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Technology Stocks : Activision....Returns! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Burlitis who wrote (1651)	3/3/2000 3:06:00 PM
From: Scot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1992

re: Sequels to bombs...yeah, course we're preaching to the choir here...it seems that the market for pc games is smaller than ever...or at least very few games are successful. On the PSX2, while I share some of your skepticism, I keep reading these crazy articles about PS2 mania: Have a good weekend. -Scot http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000303/cx.html TOKYO, March 3 (Reuters) - Japan's PlayStation2 mania threatened to spin out of control on Friday as police asked store owners to disperse throngs that had lined up a day in advance to buy the hotly hyped new game machine. Hundreds were camping out in Tokyo's Akihabara district, known as ``Electric Town' for its plethora of consumer electronics shops, hoping to be among the lucky few to get their hands on Sony's PlayStation2 when it goes on sale on Saturday. But by the afternoon, the crowd of patient fans, some of whom had been camping in sleeping bags since Thursday, had grown too much for some. Police asked store owners to disperse the crowds, but few were willing to leave. ``No matter how many times they make us scatter, the crowds will re-emerge and lines will form again,' said one irate PlayStation fan after being told to come back on Saturday. The new machine, the successor to Sony's phenomenally popular PlayStation, is expected to set new standards of game-playing with stunningly realistic animation. It can also play DVDs and, eventually, will enable users to surf the Internet. One Akihabara shop, Sofmap, intends to open three hours earlier than usual -- at seven in the morning on Saturday -- in order to ease the anticipated crush of customers. Another store, Tsutaya, in the trendy Shibuya district, plans to hold a ``countdown party' at the same time. THE LUCKY FIRST MILLION Sony plans to sell at least one million of the consoles within the first two days of the Japan launch, but demand promises to be so strong that few expect to get hold of one that quickly. ``There's not enough of the hardware around and they're all trying to be the first to get their hands on it,' said Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Kazuharu Miura. ``So, of course, we'll see people lining up overnight in front of the stores.' Sony already commands a dominant 70 percent share of the world game console market, ahead of rivals Nintendo and Sega Enterprises. Sega, whose Internet-capable Dreamcast machine is currently the most advanced on the market, recently warned of steep losses this business year from poor console sales in Japan, suggesting that many people are holding out for the launch of PlayStation2. ``I don't want to be absolutely first, but I want to be certain I get it,' said eighteen-year old Akihabara camper Kentaro Murata. ``The net was wiped out the other day, so I expect there will be a lot of people lining up on the day of the launch.' Playstation.com's website crashed two weeks ago when it was stormed by over one hundred thousand hits in the first minute after accepting advance orders for the console. On Thursday, Sony said personal data on more than 200 customers had been leaked after other customers used passwords to gain access to the information. U.S., EUROPE KEPT WAITING TILL AUTUMN The PlayStation2 television commercial, broadcast on all five private national networks, has been teasing fans by showing a store owner caressing a PlayStation box on the eve of the launch. ``One more day to go!' its jingle sings. Even game fans overseas have made the journey to the land of the PlayStation.One British tourist and his friends jumped on the plane from London to make the Japan launch date. Despite their careful planning and a long 13-hour journey, they are still worried they may miss out. ``We think there'll be a problem getting hold of them (overseas),' he said. ``So we've come here to see how long we're going to have to wait to queue to get one.' The PlayStation2 is due to be released in the United States and Europe in the autumn.