It's Wii preorder day! But is it such a cause for celebration? Unfortunately, it seems a bare few fanfolk walked away from their local EB or GameStop this morning clutching a receipt for the Wii. Reader e-mails are pouring in, lamenting the reserve numbers -- which in some cases were even lower than the number of PS3s allocated to a given store. Disappointment is rampant. For those of us who arrived early to spend hours cold lamping with our brethren, it was a tense morning, because no one really knew what would happen -- except that some people would go home empty-handed.
Reader Matthew Ryan snagged some pics at his EB Games in Virginia, near Washington, D.C. That store had 30 systems available for reserve (far more than many other stores), but nearly double that showed up in hopes of slapping money down on a system. And this blogger snagged a few shots herself at a nearby store. Check out the full story after the jump, where we've tucked a few of Matthew's pictures as well.
Alisha's Friday the 13th Wii-order diary:
7:38 a.m.: Arrive at EB Games. Only three people already there. Score! Time enough to take a quick detour for coffee.
7:47 a.m.: Arrive at coffee shop for a white chocolate mocha. Mmm. Tasty! Just the thing for hanging out in the crisp (read: chilly) morning air.
7:56 a.m.: Suddenly remember that our local store only got three PS3s for preorder after employee reserves. Unnamed source on East coast indicated that stores would get 32 Wiis for preorders, but he'd also said 16 PS3s. Hmm. Quick math. Two times three is but six ... time to hurry back to the store just in case the numbers are low!
8:05 a.m.: Spend two minutes raving and swearing at the car that neglected to turn on a perfectly legal yellow light at a busy intersection. Safety? There are consoles to preorder here, people! Priorities!
8:09 a.m.: Arrive back at store to find that nothing has changed. Am still fourth in line and thus probably safe. Time to settle in with a book. Also of note: three of the four of us are female.
8:10 a.m.: Commence to checking watch every thirty seconds. Read exactly four words of book. Fret. Rinse. Repeat.
8:32 a.m. Subdued crowd begins quietly chatting when fifth person arrives. He reports that he called the store last night and they expected to have fourteen units for reserves. We all breathe a sigh of relief. One woman has been there since 6 a.m. and she was the first. She's there to reserve the console for her 15 year old son and to pick up a Mom of the Year nod in passing.
8:38 a.m.: Random guy stops to check Alltel store next door and asks what we are all doing. Upon learning, he joins the line as number six. Smart guy!
8:48 a.m.: Another intrepid consumer arrives, a chatty fellow who is there to reserve the system for his young granddaughter. He says that if he doesn't get it today, he's prepared to pay up to $1000 to see that she gets what she wants. He was told that our store would have twenty units. We are all further relieved.
9:01 a.m.: Conversation picks up. The grandfather offers everyone coffee. First EB employee arrives and passes out lists of release games and Wii accessories to those who need them. We explain some of the items to the mother, who is working off sketchy instructions from her son. Employee confirms fourteen systems available.
9:16 a.m.: More people arrive in a sudden burst, bringing the number to 13. One guy, an amusing fellow reminiscent of the late Mitch Hedberg, has driven in from a nearby college town with only one store. By 3:00 a.m., he says, they were up to 17 people outside. When he left to join us several hours later, the numbers had climbed to 50. Sounds like we were definitely among the lucky ones. People spend some time discussing console launches of yore, like the N64 and the Xbox.
9:32 a.m.: The comedian is regaling everyone with stories of How Trauma Center is So Incredibly Awesome. He's pretty adament about everyone reserving the game. Spirits are high. We're all getting a system. It was probably the most cheerful preorder wait in the nation. The mother and another guy make sure everyone has their numbers down.
9:47 a.m.: The time is fast approaching. Unlucky person number 15 arrives and those of us in the chosen group eye him with sympathy until he announces he's not even there for the Wii. Not there for the Wii? Scandalous.
10:00 a.m.: A few other poor souls are arriving, but we're in! We quickly form up in line at the register.
10:11 a.m.: Mission accomplished!
Matthew Ryan's preorder experience doesn't look quite so jovial, however. In his pictures, everyone looks very serious -- focused, even. There's a definite air of tension in the shots. From what we're hearing, that must have been more typical across the country, as more and more people learned that Wii preorders were turning out to be quite rare.
Must have been nice to spend the time inside. And are those ... chairs? Some people have all the luck.
Some of these people are not going to get a Wii today. That makes us sad.
These people look like they're taking their preorders seriously.
