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[Hurricane_Chris]

I didn't see a Topic posted about this. And the last PSP reservation thread seemed to be about stores other than Sony's store..so here goes....

(btw -- I meant to post this before the official pre-reservaton period started but no time..sorry if you were looking forward to trying to get it..although I think you have to be in Japan and have a Japanese credit card....)

Yesterday 11.19.2004 at 1230 (jp time) SCEI opened their site for pre-reservations. Basically, you were allowed to log into the site at 1100. After you sucessfully logged in you got a "pre-reservation" one push button thingie. You then had to sit and wait until 1230 and then click it to get the right to reserve a PSP and recieve it on launch day 12.12. Man it was pretty weird, it seemed like all of Japan was connecting to SCEI's site ( well either that or the fact that the site seems to use some crap CGI) ....

Anyways everyone in my Shinagawa office managed to get logged in by around 1130. At that point we thought it would be easy to just click the "one-push" pre-reservation button. It wasn't! I personally started clicking at 1231....And I didn't stop until 1311 but finally the order managed to go through.

Did anyone else try the pre-reservatoin thingie? And if so how did it go?

 

[Suikoguy]

Sell your DS its all over!


Sorry.. too tempting


Edit;
I'm getting both anyway

 

[Troidal]

I heard that some people got an error, but actually their pre-preorder went through.

 

[Hurricane_Chris]

Actually, I'm getting a DS shipped from the US overnight after launch day...Well a DS, Halo2, MGS2, GTA:SA, and Metroid2 to be specific....Multi-platform 4 life!

 

[mashoutposse]

Damn, I hope Lik-Sang or Play-Asia comes through.

 

[Hurricane_Chris]

I heard that some people got an error, but actually their pre-preorder went through.

Basically the connections weren't kept alive. I think you had some cookie stored and when you clicked the "one push" button you opened a connection and posted the request over SSL. There was no "confirmation", if you managed to connect and post the data you got a reservation. The error message people saw could be translated as "You could not pre-reserve a PSP because you have already pre-reserved one". It wasn't an error, it's because there was no confirmation that the one push thing worked, the next time it manged to go through you got that message....

 

[Lord Error]

The game of hunting for PSP begins...
I wasn't here (Canada) for the PS2 launch, but I've heard stories of horror and chivalry, and it seems like it's repeating all over again.

The old adage that everyone want's the have what they can't have, seems to be working in Sony's favour.

 

[Hurricane_Chris]

The game of hunting for PSP begins...

I don't think it'll be that hard. If you're willing to pick a big electronics shop here in Japan (Yodobashi, Bic, etc) and camp outside it you'll almost definitely get one. Just depends on where u wanna camp...

 

[Lord Error]

Yeah, but if you don't camp, you might find all the stores are sold out next day... I don't think just 200K units will be nearly enough even for the initial demand.

 

[Jonnyram]

I started at 12:30 and finally got my confirm screen around 3pm? just before the stock ran out anyway. Ordered a spare battery too. I heard of plenty of people who got errors during the rush but turned out they had the reservation completed on the server side. It was basically a total shambles. Really crappy cgi, I guess - they should hire me

 

[AndriaSang]

I got my system too. Took me a couple of hours and I fell asleep exactly once because of the Arc the Lad induced boredom.

http://psp.ign.com/articles/567/567595p1.html

 

[john tv]

I've got five preordered anyway, but none of them came from the damn website. Sony should be ashamed of how poorly that whole thing was handled. It was like a repeat of the PS2 debacle back in 2000; you'd have thought they would have learned their lesson by now, no?

Sad, really. Nintendo's preorder campaign was MUCH smoother.

 

[AndriaSang]

How you get five preorderd?

 

[john tv]

Oops. make that six. I just checked my mail and it turns out I got one after all. Even though I never got any kind of message saying I did.

Oh well, it was still a crap setup! :lol

 

[john tv]

Andria - girlfriend + her non-gamer friends

 

[mrklaw]

all accounted for, or any going spare for friendly GAF types

Anything you want from the UK?

(need to hedge bets in case my sister in law or play-asia don't come through)

 

[john tv]

All accounted for right now, sorry. As you might have imagined, there have been many, many requests...

 

[mrklaw]

actually, I imagined that you would be more than happy to send one over, and even gift wrap it for me.

But then I do have quite a vivid imagination

My fingers are still crossed for the sister-in-law route. It is very nerve wracking when someone who cares little about games is your last best hope for PSP. You know she'll be down the local LAOX (or wherever she is saving up her loyalty points) around lunchtime, to see if they still have any preorders.

I managed to nab a launch PS2 the same way (still working now), but I don't remember how the numbers stacked up then.

 

[john tv]

Where are you? America? And why is your sister-in-law in Japan? (just curious)

 

[mrklaw]

UK. Sister-in-law is in Japan because she's Japanese. I'm married to a Japanese woman who doesn't like or care about videogames. Thats like a GAF mindfuck right there

 

[john tv]

Ah, gotcha. You ever lived in Japan?

It's a pretty exciting time to be here right now. Maybe the most exciting since I came here four years ago. GBA and GC launches were OK (well, especially GBA; GC was pretty tame), but nothing at all like what's going down in the next three weeks!

 

[mrklaw]

nope. Considered it a few times, but never committed. I think I'm a chicken English Guy. I know almost no Japanese, but my wife's English is v.good.

Most I've ever done is a few weeks at a time, usually every year.

Its tricky though, as I kind of get stuck with the in-laws, and haven't yet got out on my own. I know the places I'd visit would be very different to the places they go to. They are very much a Ginza family (fairly well off), and I just want to be rooting round backstreet game shops

 

[john tv]

Hah. I see. Well you should try it sometime! Great place to live. Besides, Ginza's not too far from Akihabara... :lol

 

[mrklaw]

yeah. Every time I come over I try and arrange something, but always just end up mooching round with the missus. Maybe next time I'll try and time it with a GAF meet up?

BTW, still no bricks and mortar store preorders in Japan?

 

[john tv]

Nah, a couple started up on Thursday, with more to come next week. Five of my six preorders are from actual stores.

EDIT - And yeah, definitely let us know when you're in town! A lot of us meet up often (once a week, at least). Not the GAF crew per se, but most of the Japan GAF crew is a part of our group.

 

[DCharlie]

"It's a pretty exciting time to be here right now. Maybe the most exciting since I came here four years ago"

i'd agree with this.

there is a healthy buzz coming back, DQ8 being the number 1 reason, then the DS and the PSP backing that up.

Then we have GT4 to look forward too...

And ith FF12 delayed into next year, the excitement should be strung out for a while, with hopefully the PS3 and Xbox 2 sending people crazy!

mrklaw, yeah, come out! I'm a chicken English guy too!