Nintendo Wii Fanboy

If you plan on getting Wii Fit without being trampled by Oprah-watching woman types, you better have secured your preorder already, as pickings are getting slim.

Not only has Amazon stopped taking them for Nintendo's popular fitness game, but IGN reports that GameStop has also suspended preorders for the title and Game Crazy is nearly tapped out. GoNintendo notes that Toys R Us (dot com) has run out of preorder stock, too, leaving Walmart's online store as one of the few options left -- although we're sure it's only a matter of time before that ends, as well.

This sounds eerily similar to what happened in the UK a few weeks ago, and now retail copies of Wii Fit seem to be more scarce than holy grails there. The one lesson that we can take away from all this? Nintendo is really good at printing money.

With preorders already sold out at Amazon, we can bet that Wii Fit will share the same success in North America that the game has seen in Europe and Japan. But, is it just soccer moms and casual gamers who are spending the hefty $90 for this nongame, or do readers like you have an interest in the product as well?

While some core gamers might not have succumbed to the Wii Fit hype, we're sure quite a few of you are more than intrigued by Nintendo's latest innovation. If so, you might be interested to know that Walmart is offering a $10 gift card with Wii Fit preorders. Of course, since shipping and tax will amount to more than $10, you're not actually saving anything. Yet, should you want to avoid the angry mom rush in brick and mortar stores and get something in return for your troubles, it might not be too bad of an idea to take advantage of this offer.

If you're considering this deal, just keep in mind that it ends on May 11th (or possibly earlier if Walmart runs out of stock).


[Thanks, Tristan and bakk!]

The Wii has been a hard console to find, which is why Wal-Mart has a "one console per customer" policy. This policy backfired on a couple of friends recently, at an Exton, PA store where they found 7 or 8 consoles sitting on the shelf, almost calling out to them in a Siren's song. When they went to each purchase a console, a Wal-Mart employee Wii-blocked them, stating that they were "together" and thus could only purchase one console "together."

Now, personally, this blogger must admit to purchasing a Wii at a Wal-Mart because, frankly, nowhere else was the console to be found. And, like the hero of the story here (also named Dave, that's how we know he's a hero), this blogger was in the store with a friend. We each purchased a console, some games and accessories no problem. The store employees or the manager in the back of the Electronics section had nothing to say about our purchase. So, this story really ticks us off, to be honest.

Besides, isn't it the goal of this particular business to sell things? What should the company, or the lowly employee that pulled off the block here, care about what happens to the console after it is sold. As far as we're concerned, that's where the retailer's responsibility ends. Maybe that's why we're not in the retail game ...

Update: Whoops, typo!

Disaster!

Just as we assumed, the epic Super Smash Bros. Brawl preorder deal we featured this morning was a total boner on Wal-Mart's part, as evidenced by the now-missing product page. But instead of honoring the $19.82 price for anyone who ordered the game before its listing was pulled -- like we all hoped the retail giant would do, despite our usual pessimism -- Wal-Mart has canceled the reservations, presumably refunding all charges.

Already, notification emails are being sent out with the following message: "We have received your request to cancel the item(s) listed below from your order." We tried arguing over the phone with a Wal-Mart customer representative (1-800-966-6546, not 1-800-966-6456, the number the email advises you to call) that we had made no such request, but our protests found no purchase; we were told the distributor canceled all orders, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be relisted online tomorrow with its regular $49.99 price.

We haven't been this sad since we saw that episode of Fresh Prince in which Will Smith reconnected with his father, only to find himself abandoned by his dad again shortly afterwards.

[Via Our Heartbroken Inboxes]

You'll be kicking yourself for months if you don't rush over to Wal-Mart's online store right now to put in your Super Smash Bros Brawl preorder before someone at the giant retailer wises up and updates the listing. At $19.82, this is likely the lowest you'll see this game priced for the next couple of years, so you would be a fool to not immediately pounce on this. And you know how we feel about fools -- we have no pity for them. None!

Here's a protip for those of you who missed out on this reservation deal because you didn't hear about it until much later in the day: read Wii Fanboy more often.

Update: Sale's over, kids! We hope you took advantage of this while it lasted!

Update 2: Wal-Mart has canceled all preorders. :'o(

[Thanks, John, Keith, and Mario!]

