Almost six years from the time the PlayStation 2 was released to the world, its successor is finally here. Midnight of November 17, electronic stores all over the United States started selling the PlayStation 3. Similar to what has happened to the launch dates of other consoles even a few years back the more enterprising and diehard people started lining up in front of the stores a couple of days before the actual launch date and camped out in order to ensure that they will be getting a PS3 come launch day. Sony has already announced a few months ago that it will only be able to release limited numbers of the PlayStation 3 because of certain delays in production. North America was only allotted 400,000 units while Japan was allotted 80,000 units (although a day after the Nov. 15 launch the exact numbers sold in Japan was 88,400).

The launch day in North America as well as in Japan has been mostly uneventful. The people who camped out were indeed assured that they got a unit when the stores started selling the PS3. At this point, there are still no reports from any consumers of any serious glitches or manufacturing flaws for the PlayStation 3. In Japan, most of the launch day issues revolved around PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility of the unit. This is in contrast to the launch of the Xbox 360 where, within hours of the sale of the units, reports started flooding internet message boards about some units overheating. This may be an uneventful release for what is touted to be the most powerful console ever made.

Update: Uneventful, eh? Looks like shots have been fired over the PS3

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