Sony's PlayStation 3 made its highly anticipated debut in Japan to long lines on Saturday, marking the initial launch of the video game console that's expected to become a global sellout.

Throngs of people lined up for hours around Bic Camera, an electronics retailer in downtown Tokyo, to get their hands on one of the consoles. The enthusiasm was so great that clerks with megaphones asked the crowd to stop pushing, warning that all sales would end if there were any injuries.

"Standing in line today is the only way to make sure I got one," said Takayuki Sato, 30, among the buyers who queued up at Bic Camera, snaking around the building in a complete circle.

But would-be buyers were turned away even before the store opened at 7 a.m. The retailer refused to say how many machines it had, but said it knew it would sell out based on the length of the line around the building.

Short supplies were reported elsewhere, too. Sanae Saito, a clerk at Yodobashi Camera Co. chain, said her store's stock had already sold out, although she declined to say how many machines had been available.

"It's all sold out with the people in line now," she said. "So many people waited in line."

Plagued with production problems, Sony Corp. has managed to ready only 100,000 PlayStation 3 machines in time for its debut in Japan. About 400,000 PS3 consoles will be available when it goes on sale in North America on Nov. 17. The console's  European launch has been pushed back until March.

Movie-like graphics

Powered by the new "Cell" computer chip and supporting the next-generation Blu-ray video disc format, the console is capable of delivering nearly movie-like graphics and gaming experience that approaches reality.

Sony will be losing money for a some time on each PS3 sold because of the high costs for research and production that went into the highly sophisticated machine.

Game makers, including Sony, must recoup the exorbitant development costs for the machines by selling software, and programming the PS3's cutting-edge hardware is an expensive and time-consuming task. Only five games were on sale for the PS3's Japan launch date.

Sony expects to lose $1.7 billion US in its gaming division in the fiscal year through March 2007.

The red ink is coming at a time when the Japanese electronics and entertainment company, known for the Walkman portable audio player and Spider-Man movies, is struggling to stage a comeback.

In recent years, Sony has fallen behind in key products such as flat-panel TVs and digital music players. But it has been making progress during a two-year revival by getting back to basics in its consumer electronics operations.

However, a major fumble in its PS3 business could prove a huge blow at a time when it's seeing its brand image badly tarnished by a massive global recall of its lithium-ion batteries for laptop computers.

Price cut seen as desperate

In an unprecedented move, Sony slashed the price for the cheaper PS3 model in Japan ahead of its launch by 20 per cent to about $420 US in what some critics have scorned as a desperate effort to maintain market share in the face of intense competition with Nintendo Co.'s Wii console and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360. Wii goes on sale Nov. 19 in North America and Dec. 2 in Japan. The Xbox 360 has had a year's start.

Tatsuya Mizuno, analyst for Fitch Ratings in Tokyo, believes it will be hard for Sony to maintain the 70-per-cent market share domination it has built with previous PlayStation consoles. He said Sony will likely lose some of that market to rivals, especially Nintendo.

Sony has sold more than 200 million PlayStation series machines over the years.

Canadian Press