Of the many things I love in games, Playstation is one of them. I have all the machines PS, PS2, and now PS3! The build up to the launching was pretty exciting. It all started from the
lowyat forums, when I heard a rumor saying that the PS3 was finally launching in Malaysia. All the rest of the world they were launched like near 2 years ago.. Yeah, MALAYSIA BOLEH!
With me checking on the forums pretty much often to see when is the official date of the launch, it was finally announced, 20th September 2008 is the official launch date. I didn't get the console earlier because the vendors here do not provide warranty for the unit, and the games was pretty much expensive. So coming back to the story, I was pretty excited and told my housemate Felix about the launch, and he was pretty much hyped by it too :P.
The event was to be held at 10am in One Utama Shopping Complex. Early birds who come early for the units will receive cash vouchers apart from the package which includes: The console, 1 DS3 Controller, Soul Callibur 4, one more game of 4 choices, a PS3 tote bag, and a Soul Calibur 4 cd container (which looks more like a plastic container toy thing). Early birds would receive cash vouchers as follows: 1st-3rd:RM1000m 4th-20th:RM500, 21st-50th:RM300, 51st-120th:RM150. The official time in which the queue was suppose to be 8am on the launch day itself.
The eve came, and when I checked the forums at about 7pm, some user posted that there was already a queue there! I panicked! So I decided to camp overnight there in the queue, with my housemate :P. Grab my stuff, had dinner and went off! Reached there about 10.30pm, and straight away queued on the line, wondering what number I was. After some counting, I realised we are number 39th and 40th in line! Yippie! RM300 voucher is in our hands! (if we survive the night that is).
So the night started out with us trying to get comfortable with the place. Felix trying to get Wifi access on his laptop and finally got even a power point to charge his laptop while he watch his anime to burn time. As for myself, I walked around the place and looked at the 24hours games marathon which has already started, laze around in the empty shopping complex (only to be chased out by security guards!), and talk around with the kiasu people of Malaysia. (including myself :P) There were tents set up by the people queuing, so they were really well prepared. As for me and Felix, we just sat and slept on the floor. It was really going to be a looooong night. Here's a few pictures taken around 12pm-3am. (sorry for the poor quality of pictures, taken on my old Clie palmtop)
The night went pretty slow, with me getting restless and not able to sleep outdoors. So I slept couple of minutes here and there in the car with the air con on :P. Oh, and they provided a dinner buffet for us to eat at night. The people queuing were from all over Malaysia, some from Ipoh, Johor, and even Penang. The organizers were pretty busy still setting up the place. So we waited till morning came.
7am came, and there was an influx of "late-comers" or rather "on-time" people who came thinking they would be in the top 50 or so since they came an hour before time. haha. To thier suprise, they were like 90th in place but still lucky to get a RM150 voucher. The organizers has only provided 120 units to be sold during the launch, so anyone after 120th wouldn't be able to get a console.
8am came, and the organizers gave us the official numbers in queue to pick up our PS3! The crowd was then building up, there was also a rehersal on the event, since the big boss of Sony is going to be present.
10am came and the public was around, the media was around, the ViP not really there yet, plenty of Sony girls around in sexy white uniforms to promote the PS3, games, accessories and BD movies. There was also going to be a PS3 girl competition. So there were alot of girls in around the place trying to stay calm for thier catwalk, and stage appearances.
Pictures!
The FIRST batch of PS3 arriving!
Hot PS3 Girl Contestants!
More gaming girls dresses in costumes.
Cute 8tv Newscaster!
Sony Promoters
More promoters
The PS3 Game Girl Contestants
More contestants
The First PS3 Customer (yes she's a GIRL, ZOMG!) She came with her bf and lined up from THURSDAY! (yeah, 2 days camping!) Those 2 are the Sony VIP presenting it to her.
The view of the sony launch from outside.
The queue....(no you can't see me there, these are the "late-comers" probably 75th-130th.
KAMPAI!!!!! (yeah, the VIP spoke Japanese all the way)
Lucky Kid!!
Cute girl :P
The games marathon of Soul Calibur 4, won the Malaysia Guiness Record for longest game marathon. Winner won back one 42" Bravia LCD TV, 1 PS3.
The selling booth. And below is the queue where I was, (you see the middle guy with the cap? that's Felix my housemate!, The fair guy with the blue short pants, sports shoes carrying a black bag, we call him the terminator. He was like so alone and robotic, even in his sleep!. hehe
The FRONT of the queue, notice the girl and guy sitting down, those are the 1st and 2nd couple for the queue.
More girls :)
Costume girls
Happy customer, and below, more queues.
The proud "kiasu" couple. :), below unboxing of the games to sell.
The crowd sampating around the area.
This is Soul Calibur, and more chicks below.
Ok I guess thats enough of the pictures, there are tons more actually. Many of these pictures are taken off lowyat forums and are courtesy of the photographers. So yeah thanks to them for taking all these nice pictures. Oh and we apeared on 8tv! Here's the
evidence.
Overall, it was a very good experience. I've never had so much "excitement" for years now, and this event is a good start. Happy with my PS3 ^^, but sad I'm 1.8k poorer :(
Until the next post, cheerio and happy gaming!
