In what is being billed as the biggest consumer electronics launch in Irish history, Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland is about to spend £1.2 million on an all-Ireland advertising and marketing campaign behind its new generation games console, Playstation II.

Despite the pent-up demand - fuelled partly by supply problems which have seen the Irish launch postponed until November 24th - Sony is not taking anything for granted and has employed the services of film director David Lynch of Twin Peaks fame to produce and direct its television advertising campaign.

It is all a long way from 1995 when the market for computer games in Ireland was dead, and retailers had their fingers burnt by consoles they couldn't sell and couldn't return to their suppliers.

Many ended up selling their merchandise at a loss, as a result of a price war in the industry, and confidence in the games industry here was in tatters.

Enter Playstation I, the most popular games console ever, and an Ireland-specific sales and marketing operation which sought to rebuild belief in the games console as a viable entertainment product.

Huge consumer interest in game consoles such as Sega and Nintendo had peaked in 1993 and the industry experienced a dramatic downturn in the following two years, resulting in a price war that hit retailers hard.

When Dundalk man, Mr Niall O'Hanrahan, took over at the helm of the Irish Playstation operation as managing director, he was faced with a depressed and static market in which people had drifted away from gaming.

The activity of playing computer games itself was seen as an anti-social activity, he says, and he had to work to build a relationship with retailers.

The establishment of an autonomous Irish office with its own budget helped in this regard but being in the right place at the right time also had a major part to play.

An increase in computer literacy and disposable income here, especially in younger age categories, as well as globalisation bringing with it a higher awareness of technology and a more informed Irish youth, played a central role, according to Mr O'Hanrahan.

The Republic now has the highest penetration of Playstations in the world after Japan, and Mr O'Hanrahan said around 8,000 second-generation consoles will be available on the day of the launch.

Playstation II has been dogged by supply problems, causing delays in the launch here. This is despite a $3 billion investment by Sony in chip-manufacturing facilities in an effort to meet unprecedented demand in Japan.

Criticism has been levelled at the company for not tackling these supply problems, but Mr O'Hanrahan attributes the blame to unprecedented and sustained demand in Japan, which is still swallowing most of what Sony's factories can produce.

However, Ireland, he says, will get a higher number of consoles per head of population than any other European country, to reflect its higher household penetration.

The European launch will see millions of Playstation IIs air-freighted from Japan to major airports and transported to the Netherlands. From there they will be distributed to each country.

Given the huge demand for Playstation II it would seem that selling the second generation of the console in Ireland should be easier than shooting fish in a barrel.

Mr O'Hanrahan maintains that the David Lynch advertising campaign will stretch people's imaginations.

The advertising, he said, will be a progression of Sony's theme for the original Playstation and will take a dramatic cinematic form.

Billions of pounds are at stake in the battle for the hearts and minds of games' buyers, and Sony claims that Playstation II's wider appeal is one of the reasons for the sale of 3.5 million consoles in Japan to date.

According to Mr O'Hanrahan, although playing computer games has been an almost completely male pastime, this trend is changing. Statistics for pre-orders in the UK indicate that there has been a high instance of women ordering the console. Fifty per cent of women indicated they were buying it as a present, while the other half were doing so for their own use.

In 1998, around 96 per cent of Playstation's Irish customers were male, but that figure is now 82 per cent, and the larger variety of games including puzzles is believed to be one of the main forces behind this change.

As any consumer electronics company knows, price matters, and Sony has come under fire for the fact that the Playstation II will retail at £380 in Ireland, an £80 hike on the first generation console's sale price.

The company was criticised by the consumer association in Britain earlier this year for the large increase.

However, Mr O'Hanrahan points to the fact that Playstation II is not simply a video games console but is a computer designed for home entertainment, encompassing movies, music and games with its multipurpose DVD player.

He maintains that in 1995, when Playstation went on sale for £300 in Ireland, the rival Sega Megadrive was retailing at £70. Despite the differential in price, sales of Playstation doubled from around 15,000 in the first year to 30,000 in 1996, and in 1998 sold a massive 190,000 units here.

Sony will hoping that it can emulate this success this time around.