LONDON — Electronics retailers throughout Japan will be opening earlier and closing later this weekend as the long awaited Sony PlayStation 3 games console finally arrives on Saturday morning (Nov. 11).

U.S. retailers will be watching closely as the PS3 hits the shops next weekend, though European games buffs will have to wait until next March.

However, Europe does have something to celebrate with the launch as it was revealed Friday (Nov. 10) on the Bluetooth Qualified Products website that CSR is supplying its 2.0 + EDR compatible device on the machines.

To date neither CSR (Cambridge, England) nor Sony have confirmed that the Bluetooth link in the PS3 uses chips from CSR. The introduction of PlayStation 3 is nearly a year behind the original schedule, with most of the delays due to delays in standardization of the Blu-ray Disc format and to the inclusion of next-generation high-definition multimedia interface specifications.

Under the latest plan, 500,000 units will initially be available, including about 100,000 in Japan and 400,000 in the U.S. By year's end, a total of 1 million units will be shipped in Japan and the U.S. — half of the original plan.

Sony plans to ship 6 million PlayStation 3 units by next March, in line with original expectations.

However, this weekend's launch of the PS3 is unlikely to be as spectacular as previous versions of the console, as volumes being made available are well down on original forecasts and because there are fewer games available than originally planned at launch.

However, the console is much more powerful than its predecessors and offer wireless connectivity for downloading music and video.