PS3 Launch - Police Says "Don't go!"

On the 23rd March, Virgin Megastores' flagship Oxford Street branch will host a special midnight event to mark the launch of the PS3. You can imagine the excitement it's going to be there. Well, excitement can very well be in the buyers' camp as well as in thieves' camp. Thus, local Police will do everything in their power to keep the situation under control and to keep people safe. Whether someone will try to steal someone else's PS3, or cash or not, it is very likely for anything to happen on the streets at that time, as the event will be around midnight.

"We do not support these midnight launches, that is the bottom line. There are inherent problems we can't deal with easily," a police spokesman told GamesIndustry. If the launches do go ahead, we have to negate the issues as far as we can, but we can't remove the risk factors for people coming to or going away from the store."

A Sony spokesman expresses the company's same concern for everything going right and people getting safe and sound at home with their PS3 intact: "Both Sony PlayStation and Virgin Megastores take the safety and comfort of consumers extremely seriously. We've liaised with both the police and Westminster Council, and put a number of measures in place to ensure that everyone attending the midnight launch gets home safely." They say people should:

-not travel to or from the event alone and bring a friend or parent;
-bring a mobile phone and let people know where they are;
-not bring cash to pay for the PS3;
-not make it obvious that they are carrying a PS3 and take it home in an unmarked bag;
-use only licensed taxi cabs to travel home.

Although this special event celebrating the PS3's launch in Europe encourages people to attend, the Police advises people to simply not go. What? That's right: "Don't attend the launch event. Pre-order your console and pick it up during the daytime." Party poopers!