Sony has been a little behind with the new generation of consoles - in the time between Sony releasing the PS2 and PS3, Microsoft has entered the console market with two Xboxes and Nintendo has begun to recover from the disappointment created by the GameCube. However, Sony has finally launched the PS3 in Europe and Australasia, kicking off the global console wars between the 'next-gen' machines. In London, any gamers who turned up to buy a PS3 at midnight found themselves getting a free taxi ride home - and a free 46" HD TV to compliment their new console (a move which is estimated to have cost Sony £250,000), whilst 50 gamers in Berlin got their hands on a free PS3 by throwing their Xbox 360s at a wall. However, Microsoft didn't want all of the glory to belong to Sony - the company managed to rub some gloss off Sony's launch events in both London and Paris. Sony fans waiting outside the Virgin Megastore in London's Oxford Street were given chairs by Microsoft with a website address written on them which led buyers to a site mocking Sony for being late, whilst in Paris Microsoft drove a boat covered in Xbox 360 logos up and down the Seine near to a Sony boat which was acting as a temporary PS3 store.