Hardcore European gamers finally got their hands on the coveted Sony Corp PlayStation Portable (PSP) in the early hours on Thursday, even as Sony moves to change the sleek gaming device's software to stop hackers from adding unauthorised features.
The European launch was delayed by five months due to insufficient supply, but stores were finally allowed to start selling the device at midnight.
Hundreds of electronics and media stores throughout Europe opened their doors. In London, several dozen people queued in front of HMV and Virgin Megastore in Oxford Street to pick up their pre-ordered PSP, and a Toys R Us outlet in Cologne, Germany had organised a gaming night.
In Berlin, Sony's European headquarter, no stores were open, not even its own Sony Store. But the firm said that in all other European countries dozens of stores were welcoming customers.
Following earlier launches in Japan and North America, Sony is making 1 million PSPs available for the first two weeks after the European launch. They will come on top of the five million units that have already been shipped world-wide.
Sony plans to ship 13 million PSPs in the year to next March.
"Several 100,000s have been pre-ordered and will be picked up in coming days," said a European spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment, the unit responsible for the games business.
Impatient gamers have fuelled a thriving market for grey-market importers, who bought PSPs abroad and sold them in Europe at a steep mark-up. Sony cracked down by suing several so-called parallel importers, claiming that they were infringing on Sony's trademark and that it could not guarantee service.
The PSP will have a recommended retail price of 249 euros ($304) or 178.99 pounds.
Sony said earlier this week it had outsourced part of its PSP production to Hon Hai Precision Industries Corp, Taiwan's top electronics parts maker in order to meet demand.
Sony launched PSP, which can play movies, music and games, last December in Japan and in March 2005 in the United States, aiming to take a chunk of the portable game machine market - traditionally rival Nintendo Co Ltd's stronghold.
Since the PSP's launch, a thriving hobbyist community has created dozens of home-made software programmes, including a Web browser and software emulators that let the PSP play games from older video game platforms like the Atari 2600.
However, Sony has moved to shut down home-brewed software by issuing an update of the PSP's internal software, known as firmware, which will include an official Web browser and several other new features. The updated firmware makes the software hacks useless - at least until enthusiasts find a new way in.
A spokeswoman for Sony said the units on sale in Europe will not have the new firmware preloaded, but will come with a disc that will allow users to load it onto their machines themselves.
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