Well the big day has finally arrived for Playstation 3 fans across Europe and Australia - the PS3 has finally landed. Just a few short hours ago the Sony machine launched in London, and needless to say some people walked away very happy indeed. Sony decided to give every person who strolled in to the official London launch of the PS3 a 46-inch HDTV, for free. This amounted to over 100 gamers getting an awesome freebie, and cost Sony some £250,000. How's that for some gaming goodness?
Unlike the Japanese and North American PS3 launches, Europe and Australia should not have any console shortages - 1 million units will be available for the launch. However all is not rosey for Sony yet as PS3 sales continue to be lukewarm to cool in both Japan and North America. However Sony is quick to point out that the PS3 is still their most successful console launch yet, and that the PS3 is currently out pacing the Xbox 360 at the same stage in that consoles initial release back in 2005/2006.
In addition, over the past week or so as Sony geared up for the launch, they made available a backwards compatibility list detailing a fairly large catalog of games that will run on the PS3 after the 1.6 firmware update. Around 75% of the games for the PS2 will run on the PS3. That amounts to 1,782 titles in all. Some games are known to be a bit "wonky" right now (including Final Fantasy XII apparently, among some other high profile games) but Sony will continue to update the list, and add more games to it down the road.
The Playstation 3 will retail for £425 (599 Euros) in the UK (and Europe I would assume) and $999.95 AUS in Australia.
So my fellow gamers from the UK (Europe also) and AUS, how many of you picked up a PS3? Who is going to pick one up?
Link: Neowin forum discussion on HDTV giveaway Thanks American Ninja Link: BPN discussion Thanks Hum Link: PS3 backwards compatibility catalog Link: PS3 launch coverage @ BBC
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