For those of you who have yet to find a Wii, we have potentially good news! Or a totally mean waste of your time. We don't really know.

Tipster Memnoch tells us he saw a handwritten sign in a Wal-Mart electronics department in Fairfax, VA telling employees to hold Wii shipments for April 1st, when a new advertising circular would announce their availability.

Our readers have yet to lead us astray with these shipment tips, but we aren't 100% sure about it. It's not that we don't trust Memnoch-- it would just be foolish to take a rumor involving April 1st at face value. Hence the more skeptical, pensive Matthew Lesko. Good luck if you check this out!

Joystiq has managed to confirm with Wal-Mart corporate that a midnight Wii launch is definitely happening and much of what Joystiq previously reported was true. Corporate says they are not currently accepting online pre-orders due to the demand for the console. So, we suggest you show up as early as you can to your Wal-Mart and get a ticket Saturday night at 10pm.

Wal-Mart's Wii pre-orders, despite coming with a ridiculous four game (!) bundle, apparently came and went in the space of a heartbeat. Tipsters have told Wii Fanboy that though they signed up for a newsletter or notification e-mail, nothing arrived ... so unless you were one of the lucky ones who got one, or you were camping Wal-Mart's site, odds are you didn't snag one of these pricey bundles.

There is, however, the possibility of a light at the end of this tunnel. At this time, we have not located anyone who actually obtained one of the bundles, and there is some question as to whether or not they even went on sale. Most of the people we've talked to who were camping the preorder got a big nothing. In the interest of getting the whole story (including how many units they had available for this), we've put in a call to Wal-Mart, but in the meantime, if you got one or know someone who did, we'd love to hear about it. We'll update you as the information comes in. It certainly looks like they really did sell out -- the main page at Walmart.com is advertising the pre-orders and the actual page is reporting them as out of stock ... but where are the lucky folks who got one, if that's the case?

Dislike forced bundles? Who doesn't! But word is that after the Xbox 360 launch (which featured another enormous bundle at Wal-Mart), buyers had little trouble returning unwanted items for a refund. That takes some pain out of the bundle, if there's a repeat of that policy this year ....

[Thanks to everyone who's been sending this in!]

[Update 1: Now seeing a few posts on forums from people who say they got one (where are the screencaps of evidence, guys?), but still waiting to hear back from Wal-Mart rep on veracity and number of units.]

[Update 2: Reader WedgeTalon forwarded us the text of an e-mail posted at Cheap Ass Gamer (it's somewhere in the 20+ page thread, we expect), and we quote this line only: Amount Charged to Your Credit Card: $ 597.66. Ouch! Looks like the two minutes of preorders did go down -- now we have to hope for the callback from Wal-Mart verifying number of units.]

One blogger was traversing the aisles of his local Wal-Mart when he stumbled upon a booklet. Upon further inspection, he saw the book was a buyer's guide focusing on what the Wii is and what it has to offer. Coming in at a whopping 30+ pages, the guide features educational facts on the Wii, game profiles, and an interview with ass-kicking, name-taking extraordinaire Reggie Fils-Aime.

Should we expect this marketing strategy to work? Will shoppers actually stop to give the Wii the time of day? Regardless, we're all for the corporate giant pimping the Wii.

[Via Go Nintendo]

Tipsters, whether they submit to Joystiq or one of the excellent Nintendo Fanboy blogs, usually are a breed unmatched. Willing to submit news and following the blogs much like a detective monitors a murder suspect, they are ever-vigilant in their quest to find and submit all news.

Such a news tipsters spends his days as an employee at Wal-mart, a kind of double-life we imagine an extra-terrestrial super-hero or millionaire vigilante might live. During his off-hours, working at his store, this tipster commented that his higher-ups informed him that Wal-mart would not be receiving any Wii demo kiosks later this year for fear of "our shoppers being awakened from their brain-dead, zombie-like state and rebelling against us, their low-cost, reassuring overlords." No, wait that's wrong. What he really said was the company had a "fear of some kid getting hurt or injuring others in the process of flailing his arms around." Last time we checked, that's all kids do (besides crying in restaurants and ruining the experience at the movie theater).

Joystiq tried to get a comment from someone at Wal-mart, only to never hear back from them and received the obligatory "we do not respond to rumors" response from Nintendo on the matter.

[Thanks Nushio; via Joystiq]