The Playstation 3 went on sale in Japan on Saturday with reports of huge queues and many retailers selling out within the first few hours of their stores opening. We're currently unsure whether every last one of the 100,000 PS3 units allocated to Japan have been sold, but judging by pictures and camera footage of the huge queues, who had to be held back by security to prevent injury, we'd guess it was a successful launch day.

It's too early to suggest that these scenes mean that the Playstation 3 will come anywhere close to the success of the Nintendo DS in Japan. The hand-held console has sold over 20 million units to date, in a country that has approximately 31 million people who play video games. In the whole scheme of things 100,000 units was bound to sell out quickly and the real test will be over the next 12 months when Sony deliver larger quantities of the console to the region. However, recent surveys in Japan, conducted by ITMedia, suggest that approximately 40% of gamers plan to purchase a PS3.



Check out these crowds on YouTube, via Joystiq