Japan's PlayStation2 mania threatened to spin out of control yesterday as police asked store owners to disperse throngs that had lined up a day in advance to buy the hotly hyped new game machine.

Hundreds were camping out in Tokyo's Akihabara district, known as "Electric Town" for its plethora of consumer electronics shops, hoping to be among the lucky few to get their hands on Sony's PlayStation2 when it goes on sale today.

But, by the afternoon, the crowd of patient fans, some of whom had been camping in sleeping bags since Thursday, had grown too much for some.

Police asked store owners to disperse the crowds, but few were willing to leave.

"No matter how many times they make us scatter, the crowds will reemerge and lines will form again," said one irate PlayStation fan after being told to come back today.

The new machine, the successor to Sony's phenomenally popular PlayStation, is expected to set new standards of game-playing, with stunningly realistic animation.

It can also play DVDs and, eventually, will enable users to surf the Internet.

One Akihabara store, Sofmap, intends to open three hours earlier than usual - at 7 a.m. - in order to ease the anticipated crush of customers. Another store, Tsutaya, in the trendy Shibuya district, plans to hold a "countdown party" at the same time.

Sony plans to sell at least one million of the consoles within the first two days of the Japan launch, but demand promises to be so strong that few expect to get hold of one that quickly.

"There's not enough of the hardware around and they're all trying to be the first to get their hands on it," said Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Mr Kazuharu Miura.

"So, of course, we'll see people lining up overnight in front of the stores."

Sony already commands a dominant 70 per cent share of the world game console market, ahead of rivals Nintendo and Sega Enterprises.

Sega, whose Internet-capable Dreamcast machine is currently the most advanced on the market, recently warned of steep losses this business year from poor console sales in Japan, suggesting that many people are holding out for the launch of PlayStation2.

"I don't want to be absolutely first, but I want to be certain I get it," said Akihabara camper Kentaro Murata (18). "The net was wiped out the other day, so I expect there will be a lot of people lining up on the day of the launch."

Playstation.com's website crashed two weeks ago when it was stormed by more than 100,000 hits in the first minute after accepting advance orders for the console.

On Thursday, Sony said personal data on more than 200 customers had been leaked after other customers used passwords to gain access to the information.

The PlayStation2 television commercial, broadcast on all five private national networks in Japan, has been teasing fans by showing a store owner caressing a PlayStation box on the eve of the launch. "One more day to go!" its jingle sings.

Even game fans overseas have made the journey to the land of the PlayStation.

One British tourist and his friends jumped on the plane from London to make the Japan launch date. Despite their careful planning and a long 13-hour journey, they are still worried they may miss out.

"We think there'll be a problem getting hold of them [overseas]," he said. "So we've come here to see how long we're going to have to wait to queue to get one."

The PlayStation2 is due to be released in the United States and Europe in the autumn.