Share your own experience, good or bad, in the comments. We want to hear about everyone's day, though from our e-mails so far, we expect more bad stories than good. One reader even said Wii preorders were sold at their store at the same time as PS3, though it seems strange that no one heard about it. And several people drove from store to store, ending up number twelve when the allotment was eleven, fifteen when there were fourteen systems, and so on. It's not the best day to be a Nintendo fan, but rejoice! Surely there will be enough systems at launch, particularly if you select your retailer with care.
[Thanks to Matthew for sending us his photos, and to everyone who's e-mailed us so far!]
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
10-13-2006 @ 10:19PM
Sabreena said...
Adding on to the last comment I made in another post.
Two highschool kids. One girl, one boy. Sharing a Wii. No jobs. No cars. No license.
We get a ride from his dad on his way to work. We leave about 4:30. Get there about 15 minutes to 5.
Some guy was sitting in his car, sleeping.We set up our chairs. get our whole one blanket per each person ready. I add extra shirts on. its about 33ish degrees, probably.
Guy gets out of his car. Says hello. Whatever.
Me and Josh go to the Giant Eagle across the street in hopes of coffee and nicotine.
We only come back with my nicotine [needless to say we were too cold to walk across the 6-8 lane road later on in the day for coffee].
We come back and there are a few more guys. So, one of them starts tearing off pieces of paper and distributing numbers. Was all very. Organized without any insanity of 'OMGZ YOU STOLE MY PLACE' or 'You got out of line!'. Wouldve seemed kind of mean to ake people actually stand for more than 5 hours in 33ish degree weather for 5 hours.
More people came. More numbers were distributed. Amusement was there in form of conversations.
I think only four highschoolers in total, including us. And only one or two parents.
Essentially, by the time they told us how many they actually had [before they opened early to let us in 2-3 at a time] there was about 23 orders wanting to happen. There were only 16 orders to be filled.
Thankfully, we were number one and got there soon and froze a little. it was worth it.
And we plan on being there at least 5 hours before they launch.
Its kind of a medium town area. And I was wondering if you think itd be wise to go even earlier to wait.
Im unsure of how many people are for some reason waiting till launch date.
Sadly, at the time, we only had enough money to put 50 dollars on the Wii, no extra controller, no extra game.
hopefully, we'll be going back within the next two weeks and seeing if we can attempt to preorder a few more things.
Was a cool, new experience for myself, seeing as how Ive never actually done anything like this.
Now I know to bring more than one blanket. :)
But the lasgana from the night before was damn good cold.
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10-13-2006 @ 10:20PM
Tirol said...
Got out of my PChem class at 10 so I figured that maybe I would have chance. I first drove to our EBGames on 82nd/University with like three people ahead of me. After a dude dropped down 400 quids for a bunch of stuff, the salesperson said that there was only one unit left. Being bummed, I drove quickly to our mall only to find out that they too ran out as well. The salesperson though called another Gamestop in Plainview to say that there were 8 units available. I drove to Plainview which is about 30 minutes from Lubbock, cursing the fact that they had two way feeder roads, got in to the Gamestop with six units left. Pre-ordered the console, two extra remotes, extra chuck, and Zelda. Cannot wait for this to come out. :-)
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10-13-2006 @ 11:27PM
AlexL™ said...
Lucky you guys.. I didn't make it to EB in time.. I tried 4 diferant stores 2 I made it there at 8am the other 2 were at 9am.. I'm just highly disapointed right now I'm not gonna be able to get a Wii at launch.. god this sucks..
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10-14-2006 @ 1:20AM
seige1337 said...
im going to do the whole concreat campout thing at 12:00 midnight on the 18-19 It's very fun,you get to talk to ther gamers and things like that plus at the 360 launch we even had a tv and a 64 (those best buy people are nice!)
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10-14-2006 @ 12:35PM
Darkinetix said...
ehhh... I've never had a system launch experience and this one is a fictitious one since I got one as working for GameStop... whatever. Let us all rejoice when november 19th comes and we're all at home playing with our Wii's (hehehe) when others are playing with snow.
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10-14-2006 @ 12:53PM
mike said...
Cool..nobody doing the XBox360 mile long line thing.
---
That was an Apple Store. In Japan. And X360 is still a flop.
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10-15-2006 @ 1:45PM
Bob George said...
Heh, I got a preorder in at EB. I have TP, a Wii, Carbon, Red Steel, and some accesories. Most people were so pissed! This one woman nearly started a riot, I kid you not!
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10-16-2006 @ 9:16AM
Mabui said...
Pre-orders start today in Canada, I went over to the mall to check to see how many people were in line at my local EB and found they were being turned away 2 hours before the store opened. Apparently they were "Already sold out of pre-orders for this location"
Which I can only assume means that the employees must have snatched them all up, which, I don't find particularly fair. Kinda soured me on EB!
