The Official PlayStation 3 Slim and PSPgo Malaysian Launch

November 3, 2009 by Chapree

The team at Sony Malaysia would like to wish you happy gaming with the new PS3 Slim console. Unfortunately, the beautiful ladies and life-sized Sackboy doesn’t come together with the console.

It felt like only yesterday that the (original) PlayStation 3 were launched in Malaysia. Just slightly a year after the original 2008 launch, the new PlayStation 3 Slim and its portable cousin, the PSPgo was unveiled at a massive launch ceremony last Saturday. They arrived a bit later than other countries in our region but nevertheless, they are finally here much to the fans liking.

The launch event was pretty much a reprise of last year’s launch but it was significant enough to show that Sony Malaysia are committed to push their PlayStation brand in this country. Jump in to check out what went down over there.

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The new PlayStations, huzzah!

The formal unveiling of the two new PlayStation was made by Tetsuhiko Yasuda, Corporate Executive of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., and also Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Asia. Accompanying him is General Manager of Sony Malaysia’s Product Marketing Division, Taku Taguchi and also, Pradeep Kumar Tewaani of Uptron Multimedia Sdn. Bhd., the local official distributorship partner.

Both Yasuda and Taguchi in their speech thanked all the PlayStation fans that attend the launch especially to everybody that lined up to get their hands on the two new PlayStation. The acknowledgments were responded with a roar from the crowd which has been waiting there since Thursday (gasp!).

THIS.IS.PLAYSTATION! *waves*

Right after the ceremony, we asked Taguchi for his comments on Malaysia’s late launch date compared to other country in this region such Singapore and Indonesia; and also, their expectations of the UMD-less PSPgo. He pointed out that the Malaysia is actually quite fast as the original PS3 took two years to reach here and the new PlayStation only took 2 months. As for the PSPgo, he commented that although Malaysia’s broadband is still at its infancy, the speed is getting better every day. With that, they are expecting good reception for their hand-held PlayStation.

It is not a Sony launch event if there is no queue up madness involved and as we mentioned earlier, the first one in the line actually came to queue up on Thursday. However that particular person or rather a couple - Joey and Lenny, are actually the same couple from last year’s event.

Two years in the row. Try to beat them when PlayStation 4 launch, ok?

Obviously, we are pretty intrigued with their sheer motivation. Also, we were also kind of curious with what they did with their last year’s acquisitions, so we had a little chat with them:

MP: What did motivates you guys to repeat the same queue up madness that you guys did last year?
Lenny: Well, we are actually fans of Sony. If there’s a launch event, we usually are there to support them. So, this is pretty natural for us.

MP: So now, what will happen with the PS3 that you bought last year?
Joey: Ohh, we are still keeping it because you know, due to all the sweet memories we had with it. Instead, we are going to leave this new PS3 slim at our hometown, just to share the joy with the family.

MP: Just out of curiosity, what you guys did with last year’s RM 1000 voucher and what going to happen to this one?
J: Last year, we bought a LCD TV. This year, it will most probably go to…*looking at Lenny*
L: A Handycam! *excitedly*

Proud Micheal is proud.

The couple was not the only one who lined up early for their PS3 as the first customer of PSPgo also lined up pretty early. Unfortunately, the person - Elaine Toh already left before we get to interview her. Another person that was honored at the event is Michael Chong, the champion of PlayStation Studio 24 Hours Game Challenge. Here is what he got to say about his achievement:

MP: Congratulations on your title. How was the level of your other competitors?
Michael: They are tough indeed; a lot of our matches are very-very close.

MP: Since this challenge involves games that came from various genre, which game do you feel is the toughest?
M: The hardest games would be FIFA and NFS Shift, since I never played any of them before. I got thrashed pretty well in FIFA but I survived well on NFS, with the help of my teammate, Kassim.

MP: Now that the challenge is over, what you going to do when you go back home?
M: Favourably, I would like to get some sleep since I only had 2 hours of sleep before I came to the tournament. But it depends. *laugh*

The Sony PlayStation 3 Slim and PSPgo are now available at all Sony Designated Outlets & Partner Shop with a recommended price of RM 1,299 and RM 1,099 respectively. No official post-launch bundles are available at the time of writing but do check with your favourite retailers to see whether they can offer you one.

Posted in Consoles / Handheld, Events, Local News, New Releases, Sony