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Sony fever hits Europe
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November 24, 2000: 10:47 a.m. ET
Europeans scramble for consoles as PlayStation2 hits the stores
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Shoppers battled and stores opened their doors at midnight as European games addicts on Friday got their first chance to buy Sony's hugely-hyped PlayStation2 video game console.
Sony Europe expects the next week to bring European sales of about 500,000 units, each retailing for between $370 and $425 a machine. By the end of 2000 the European arm of the Japanese firm expects to have sold 1 million consoles, rising to 3 million by the company's financial year-end on Mar. 31.
A huge marketing operation is behind the launch, which followed similar operations in Japan in March and in North America last month. In the United States the PlayStation2 retails for $300. 
Sony delayed the machine's launch in Europe by a month because of a shortage of components at the factory in Japan. The wait seems to have served to further stoke up demand for the latest must-have toy for the video-game generation.
With more expectant buyers than consoles available, the price of machines through unofficial routes is already being driven up. On online auction site QXL.com, desperate game players Friday had offered up to £355 for a PlayStation2.
A scramble for consoles in a store at midnight on the Champs Elysées left three people nursing injuries, according to a Sony spokesman.
Sony says the 128-bit console is the most powerful home video-game player on the market. PlayStation2 includes a DVD player and enhanced graphics, while next year will see the addition of an Internet capability - already available on rival console Dreamcast, made by Sega. 
The risks and rewards of pursuing dominance in the video game industry are enormous: on the same day that Sony launched the European PlayStation2, arch opponent Sega unveiled a whopping half-year loss and warned that it would run up a deficit in the 12 months through March 2001, its fourth straight annual loss. Sega has been hurt by the need to slash the price of its Dreamcast console.
Even for as a company of Sony's size, the PlayStation2 is huge investment, with billions of dollars spent on building a dedicated plant in Japan, on top of hefty development costs for the new console. Sony's games division posted a loss of ¥16 billion ($145 million) in the three months through June because of heavy spending on the product launch and development.
Competition is intense, and won't get any less fierce: as well as traditional rivals Sega and Nintendo, Sony is shortly to face an even more powerful foe in the form of software colossus Microsoft Inc. (MSFT: Research, Estimates). The Redmond, Wa.-based firm will launch its X-Box games machine next year, while Nintendo is also set to unveil its own 128-bit console in 2001.
The PlayStation2 is certain to be one of the key products for toy retailers this Christmas. With economies across Europe showing signs of growth that is at best anemic, strong demand for video games as well as young peoples' fads such as micro scooters and Nintendo's Pokemon toys could be life savers for stores at the most important time of their trading year. 
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