Noodles. Toy figures. And grab bags at New Years. Japan loves lining up for stuff, and the PS3 torne digital recorder is no exception.
Torne went on sale as an individual peripheral and also bundled with the PS3.
By 9:00am this morning in Japan, over 200 shoppers lined up in front of the Akihabara Yodobashi Camera retail store to purchase either torne or Yakuza 4, which when on sale today. (Or both!) Torne sales were brisk throughout the morning, and shop staff expect torne to sell out.
Shinjuku, which also had a promotional meet-and-greet event for Yakuza 4, sold out of the torne in 20 minutes flat. And Ikebukuro was sold out of the torne peripherals even before the store opened. There seemed to be torne PS3 bundles still available, however.
The torne is a terrestrial digital tuner that connects to the PS3 via USB cable. Torne offers players an easy and colorful interface that lists programs. It's possible to look up programs and search the menu by genre or keyword.
Using a timer, it's also possible to record in advance, and torne automatically records when the console is on stand-by or even while games/DVDs/Blu-rays are running. Besides recording directly to the PS3's hard drive, the torne can be used to record to an external hard drive as well.
Torne is priced at ¥9,980 (US$109) and bundled with the 250GB PlayStation 3 and available for ¥42,800 (US$467).
【秋葉原】売り切れ必至のtorne！ 外付けハードディスクも人気に
【池袋】torne単体はオープンまえに完売！ 出足好調で今後にも期待がかかる
【秋葉原】売り切れ必至のtorne！ 外付けハードディスクも人気に [Famitsu]