PS3 Launch - Sydney - Australia

"Hey, that's Second Life," someone shouted from the crowd about five seconds into the demo of Home, the soon to be released PS3 virtual life.

The voice-over was executed in a chilly (female) English accent while the crowd gazed at the screen where Casino Royal had just been playing.

A young guy on the screen started dancing like a dufus in front of two women while the speakers played generic hip hop. There was excitement in the air, although it was caused mostly by journalists.

This received the loudest response from the crowd.

When it ended, 2day FM DJ, Lizzy Lovett, said to the crowd, "Wow, that looks pretty exciting."

37 year old Paul Brady from Kempsey (6 hours north of Sydney) was impressed with Home though. Although he plays PS2 about 15 hours a week, he says PS3 is bad news for his recently-single friend. "PS3 will be the root of all evil...As a depressant."

He said he would definitely pay to have good virtual threads. "I grew up playing Space Invaders. I was unbeatable at Pacman. People would do it to get cred in the game. It's all about the audience and I would like the freedom to choose."

Dalton, a 21 year old from Holsworthy said, "I love the games and competition. Especially Fight Night Round 3, Motorstorm and Resistance." He says he was also excited because Miss Australia Erin McNorton was there. He and friend have taken leave from work to play PS3 all night long.

Anna from Liverpool had promised her ex-boyfriend that she would buy it for him when they were going out. She had placed a $40 deposit on the $960 ticket price. "I love consoles, online games and playing against friends."

Gus and Dan only play Australian sports games. "We're here for Cricket 07 and AFL. We're a pretty patriotic and chauvanistic household." said Gus. "Why would we replace PS2? It was impulse, we were drinking. We live in a share house so we just pooled the money."

Taiwanese students Jay, Sonic and Katty (see photo) were pretty excited. Sonic said, "I like the racing games, soccer and fighters." He was a fan of the free ice-cream that Streets were handing out and was looking forward to Bluetooth controls and playing online.

Self-confessed technofile Geoff Condon was looking forward to Blue-ray and using PS3 as a home entertainment unit. The Formula 1 fan was worried that PS3 would sell out before he got has mitts on one.

The atmosphere intensified as Lovett started the countdown started. She announced that Paul from Pennant Hills was the first PS3 customer.