NEW YORK (AP) -- Even contractions won't keep Julie Mosley away from the hottest holiday item due to go on sale Friday -- the Sony PlayStation 3.
Mosley, who is nine-months pregnant, said she tried to ignore her contractions for the chance to score the sleek, black and silver consoles for her family, her daughter's father and her younger brother.
"I'm going to hold out as long as I can," Mosley said Thursday as she sat on a cooler outside a Circuit City in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. (Who else waited in lines)
She joked about giving birth on the sidewalk, alongside other die-hard gamers who have waited in line for days.
They are all willing to shell out $500 for the machines, which are making their U.S. debut.
Some retailers across America arranged to sell the PlayStations at midnight to appease the outrageous demand.
Authorities in Palmdale, California, shut down a Super Wal-Mart after some shoppers got rowdy late Wednesday and started running around inside the store.
A 19-year-old in West Bend, Wisconsin, struck his head on a pole while racing with 50 others for one of 10 PS3 waiting spots outside a Wal-Mart.
At a Circuit City in New York, customers traded accusations of line-cutting, which nearly escalated to a fist-fight.
Deliveries went down to the wire with FedEx vans bringing the prized devices to stores Thursday.
Hopeful customers braved freezing temperatures in Fargo, North Dakota, and heavy rain and winds in Baltimore, Maryland.
"Katrina could come through here and I wouldn't switch," said Marco Cajas, 20, of Baltimore. "I spent the night on the cold street."
Technical difficulties
Short supplies and strong demand could be a formula for trouble as Sony Corp. turned out its product to the U.S. market a half-year late because of problems completing work on a built-in, next-generation DVD player.(Watch a reporter play the PlayStation 3 in Tokyo -- :53 )
The struggling electronics company, which has been saddled with laptop battery recalls, has fallen behind its rivals in such key products as music players and liquid crystal displays.
It's counting on the PS3 to maintain and build its dominant position in video game consoles.
Machines sold out quickly in Japan when they went on sale Saturday. Plagued with production problems, Sony only had 100,000 available for the Japanese launch.
Sony promised 400,000 PS3 machines for the United States on Friday and about 1 million by year's end.
The corporation already has delayed the European launch until March.
Even as retailers drummed up publicity by throwing parties and inviting celebrities, Best Buy Co. Inc. and others tried to lower expectations and curb any frustrations by warning customers all week that supplies would be tight.
Game retailer GameStop Corp. said it won't be able to fulfill all of its pre-orders on launch day.
Jack Tretton, executive vice president at Sony Computer Entertainment America, said retailers will be receiving new PlayStations daily -- expedited by plane rather than ships.
"At some point we want to get to some degree of normalcy, but that remains to be seen," Tretton told The Associated Press, adding that seeing all the people camped out and lined up for the console "kind of makes all the effort worth it."
Waiting in line 'better than buying the game'
Customers were trying to profit, too, with dreams of reselling their PS3.
Even before Friday's launch, units were fetching four or five times their retail price on eBay.
"As soon as I buy it, I'm going to sell it," said Jose Mota, 26, who grabbed the first spot in line Tuesday outside the Union City, California, Best Buy. "People will pay whatever just to get their hands on one."
But not every store was besieged.
A Best Buy in Boston, Massachusetts, selling 140 machines gave out vouchers to the first 140 in line so that everyone could go home.
At San Francisco's Sony Metreon mall, a "sacred scroll" notebook kept track of the first 505 people in line so they could go to the bathroom or pick up food without losing their spots. Some even got wristbands guaranteeing a unit.
"It's pretty cool that I'd be one of the first people in the country to have it," said Chris Toribio, 21. "Being in line, waiting here with all these other people and making a big deal of the introduction -- in some ways this all feels even better than actually buying the game."
The PlayStation actually boosted the economy a bit in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Restaurants not only delivered pizza and wings, but also dispatched workers to hand out menus. The Dick's Sporting Goods store nearby sold camp chairs and more than a few tents.
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