Sony’s PlayStation 3 made its highly anticipated debut to long lines in Japan on Saturday, marking the first launch of what’s expected to quickly become a global sellout.

Throngs of people lined up for several hours around Bic Camera, an electronics retailer in downtown Tokyo, to get their hands on one of the video game consoles. It sold out even before the store opened at 7 a.m., and would-be buyers were turned away from the store.

Plagued with production problems, Sony Corp. has managed to ready only 100,000 PlayStation 3 machines in time for its debut in Japan. When it goes on sale in the United States on Friday, some 400,000 PS3 consoles will be available there.