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The response to the launch of each of the so-called next-gen consoles has been absolutely viral. Upon opening their doors to Sony PS3 pre-orders, each outlet that will have systems to sell on launch day has sold out within minutes. In many cases, people camped out for days to get a chance to put a deposit down, that would not even guarantee them a system on launch day in November. So, by the time you're reading this, it will be impossible to pre-order a PS3 from a major outlet in Japan, Canada, or the United States. Mexico will open to local pre-orders in early 2007, and Europe and Australia's PS3s will be launched for March 2007. Due to the scale of the launch, and the ravenous appetite with which fans have frenzied around PS3 pre-orders, small suppliers, middlemen, and profiteers alike have leapt on any opportunity to get in on the demand-hiked prices. Pre-orders of the console itself are not the only thing on offer. Domain squatters are auctioning off PS3 pre-order related web domain names for hundreds to thousands of dollars.
So, if they're all gone, you ask, where can I pre-order a PS3? The answer is quite simple really, and it involves paying one of the aforementioned profiteers vast sums of money. Sony PS3 pre-orders have been selling for thousands of dollars on Ebay scarce though they may be. Many small retailers in Japan, the USA, and Canada made sure to get themselves a good spot in line early, buying up several systems (most stores imposed bag limits, to later sell them online. Amazon.com's pre-orders sold out in a matter of minutes, before they even had time to activate a scheduled mass mail-out, informing those who had requested it that the PS3 pre-orders were open! Fortunately, you won't necessarily have to fork out $2000 to be guaranteed an early system. Furthermore, some prudent retailers have held back a console or two, to re-open sales once PS3 pre-order availability drops off again.
There are still a few floating around, and sites have been set up to help put people in touch with the few systems up for sale. http://www.ps3preorder.net is a site that aims to do just that, although it is showing only a handful of systems available at the time of writing. PS3Vault has maintained news posts about the whole saga, keeping track of launches and the massive crowds that have gathered to get a change to be one of lucky (determined) few. http://www.ps3vault.com/pre-order-ps3/
Consumer response to the PS3 launch has been overwhelming. The launch of the original Xbox, and its successor, Xbox 360 saw similar marvels, but never on the same scale. Even more of Nintendo's Wii's have been pre-ordered, however, given that initial supply and production of the cheaper console is significantly higher than that of Sony's, people have not gone to the degrees to get hold of one of the systems early as they have to obtain a PS3 pre-order. For European and Australasian consumers, there may be more chances to get hold of systems exported through private sales once the units have been in stores for a couple of weeks. Until then, either get out your chequebook, or find a good book to read!
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