Midnight sales under the Eiffel Tower in Paris and at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin will blitz Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 onto the European stage on Friday, but the new games machine faces stiff competition.
A handful of gamers gathered to line up for the launch at the Virgin Megastore in central London on Thursday afternoon, eating free sandwiches and playing racing game "MotorStorm" on a giant screen.
First in the queue was student Ritatsu Thomas, 17, who arrived at 5 a.m. on Wednesday with his own sleeping bag. He passed the time playing computer games in the store's basement.
Most of his friends want one of the new consoles, but have been put off by its 425 pound ($836) price, he said.
"They want to buy it but don't have the money," he said, adding his pals had bought the cheaper Wii, made by rival Nintendo Co Ltd. Thomas already owns a Wii, an Xbox 360, a PlayStation 2 and a GameCube.
After Japanese and North American consumers picked up their first PlayStation 3 in November, Europeans have had to wait four more months for Sony to produce the one million consoles it said were needed for the introduction.
Sony has had to delay the European launch as it struggled to produce enough key components such as the advanced Cell processor and the Blu-ray optical drive for the new, high-density disks which can also play high-definition movies.
The extra storage and computing power boosts picture detail and 3D graphics well beyond its predecessor PlayStation 2, but also boosts the price.
PS3's 425 pounds, or 599 euros, is over that of Nintendo's Wii which sells for 249 euros and also above Microsoft's Xbox 360 which sells for 449 euros — but without a 180 euro advanced optical drive which is integrated in PS3.
Sony's late start and its premium positioning of the PS3 as the "Rolls Royce of consoles" has analysts wondering whether Sony will match the success of its PS2, of which it has sold 115 million since 2000.
The first signs from retail are cause for some concern.
"While Sony has set expectations for one million units at launch, we believe the amount will be in the 500,000 to 700,000 unit range across all of Europe. We think the shortfall is related more to demand than supply," said analyst Todd Greenwald at brokerage Nollenberger Capital Partners.
To date, 1.1 million PS3s have been sold in the United States versus 2.2 million Xbox 360s and 1.9 million of the Wii of which Nintendo could not make enough, he estimates.
"I'm gonna wait, simply because I can't afford a 600 euro price tag in April and the catalog is largely made up of games that have been out on the Xbox 360 for at least a year. Add to that I can't afford an HD (high-definition) screen," said Jolyon Leonard, a Madrid-based games developer.
Long-term projections from some analysts predict Nintendo's "casual gaming" console Wii will come out as the winner in the current devices race.
Extrapolating sales so far, and following historical patterns, analysts at investment bank J.P. Morgan predict Sony will sell between 60 and 65 million PS3s, compared with 40 to 45 million Xbox 360 units and up to 100 million Wii consoles.
"Sony seems to be facing the biggest challenge, but never rule out PlayStation. They were market leader twice in a row," said Justin Keeling, head of publishing at gaming site IGN.com.
Gamers point out they buy the PS3 for more than its games.
"It's got a lot of bad press for the price for no reason. The Blu-ray player itself is worth the money, let alone the fact that you get a (60 Gigabyte) hard drive, a games console, wireless controller, the option to connect online. They've moved on from just games consoles," said student Gary Tahmasbi, 25, from east London.
Additional reporting by Niclas Mika in Amsterdam.
