Launch Time for PS3

At noon today, the flagship Virgin Megastore on London's Oxford Street will open its doors to customers eager to get their hands on a PlayStation 3 - some of whom will be camping out in the shop for 36 hours for the privilege of being first in the queue.

Virgin's decision to play host in this way is an unusual one. In recent times retailers have opted for midnight events to celebrate console launches, dishing out wristbands to avoid long queues days in advance.

But things will be different for the launch of the PlayStation 3, at least in part because police last week expressed concerns about shoppers carrying their expensive purchases home in the early hours of the morning. HMV and GAME have since both cancelled their midnight events in favour of 'breakfast launches' on Friday morning.

However, Virgin decided to stick with the original timing and take a different approach in a bid to keep the buzz around the midnight event - whilst also attempting to ensure customers' safety. Here, senior promotions and PR manager Stephen Lynn explains the thinking behind the decision.

Stephen Lynn: First of all, it's an honour for us to be working with Sony. It's an absolutely amazing machine. Over the past few months, the customer enquiries we've had for PS3 have just snowballed. So it's an honour to host this on Sony's behalf, because it's a machine that customers are gagging to get hold of.

There are numerous reasons. We've seen from previous launches that the really hardcore gamers like to turn up as early as possible to ensure they get involved in the event, with customers camping out on the streets.

What with the weather and that kind of thing, we'd rather be able to ensure our customers have a fun time but a safe time. Our Oxford Street store is the world's largest entertainment store, which basically gives us room and allows us to look after our customers in such a way that they're safe and warm, and we can give them a bit of fun and entertainment.

If I'm being completely honest, I'd like a crystal ball - I haven't got a clue. All I can say is we've had a phenomenal response in terms of questions about the machine over the past few months.

The fact that we're going to reward our first 150 customers that buy the machine from the store at midnight with a copy of Resistance: Fall of Man means we should get a good turnout.

But it depends - if it's snowing, or people might want to stay in and see the latest budget news from Gordon Brown - we just don't know. All I know is we've had so many enquiries across the chain about PlayStation 3, so we're pretty confident we're going to get a fair turnout. We've got adequate resources, entertainment and refreshments on board for a large crowd.

I can't really give too much away, but we hope that our customers will have fun. It will build and build up until midnight, when the first gamer buys their machine. The whole ethos of our approach has been have fun, enjoy yourself but be safe. But I don't want to ruin it for our customers.

We have the capabilities in terms of our size. We've got suitable facilities to cater for a midnight launch in whatever conditions and whatever climate. We're offering real hardcore gamers the opportunity to get their console as soon as possible. I can't really comment on what my competitors have got planned.

No, we stopped last week. It's an approach we take with major launches. We have a unique customer base - we have the mainstream gamer and also hardcore gamers, and we want to ensure that all our customers get a fair crack of the whip. So on the actual day of launch, customers can come in and get a certain amount of free stock.

On Friday all of our stores - and most of them are opening really early - will have a limited amount of free stock available. We don't see it lasting much past midday Friday.

It's a hard one to call. 360 and Wii were amazing in terms of the response we had, customers clambering to get hold of it, but they were launched in the run-up to Christmas, when there's always demand for anything you can sell. Sony are releasing PlayStation 3 in March, yet the interest from customers has been equally as high.

The machines have all got slightly different USPs, slightly different functionalities, but from what I've played on PS3, the graphics and the experience have just been amazing. So I think the demand is definitely there.

I don't agree at all. Sony have been very careful and cautious with their launch, this is the third time they've launched a console, so I think they want to do it in a way that they can get as many units to as many customers as possible.

Every console launch has its critics - I seem to remember the Wii getting knocked for its launch, same for Xbox 360, same for PlayStation 2. It's just inevitable that you're going to get critics putting their twopenneth in, which is fair enough - everyone's got a right to their own opinion.

But I've been working closely with Sony for the past few months, and it's more down to planning than lack of demand. The demand is there and they're able to fulfill a lot more than they have for previous launches.

I think they'll sell out, and there will probably be a good few months of us trying to get more stock to fulfill the demand.

Again, that's a crystal ball question. We've worked really closely with Sony and we'll try to get more into our stores as soon as possible. But it's the same with every console, especially Wii and Xbox 360. We're finding that customer demand is greater than the amount of machines they can build, and I think it'll be the same for PlayStation 3.