SONY PS3: JAP TRAMP TREND FUELLED BY EURO DEMAND

Sony bosses in Japan are said to be “uncomfortable” about the trend in vagrant stooges being paid to stand in line for hours on end in the hope of snapping up the eagerly awaited PS3 console.

Unscrupulous Internet exporters are paying tramps up to £100 to snap-up on one of the 80,000 units currently available (or, by the time you’re reading this, now sold out) in Japan. The consoles are then flogged on-line for up to £1,000 per unit to PlayStation nuts, desperate to get their hands on the latest generation of Sony’s brilliant game behemoth. But it’s a no-win no-fee set up for the Japanese stand-ins and there are very limited supplies of the units themselves. That means hundreds of homeless are queuing for hours on end only to end up with no PS3 and not a Yen for their efforts.

But the business of paying bodies to grapple for must-have-toys from one-per-customer stores is nothing new. It was employed by the very same dealers for Nintendo’s launch of the DS and Sony’s PSP shout last year.

In this case, Sony’s bigger problem is where these units are ending up. Namely in the hands of eager, but potentially disappointed, customers in Europe. Thing is, while the Japanese versions are multi-region, they don't play European PS1 or PS2 games. A nasty surprise for those eager beavers who just can’t wait until Spring 2007 for their official country launch.