At this point, it is already clear that the PlayStation VR has been a successful launch for Sony. We’ve had Sony’s Jim Ryan outright state that production capacity for the VR headset will have to be increased so that Sony can keep up with the demand, and the headset has sold out in at least Germany.
However, the one market where it wasn’t clear whether the PSVR would do well was Japan. Japan formerly used to be the premier market for console and handheld gaming, but in recent years, the market there has sputtered out. People in general simply don’t seem to be excited by consoles anymore like they used to.
The launch of the PSVR, however, seems to have brought them all out of the woodwork. In fact, the PSVR launch has revived what used to be a tradition of major launches in Japan, but had become increasingly rare in recent years- the long lines of people waiting to get their hands on a new game or system.
Yes, according to Twitter user Success (courtesy of DualShockers), people started to line up in front of the popular electronic store Yodobashi Akiba in Akihabara as early as 3 AM. It seems like even the Japanese market was caught up in the fervor around VR gaming.