, seeing as I'm a games developer who's in Japan. Of course, I didn't carry out my devilish plan to try to buy one here and double/triple my money by selling it on eBay to someone who really wants one. With some luck that could've worked, if also I had the energy to queue all night, but I consider myself too old for that kind of thing.
Having just seen an item on TV on the launch, I have no regrets. Twelve employees of the TV show were sent on a mission to buy a PS3, and began queueing 24 hours before the launch which would be at 7am on Saturday. The report showed sleeping people on the streets, sped-up shots of the queues hundreds of people long, and a manic stampede across a street and into a large shop, with security looking utterly helpless. Out of the twelve TV employees five managed to buy a PS3. A good first-hand account of the events can be found here.
