PlayStation 3 Japanese Launch
One Big Blur
So I'm sitting here on a bus speeding to Narita International Airport in Japan on my way home after a whirlwind trip to Japan for PS3 launch. I meant to write something in my blog during the trip but it's been just a little crazy so the ride to the airport has turned out to be the first chance I've had. So here's a quick run through the trip.
Arrival:
Left SFO Tuesday morning got in Wednesday night. Awesome traffic stretched the normally two hour limo shuttle ride to close to 3 hours. Once Takeshi and I got to our hotel we made a run for some beef bowl, ran back to the room to tape the video segment they ran on On the Spot, checked in with a friend that was helping us out with our PS3 adventure and then passed out.
Thursday morning we made a run to Akihabara to shoot some stuff and get a feel for where the best place to camp out for our PS3 was going to be. I'd been ready to start lining up by 2 or 3 in the afternoon but a lot of the stores we intended on pitching a tent by were discouraging folks from lining up- mostly due to the fact that most stores weren't expected to get many units. Finally checked in with our buddy Henry who popped over and joined us as we merged into the conspicuously line-like clump of loiterers standing in front of the Yodabashi Camera watching PS3 trailers. Later in the evening around 8:00 Yodabashi employess busted out some bullhorns and announced that if people didn't disperse they wouldn't be able to sell units in the morning. So we all dispersed, like 10 feet and just all spread out, sort of like that final scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". Once bullhorn guy left everyone edged in again. I tapped out and left Takeshi in line while Henry and I made the rounds to other local stores to doublecheck all our options. Our backup plan was to try one of the launch day raffles happening in several stores on the morning of the 11th. In order to be eligible I had to go sign up for point cards at a few stores. When that was sorted I traded spots with Takeshi so he could go sign up too and wedged myself in to the crowd right in front of the PS3 monitors running trailers for games and an interactive kiosk that let you play Devil May Cry, Gran Turismo and Ridge Racer. We expected it to be mellow until after the store closed at 10 pm since employees and the local cops made it clear they weren't allowing lines until after the store closed.
Things didn't quite turn out that way.
So there I am wedged between tons of people watching the Afrika trailer yet again. I heard someone start talking loud, I recognized the word "line" (my Japanese aint what it used to be) and then the world kind of exploded. People ran away from the store and towards a guy holding a PS3 sign up the street, the start of the official line. I was ready to join the "running of the nerd" herd but one of the runners in front of me fell so I stopped so's not to stomp him and wound up getting shoved from behind and going down for a bit. I got a little stomped trying to get back up cos rather than step over someone on the ground mofos acted like they were playing DDR with me as the pad (ow! ow! ow!) Eventually I did get back up and found myself in a big honkin line. It seemed uncomfortably far from the store so I was a little worried that my getting mashed by tomorrow's DDR champions had cost me a good place in line. When Takeshi and Henry got back a while later they were a little taken aback by my new location considering how primo the spot in front of the monitors was but what're you gonna do? I tapped out with Takeshi a little later so I could nurse my wounds. I went back about 1 am and parked it in our spot on the sidewalk. Takeshi headed on out to work on editing video leaving me to have all kinds of fun sitting on the ground until 7am praying that it wouldn't rain.
The wait wasn't so bad thanks to the magic of the DS and PSP although, in retrospect, something soft to sit on wouldn't have been bad. The vibe was a little weird. Though there were plenty of Japanese folk and foreigners who were genuinely excited for the system. There was also a different crowd there namely scalpers and their minions. Amidst all the regular folk it wasn't too hard to spot people who were there with the intention of grabbing a unit to either eBay or turn over to someone who was paying them to stand in line.
Takeshi returned around 6 am because we'd heard Ken Kutaragi was going to make an appearance. It made sense since he'd been on hand 2 years ago to sell the first PSP so Takeshi wanted to be around in case he made a return. As it happened he didn't show up to sell the first one although we did catch sight of Phil Harrison, who put in a brief appearance before heading out to make his rounds. When 7am rolled around the store opened and started selling units. Of course since I was #449 it's not like I had to move for a while. While I waited for my turn to go by the line started shuffling forward… and it started to rain buckets. Henry got me an umbrella from a nearby convenience store and also got Takeshi a poncho since he was still trying to film stuff.
I finally got into the store at around 8:45am and got to stand in yet another line that weaved through the aisles. As I waited for my turn I was slowly driven insane by a trailer for Kirby Squeak Squad on DS which looped the 20 second tune over and over. 9:15 I got I finally got to a register. I got a 60gig, the five launch titles, and a handful of Sixaxis controllers, turns out they were sold out of the memory card adapter. Thankfully Henry offered to pick one up on his run through Akihabara to assess launch aftermath for a news story. With our PS3 in hand Takeshi and I made our way to our hotel to check it out. We got a bonus on our way out when we got handed a FROM SOFTWARE HD Visual Preview Disc, fancy name for a disc containing Amrored Core 4 and Enchant Arms PS3 trailers.
First thing we did was update the firmware and then start to poke around with the games, Genji, Resistance, Ridge, Gundam, and Sega Golf Club. Three of them, Resistance, Ridge, and Gundam, offered English language options while Genji and Sega Golf Club were all Japapnese all the time. The downside to our experience was that all we had to work with was a standard def TV and the simple RCA cables that come with the PS3- not an ideal set up. For what it's worth everything looked good enough on the TV. Web browsing was a bit of a chore due to the cell phone style text input but most pages loaded up fine although flash proved to be a problem depending on the site. Once that was done I passed out on the floor for a bit.
Follow Up From Home:
Rest of the trip is fuzzy but I remember packing, hitting up some UFO Catchers for souvenirs for the gang back home, responding to a PM from Sethfrost, dropping stuff off at work, seeing Greg and Ryan Davis who were there reviewing stuff, doing some email and then heading home. Also I seem to recall meeting a dude named Steve (I think) on the BART ride home who asked for my autograph. I stumbled home and passed out. Insane? Yes. But also oddly fun. End of the day console launches don’t happen that often and it's always a unique experience. Granted this one may have felt a little low key because of the quantities in stores but it's still the start of a new set of boxes to play on so it was worth the madness and stomping.
Next up PS3 and Wii US launches. O_0