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10-16-2006 @ 9:54AM
delerious said...
People line up after getting an e-mail saying
that "You can pre-order tomorrow!* (*Call for availability)" when all you need to do is wait out the storm, the same is with the PS3 (which I won't buy),
Gamestop/EB is not out of alotments.
Web pre-orders will be up at a later date, and then you can buy it and know that you will get it on release. Deposits only guarantee a console, not one on release, "A $50 reservation deposit is required, which can be funded with cash, credit or trade. As we cannot control production and shipping issues by the manufacturer, a reservation deposit does not guarantee receipt of a system available to purchase at launch." - Gamestop
Meaning, someone can walk up and snatch your deposited Wii on release, by paying full price upon release
All of the Wii are not gone!, "Our limited online pre-order program will be announced at a later date, after software and accessory availability details are confirmed. Online product pricing and availability will vary and will be fulfilled independent of store reservations." - Gamestop
When you pay in full, online, you get things on your doorstep, instead of having to drive all the way to get it and wait in the cold.
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10-16-2006 @ 1:56PM
ebrian said...
I was #8 of 10 at an EB Games in North York, Ontario (Canada). They were doing both PS3 and Wii pre-orders and the 5 people in the front of the line were PS3 guys. They had arrived and camped out at 9pm the night before. The store had 5 PS3s and 10 Wii's.
I pre-ordered the system, an extra wiimote and nunchuk, and a wii "classic" controller.
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10-18-2006 @ 8:56PM
Jesse said...
I live in Tallahassee, Fl and the two stores in one of our malls had 12 and 15 (respectfully) and I was last in line. I wasn't able to get one here. But someone in the line said that there was a place west of Tallahasse that had them, so I got online and looked east. Sure enough I found one an hour away and was able to pre-order. I was sad to find out a friend of mine was not able to get one though. He was one person away to ordering one.
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10-20-2006 @ 4:33PM
Ben Woodrow said...
I thought that there were 6m units and no shortages, and there might even be 9m if Nintendo plays their cards right
Why are people so desperate? Why do they need to pay $50(this is about £25, right)and why haven't you guys been able to preorder them for ages(August September) like us in England(Bromley,just out side south east London)?
I'm fourteen, english and naive
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11-18-2006 @ 7:34AM
jrm said...
Arrived at a suburban Boston area EBGames at 8:00 am, found a short line of 5 people ahead of me. The earliest had arrived at 6:30. Spent a pleasant, breezy, sunny morning chatting and watching the college kids in the line play with their DS systems. I was one of two "supermom's" there early reserving for my 14 year old son, who had mowed lawns all summer to earn his Wii money. The rumor was there were 12 systems, but 4 would go to the employees. We were all relaxed and talking, everybody excited about the fact that we were all "in". About 9 the line got longer, and the sole EBGames employee came out to take names - he told us there were actually 12 systems available for preorder. At that point there were 11 in the line.
At 10 he opened the door and started to take money - by then there were at least 40 people in the line, and the phone was ringing constantly. Even though I was 5th in line it took at least 15 minutes to get to the register. I happily paid and left to congratulations from the poor people at the back, who were sure to be left out. It was truly a fun experience.
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12-07-2006 @ 7:32PM
Mark said...
My experience trying to get a Wii has been nothing but horrible and frustrating. On release day, I was in line to grab a voucher at Toys R Us, and I was in the perfect position to get one...but the vouchers went to some folks who had snuck to the front of the line, mixing in with those who already got their vouchers. I felt like driving my car into the front of the line, but I left. Since then I have been utterly unsuccessful at getting one. I showed up early to Circuit City this weekend, only to find out that they opened an hour earlier than specified and the Wii units they had sold out instantly. My local EBGames got some in today, but as I have a job, I was unable to get one. They sold out pretty much instantly, too. I have a feeling that this pattern will continue for the next several months, with people snapping these up the instant they reach store shelves. It is the first gaming system since Colecovision that has even remotely piqued my interest, and I will have to wait several months more before I can get my hands on one. I am so angry that I am so obsessed by this, I just want to flip the bird at all of those schmucks who are ripping off those more desperate than me on Ebay, and ask the question...who are all of these people who apparently have no job to go to or no life to live that allows them time to stand in line for hours on end for the slim chance to get one? There were over 100 people waiting outside Walmart yesterday morning, and they were opening at 8 to sell their new stock of Wii's (probably no more than three units).
To all those lucky enough to score one...congrats, but understand I hate all your guts just a little just now. :)
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12-23-2006 @ 1:22AM
kurifurisan said...
is this the end of the ARG trail?
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