"Next-gen has finally started"... apparently.

Aye, the PS3 has launched... finally. After two false starts, and numerous problems, the PS3 hit Japan this morning. And I think it's safe to say that there are now a lot of PS3's whirring away in homes across the country.

But not all of them are merrily playing games, ho no, Ebay has it's fair share.

The highest price for one so far (no bids) is $3,999, with P&P FREE.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PS3-NOW-AVAILABL...QQcmdZViewItem

The highest price WITH bidders? It's just hit $2000 (32nd bid), and will cotinue to rise for the next hour.

http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-PS3-PLAYSTA...QQcmdZViewItem
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=160049637521

Edit:

Hell, I've just realised... the PS3 they're bidding on is still in a warehouse somewhere. If you can sell something you haven't got for so much, then what about something you HAve got?!

And here's little old me, expecting to be waiting until March (and most likely beyond)... why can't someone donate a PS3 to Lenaid instead of flogging the bastard for all it's worth?!

Hopefully we'll hear news of it blowing up in whichever lucky bugger's face who bought it... well, hopefully not.

So, America will be in a frenzy in 6 days, and come November 20th we should know everything there is to know about the PS3 - any bugs, does the Power Supply pop out and kill everyone if the special codephrase "360 pwns ur ass" is uttered, will the SIXAXIS batteries need to be recalled because one was put in a Laptop and the Laptop blew up just as the video recorder was pointed at it?

Time will tell.

Whilst we're waiting, I'm putting together a team to annihilate the monsters who killed this innocent machine:

http://www.playstatic.com/news/182

I wonder how long it's going to take before they stop being backordered. I read somewhere that sony was having troubles with some crystal thats a big part of the blu ray laser.

That was months ago!

The big fiasco about Sony having troubles with the manufacture of the Blu-Ray diode is what wrecked their perfect idea of a worldwide launch.

Were it not for the diode Japan would have had a million units, America a couple of million, Europe a couple of million, and the rest of the world a million.

As it is that was cut to 80,000 for Japan, 20,000 for Hong Kong and Taiwan on the 17th, and 400,000 for NA on the 17th... and yet Sony are still adamant that they will reach their target of 2 million targets sold by the end of December, and 6 million sold by the end of the fiscal year on March 31st.

Umm silly Rabbit, reports said Japan had recieved there 100,000 units as previosly planned.

Sony are also planning to release a 100,000 consoles per month after launch as well, so it should be good.

The damn diode shortages...its difficult to produce the Blu-ray diodes cause they need some special crystals and some shit to make them and they couldn't get enough, they even delayed there BD Players just for the PS3.

The Japanese were lined up, I mean 2000+ people line ups for the console at single stores...everybody there seemed to want one.

Ooh? So they DID get their 100,000 after all?

Lucky them.

-----

I didn't know that the manufacture of BD Players has been delayed. That IS something. Looks like Sony will do anything to get the PS3 out.

-----

Ooooh! It's been confirmed that on Nov 17th everyone in the "Europe" territory (Europe, China, Australia, and anywhere else without a console) will be able to register their Gamertags on the PS3 store using their PC.

I dare any of you to take Lenny!

---

And here's an interesting yet spooky article comparing the PS2 launch to the PS3 launch.

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3155102

1up, ign and all of them have been bashing the PS3 from the very beginning.

From the beginning, maybe, but I've been reading more and more on the sites that is praising the PS3.

Sure, they all find the odd fault with this that and the other, but they're the same faults that the pro-PS3 camp has been finding. Minor things like:

- Controller being very light
- Trigger buttons being smooth and slippery
- Dirty fingerprints on the console

I've got a friend who hates the PS3 (surprise surprise, he's a 360 fanboy), yet he keeps on sending me articles from places like 1up and IGN (his favourite ghaming sites), and more increasingly the articles have been positive.

EDIT: May be because I'm reading IGN UK etc. They like it: http://uk.ps3.ign.com/launchguide/hardware1.html