Yesterday I went to a Saturn market in Munich, Germany and plugged down 100 Euro on a 599 Euro Sony PS3. Germany is one of the first countries where you can actually pre-order a PS3. There is no offer yet in the United States to do the same.

I do not remember ever pre-ordering a product 4 months ahead of its release. I am telling myself I had to do it, because of being Chief Editor of I4U News and all, which means I have to explore all ways to get my hands on a Sony Playstation 3 and also of course on a Nintendo Wii as soon as possible.
On the other hand, I totally feel like I bought a cat in the bag.

Sony just did not do a convincing job at the E3 2006 that the PS3 is really revolutionary. Only way to find out for sure is to buy the final product, even if it costs a small fortune. The sales person at the Saturn market nearly derailed me from pre-ordering the Sony PS3 by telling me upfront that Sony told them yesterday that the free game promotion is over. It apparently only lasted until July 7th.
Saturn still advertises the free PS3 game promotion on their site - rather strange. Either the sales person gave me wrong information or Sony pulled the plug on the promotion early.

Amazon in Germany is taking pre-orders of the Playstation 3 and promises a free game until July 31st.

Talking to the cashier, he told me I was the first he encountered to pre-order a PS3. Sony's next generation console is not a total sell-out yet.