New preorder for Wii from SuccessHK

Price:USD 48.74



Tony Hawk Downhill Jam on Wii.



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New preorder for Wii from SuccessHK

Price:USD 48.74



Call of Duty 3 continues the series of World War II shooters, this time focusing on the battle for the liberation of Paris - known as the Normandy Breakout.



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New preorder for Wii from SuccessHK

Price:USD 48.74



Call of Duty 3 continues the series of World War II shooters, this time focusing on the battle for the liberation of Paris - known as the Normandy Breakout.



...

New preorder for Wii from SuccessHK

Price:USD 48.74



Call of Duty 3 continues the series of World War II shooters, this time focusing on the battle for the liberation of Paris - known as the Normandy Breakout.



...

Via IGN

If you plan on picking up a PlayStation 3 anytime soon and are worried about the dent that the system and its peripherals will put in your wallet, you may want to consider picking up some USB adapters for the PS2's Dual Shock 2 controller. These relatively cheap adapters are made for using a Dual Shock 2 on a PC, but they seem to work quite well with every PlayStation 3 game that we've tried. You need to switch on the analog button when you plug them in and they're missing the PlayStation button that brings up the Cross Media Bar, but other than that they seem perfectly functional.

With that, we assumed that Guitar Hero and its sequel would work perfectly well on the PlayStation 3. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. When you pop in a PS2 or PSone game, you're prompted to tap the PlayStation button on the controller. For what reason, we're not sure, but as Guitar Hero's SG controller doesn't have this button, you can't actually activate it. You also can't quick-swap from one controller to another as the second part of the problem lies in that you need to turn on analog control, but again, the SG guitar doesn't have an on/off button for analog play.

Yes, this sucks. Yes, we really hope someone releases an adapter sometime soon. ...

This obviously sounds way too good to be true, so consider it rumor/unicorn-caliber fantasy at this point, but Techcrunch is saying they have a "rock solid source" telling them that mega-retailer Amazon will be selling some Xbox 360's for $100.

Yeah. $100. That isn't a typo. $100. Just to be clear, that's $100. Got it? One hundred dollars. American.

They point to the "Core System" as the model to be promotionally slashed, but don't give any other specifics about what else to expect. Keep your eyes peeled and your F5 well-oiled for maximum cheap ass gaming potential. ...

Via Gamespot

Getting a preorder for the PlayStation 3 has been nothing but hardship for many gamers in Japan, since it was expected that trying to buy a unit without one would be next to impossible. However, it may turn out that lining up to buy on launch day isn't going to be as difficult as it once seemed.

Around the time of the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced that its day-one shipment of PS3s in Japan on November 11 will only be 100,000 units. In 2004, the company shipped double that number of PlayStation Portables, which sold out in a matter of minutes. To make things worse, recent industry reports have been saying that the actual shipment could be as low as 80,000 units.

Most retailers have kept their expected PS3 inventories secret, but a few places disclosed figures that brought a chill to gamers without preorders. Laox announced that they would be receiving only 10 to 20 units for each of their stores in Nakano, Toyosu, and Atsugi, though it kept its Akihabara branch figures undisclosed. Best Denki's Shinjuku branch and GEO's Ishikawa branch revealed that they will be getting only five units each, despite both of them being nationwide chains.

Finding a PS3 preorder on the Internet seemed equally unlikely. Amazon Japan closed its preorder offer just 20 minutes after it opened last month. The online shop for national chain Tsutaya overloaded, closing down in just five minutes. Gamers praying that Sony would offer a massive number of preorders at its official shopping site were also disappointed. Two weeks ago, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan announced that it won't sell the console at all online.

Many national chain stores announced weeks ago that they wouldn't be taking preorders at launch due to a lack of units. Established chains including Sofmap, Kojima Electronics (no relation to the Metal Gear Solid producer), and most Bic Camera stores opted to hold raffles on launch day and sell units to the lucky winners.

The last resort for getting a PS3 console at launch was going to be stores that were going to sell the units on a first-come, first-served basis. And as it turns out, it pays off to never give up.



Lucky PlayStation 3 happy magic ticket!
GameSpot made the rounds through the stores of Tokyo around midnight. To our surprise, when we reached Akihabara's Yodobashi Camera, Tokyo's biggest electronics store, at 1:30 a.m., the huge line of over 600 people had disappeared, with only a small row of about 70 or so people milling about the store's entrance.

Looks, however, can be deceiving. The line had actually grown to a size of nearly 1,500 customers, and Yodobashi employees decided to move everyone into the store's basement-level parking lot. All the customers that were moved were given numbered tickets that guaranteed them a PS3, although some people in the back were told that they may not be able to choose between the 20GB and 60GB PS3 models. The 70-odd people outside weren't guaranteed a PS3, but they decided to continue lining up with hopes that there may be some leftovers or cancellations.

Inside the parking lot, most of the people seemed lively, probably because they knew they were going to get a PS3. They might have also been happy that they didn't have to wait for days outside. The man in the very front of the line had only arrived at 10 p.m. the previous night, while the last customers, who had tickets numbered in the mid-1400's, hadn't shown up until midnight.

