Thousands of people lined the streets of Tokyo hoping to be among the first to get their hands on Sony Playstation 2 which went on sale on Saturday morning.
One shop in central Tokyo alone counted more than 5,000 people waiting outside on the night before the video consul was due to go on sale.
Japan is the first country where playstation has gone on sale.
It's launch has been much anticipated as the successor to Sony Playstation 1 which took the world market by storm.
Some of Tokyo's usually orderly queues we briefly thrown in confusion in the early hours of Saturday, as computer game enthusiasts jostled to be the first to buy Sony's newly released Playstation 2.
Crowds started to gather outside Tokyo stores on Friday evening, and reached such alarming numbers that the stores had to distribute coupons, guaranteeing the right to buy the highly sought-after game station.
This largely had the desired effect of dispersing the waiting masses until the stores opened around dawn.
Officially the sale of Playstation 2 was due to begin at 7am on Saturday, but this major store in Shinjuku opened its doors two hours earlier.
The new games console has been eagerly anticipated.
Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony's video game unit, plans to sell a million of the $360 Playstation 2 consoles here in its first round of shipments Saturday.
Sony says the Internet home page for advance orders, which opened on February 18, was jammed with as many as 500-thousand hits a minute.
Despite the cold weather of the early March, there was festive mood around town as computer enthusiasts camped out with common purpose.
This shop had prepared 2,000 consoles in store and expect to sell out all by early afternoon.
The shop took on 50 extra shop attendants and 20 additional security guards overnight to take on the rush of customers.
The vast majority of buyers were male, and in their late teens to early twenties.
SOUNDBITE (Japanese) "I am very happy! I really wanted to get this as soon as possible. So, it really was worth queuing up overnight." SUPERCAPTION: Sony Playstation 2 purchaser
SOUNDBITE (Japanese) "I am going straight back home and will start playing the game at once". SUPERCAPTION: Sony Playstation 2 purchaser
Sony playstation 2 is due to go on sale in autumn in the USA.
