With the launch of PlayStation 2 less than a month away, the hype is building more and more. On October 26th, North America finally gets its turn with the awesome 128-bit machine. However, if you didn't preorder the machine, there is a good chance you'll have to wait awhile. In what will most likely turn this upcoming Christmas into a repeat of the madness of 1996, when everyone was trying to find a Nintendo 64 or Tickle-Me Elmo, Sony has decided to only ship half a million PlayStation2s on October 26th. However, they will also be shipping approximately 100,000 units each week, making it around 1.5 million units by Christmas. That still isn't a lot. Now, why would they be shipping so few?

Perhaps it's because of the launch for the rest of the world. Sony has recently revealed its international schedule, and it goes something like this:

November 24th: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

November 30th: Australia and New Zealand

Before Christmas: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Iceland, Isreal, Malta, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and UAE.

Oh, and for you RPGamers who are curious about what how long you have to wait for some RPG goodness to come to PlayStation2, well, you don't! Activision's Orphen, Agetec's Evergrace and Eternal Ring, and THQ's Summoner are all launch titles! However, for any more PS2 RPGs, it looks like RPGamers will be waiting for 2001. Hopefully these four titles will be enough to tide RPGamers over, but don't forget, all PlayStation RPGs, like the upcoming Lunar 2 and Final Fantasy IX, can be played on the system as well. That should provide more than enough distraction until the next big PS2 RPG comes along. Just remember, if you haven't pre-ordered, good luck getting one.