Another store, the Laox Asobit City, also had a large number of people lining up for the PS3, although nowhere as many as the Akihabara Yodobashi Camera. As mentioned above, Laox has been one of the few chains that revealed the number of PS3s it will sell in most of its stores, so we expected the Akihabara line to be about 30 people by midnight, at most. But by 1:30 a.m., the line stood 250 strong, and an employee was shooing people away from its end, saying the store had no more units to sell.

At the Shinjuku Yodobashi Camera, there were a total of approximately 780 people waiting to buy a PS3. Similarly to the Akihabara branch, the people in line were given numbered tickets that guaranteed them a unit. And at the line's end, there was a sign that read "sold out." According to one of the customers in the rear, he was able to get a ticket despite showing up as late as 10:30 p.m.

So what happened when the clock struck midnight? In a word, nothing. Unlike in the US, Japanese retailers don't begin selling their consoles once the date changes, forcing gamers to hold out until morning. ...

Via Gamespot

For the hearty souls willing to brave the chill of a November night in Tokyo, it didn't take more than a few minutes past midnight to know if a PlayStation 3 would be theirs--those lucky gamers were handed a numbered ticket which guaranteed them a unit. Then, it was just a matter of waiting out the hours until the stores of Shinjuku and Akihabara opened their shutters.

But for the general masses that woke up at more reasonable hours Saturday, the best they could do was to secure a raffle ticket and hope that lady luck was on their side when they returned to the store when the raffle was being held.

Counting down the hours.
While there may have been enough PS3s for the hardcore gamers who wanted them badly, there was no denying that Sony's Japan allocation way too slim to match the demand.

As the countdown to the PlayStation 3 launch in Japan ticked down to its last minutes, GameSpot editors headed to Shinjuku's Yodobashi Camera, where SCEI president Ken Kutaragi made an appearance during the PSP launch back in 2004.

Prepping for the first sales.
SCE head of worldwide studios Phil Harrison was spotted for a short moment just before the scheduled launch time, at 7AM, but most eyes were peeled for Kutaragi, who was expected to show up and reprise his leading the PSP launch in '04.

Kutaragi did eventually appear at the store as we had expected, but unfortunately, it was well over an hour after the opening hour and drama of the launch activities. He had picked the Bic Camera main branch outlet in Yurakucho to hand out the first console--to a young eager customer from China we were told.

We have a winner.
At Shinjuku's Yodobashi camera, the first person on line was a 22-year-old student who had been waiting in line since 6pm on Friday. While he looked tired and worn from the long wait, he shined a grin as he walked away with PS3 and Mobile Suit Gundam game.

Similar scenes were taking place in other locations throughout Tokyo, most selling PS3s without preorders or raffle tickets. The Ikebukuro Bic Camera had over 1,200 customers with numbered tickets, while the Shibuya Tsutaya, the official launch location for Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360, had about 300 units to sell.

For others, the rain continues--as does the wait.
While hardcore gamers returned home happily with their PS3, it was another story with the general public who weren't aware that the PS3 would be supplied in only limited numbers.

From around 8am on, we saw dozens of people approaching stores only to see Sold Out signs in front. It was pretty apparent what was going to happen next.

To see how things were going at stores giving away the raffle tickets, we went to the Shinjuku Bic Camera to see if there was a line. To our surprise, over 400 people had formed a line by around 9am--when the store was scheduled to hand out raffle tickets. But soon, a staffer came out and held up a Sold Out sign at the end of the line, telling the unlucky stragglers they no chance at all at buying a unit.

A similar scene was happening at Sakuraya, which only had about 20 units each of the 20GB and 60GB models. There was still a line of about 200 people even after the scheduled closing time of the raffle ticket distribution.

In Akihabara, Sofmap's main branch had about 300 people lined up to get raffle tickets, with everyone holding umbrellas to cope with the heavy rain. Similar to the line at Shinjuku Bic Camera, a staffer eventually came up and held up a Sold Out sign, turning away any additional people trying to line up after 9:30am when the store was to hand out its tickets.

Generally, those waiting in line to get raffle tickets were a very different group from the customers who waited overnight. The crowds we saw in the overnight lines consisted of hardcore gamers, foreigners, and homeless people hired by scalpers. They were mostly male, and many of them wore heavy clothing to survive the cold, additionally prepared with portable chairs and handheld gaming machines.

On the other hand, the lines that formed at raffle locations this morning consisted of more casually dressed people with a good number of female customers, parents with children, and a few elderly folks lining up to buy a PS3 for their grandchildren perhaps.

Sony seemed to have anticipated there might not be enough PS3s for the casual consumers at launch, which would explain why the company seemed to have been holding back on its mass market ad campaign. While Sony had posted numerous billboards at train stations and had run a flight of TV ads in prime time, the company didn't begin its push until just a week ago. In comparison, Nintendo has been running Wii ads on TV for nearly a month, even through the console isn't due until December.

Given the high demand of the PS3, the console is already selling at inflated prices on auction sites. The 60GB model, which sold for an average price of 59,800 yen ($508) at retailers is selling now for around 90,000 ...

The Japanese launch of the PlayStation 3 has shed some more light on the contents of the day-one firmware update, 1.10, which had previously been billed as a patch to enable PlayStation Network access.

Well, translations of the Sony Japan update page, and early sightings of the equivalent firmware data from Sony America, suggest that it does a bit more than that - tweaking a bunch of multimedia settings, allowing for downloads in the Internet browser and PS3 Store among other things. ...