PLAYSTATION 3 CROWDS CLOSE PALMDALE WAL-MART STORES DEPUTIES RESPOND WHEN EMPLOYEES VOICE SAFETY WORRY.Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer PALMDALE -- PlayStation 3 madness descended on the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley , with both Palmdale Wal-Mart stores shutting down briefly because of crowds waiting in line more than 24 hours in advance of a handful of the pricey Pricey Term used for an unrealistically low bid price or unrealistically high offer price. pricey Of, relating to, or being an unrealistically high offer. An offer to sell a security at $50 when the current market price is $47 is pricey. new games going on sale. Wal-Mart employees backed up by sheriff's deputies ordered about 60 people out of the west Palmdale store Wednesday night, and later deputies ordered people to leave the east Palmdale store, citing at least three teens for curfew curfew [O.Fr.,=cover fire], originally a signal, such as the ringing of a bell, to damp the fire, extinguish all lights in the dwelling, and retire for the night. The custom originated as a precaution against fires and was common throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. violation. ``They started getting a bit unruly. There was no pushing going on. It think was more ... horseplay horse·play n. Rowdy or rough play. horseplay Noun rough or rowdy play Noun 1. . They saw the potential for it to escalate es·ca·late v. es·ca·lat·ed, es·ca·lat·ing, es·ca·lates v.tr. To increase, enlarge, or intensify: escalated the hostilities in the Persian Gulf. v.intr. ,'' Palmdale sheriff's station Lt. Don Ford said. When the people inside the store were told they had to leave, the crowd ran for the front door to try to be the first in the new line, Ford said. Deputies ordered them off the property, he said. A Wal-Mart official said store employees were concerned about safety. The West Palmdale store reopened after about 20 minutes, she said. ``It was just getting a little noisy, and there were people trying to form different lines,'' Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber said. Lines also formed Wednesday night outside Target and Best Buy stories in Palmdale, but management there didn't ask for help, Ford said. Deputies made extra patrols there and also cited people for camping illegally. Deputies returned to the east Palmdale Wal-Mart store Thursday morning to order away a new line that formed outside the front door, with about 100 people waiting for 10 games, which cost $500 to $600. Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 is making its U.S. debut a half-year late because of problems completing work on a built-in, next-generation DVD player A stand-alone device that plays DVDs. It contains a DVD drive and the electronics to decode the digital video. The device may play only manufactured DVDs, or it may be able to play DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs. DVD players are cabled to a TV or home theater system for display. . The struggling electronics company, which has contended with laptop battery recalls and trails rivals in key products such as music players and liquid crystal displays liquid crystal display (LCD) Optoelectronic device used in displays for watches, calculators, notebook computers, and other electronic devices. Current passed through specific portions of the liquid crystal solution causes the crystals to align, blocking the passage of light. , is counting on the PS3 to maintain and build its dominant position in video game consoles This is a list of video game consoles by the era they appeared in. Eras are named based on the dominant console type of the era (even though not all consoles of those eras are of the same type). Some eras are referred to based on how many bits a major console could process. . Stores were authorized to sell the games starting at 12:01a.m. today. ``The paper said you could wait for 24 hours Adv. 1. for 24 hours - without stopping; "she worked around the clock" around the clock, round the clock ,'' complained Christian Garcia, 17, of Palmdale, who was one of the teens cited Thursday night for curfew violation and returned to the east Palmdale store the next morning to line up. Garcia and his friends said they were cited while waiting for the ride they had called after being ordered to leave. They said the crowd outside the door was peaceful. ``We had jackets, blankets ... We made sure we stayed out of the way,'' said Timothy Hammer, 17, of Palmdale. Machines sold out quickly in Japan when they went on sale Saturday. Plagued with production problems, Sony only had 100,000 available for the Japanese launch. Sony promised 400,000 PS3 machines for the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. on Friday and about 1million by year's end. Worldwide, it was expecting 2million this year, half its original projections. Sony has already delayed the European launch until March. Even as retailers drummed up publicity by throwing parties and inviting celebrities, Best Buy Co. Inc. and others tried to lower expectations and curb any frustrations by warning customers all week that supplies would be tight. Game retailer GameStop Corp. said it won't be able to fulfill all of its pre-orders on launch day. The Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. contributed to this story. charles.bostwick@dailynews.com (661) 267-5742 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (ran in AV edition only) Wal-Mart employees backed by sheriff's deputies, tell people waiting in line for PlayStation 3 to leave the east Palmdale Wal-Mart store Thursday morning. Stores were scheduled to begin selling the video-game consoles at 12:01 a.m. today. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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