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Some Japanese consumers camped out in freezing cold weather for days prior to the PS2's March 4th launch. Sony's Japanese website collapsed under the weight of hundreds of thousands of hits per minute when Sony announced that it would be taking on-line reservations for the machine. Two days after being released on sale, some 980,000 PlayStation2's had been sold. In videogaming history, there had never been a console launch to rival it. |
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The intervention of Tokyo's police in Akihabara on the launch date of the PlayStation2 is quite unheard of in Japan, let alone the rest of the world. Consumer demand for the little black and blue machine had risen to such outrageous proportions that, even having resorted to delicatessen-style service tickets to eager consumers, shop proprietors in Tokyo's consumer electronic districts were left with little option than to call for help! |
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But then there has never been a machine to rival this. Specifications, aesthetics, market positioning, software support, outlandish hype, and future promise mix to form such a formidable brew that every other videogame hardware manufacturer must look on and, if only fleetingly, consider giving it all up. |
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