Peter Parka

Violence broke out at the chaotic US launch of Sony's PlayStation 3 as game fans and profiteers mobbed stores nationwide to grab limited stocks of the must-have computer console.

From New York to San Francisco, the long line of bleary-eyed customers who had been waiting for days outside electronics stores finally got their hands on the PS3 at special midnight openings.

Fausto Ponce, standing in line outside the flagship PlayStation store in San Francisco, was one of many planning to sell his PS3 to turn a quick profit after Sony made just 400,000 of the consoles available Friday.

"Sony shafted Europe, shorted Japan, and then sent the bulk to the United States," Ponce said. "Maybe I'll play it two weeks and, if things look bleak for Sony, I'll put it up for sale."

One version of the PlayStation 3 has a 20-gigabyte hard drive and is priced at 499 dollars, and the second is a 599-dollar model with a 60-gigabyte hard drive.

Bidding for the 60-GB version at Internet auction site eBay drove prices into the stratosphere on Friday, with one going to a buyer in Britain for 15,100 dollars.

The powerful machine made its world debut in Japan on November 10, and sold out within hours. The console does not go on sale in Europe until March.

The wait "was way worth it," said Chris Toribio, the first customer in line outside the San Francisco store, who paid for his machine with a fistful of 20-dollar bills.

"I just can't wait to play it," he said, turning to give applauding watchers a thumbs-up after Sony Computer Entertainment America vice president Jack Trenton handed him his new console.

"I'm so tired I'm sick, and I'm going to sleep," said Toribio, who had waited outside the store with four friends since before dawn on Wednesday. "I'm going home to dream about what game I'm going to get."

Sony provided a limousine to take Toribio and his friends home. Elsewhere, however, the mood was uglier with a shooting by armed muggers at a Wal-Mart store in Connecticut and reports of a stampede in Wisconsin.

Police said two armed men approached a queue of 15 to 20 people who were waiting for the PS3 outside the Wal-Mart in Putnam, Connecticut and demanded money from them. One of them confronted the robbers and was shot.

The man, who was not identified, was in hospital in a serious but stable condition. The muggers fled on foot and were still at large.

Police had shut down a Super Wal-Mart in the southern California city of Palmdale after a restless crowd of nearly 100 people turned rowdy on Wednesday.

The console's long-delayed release intensified amid a fierce battle for video game supremacy between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, with the Christmas holidays just over five weeks away.

Nintendo's new Wii game console will go on sale in US stores on Sunday, while Microsoft's Xbox 360 has been on the market for a year, giving it a leg-up on its competition.

The Wii will retail for 249.99 dollars, and will go on sale in Japan on December 2.

The far more powerful PS3 features an Internet browser, wireless controllers with motion-sensing capabilities, and a Blu-ray player that Sony hopes will become the next standard for DVD over a rival format from Toshiba.

"It's just a pure console war all the way around," said Norman Edwards, 34, who wore an Xbox 360 fleece pull-over as he bought a PlayStation 3 that he planned to sell for a quick profit.

"For me it's Xbox 360 any day of the week."

A tractor-trailer grandly delivered some 600 new consoles to the PlayStation store in San Francisco mere hours before they went on sale Friday morning.

As workers carted consoles into the store, strobe lights flashed and a large digital clock counted down the minutes to the midnight (0800 GMT Friday) launch.

Mike Henriquez, 37, found a "magic ticket" in a goodie bag given to him by Sony workers. The ticket won him a 60-GB PS3 console, game software and a wireless controller.

"I was trembling like a little girl," Henriquez said after collecting his winnings. "I'm stoked."

GuesSAngel

I really can't understand what's so special about the damn game and why people would pay that much

__________________
Proud mommy...best thing I've ever been called