Yesterday came and went, and with it were the last (of the
first) round of EB Games/GameStop PlayStation 3 and Wii pre-orders for USA
and Canada. With all the news of the PS3 pre-order fallout,
we decided to check things out first-hand.
Nearly everyone who tried to get a pre-order has a story to
tell, DailyTech staff included.
Editor-in-Chief Kristopher
Kubicki somehow found himself in line at a local GameStop an hour before
opening Friday morning to snag a Wii pre-order. Even with the widespread news
from Nintendo that Wii should be in plenty supply, gamers still waited at
stores before opening time and snatched up all pre-orders within minutes.
DailyTech's Canadian editor
shared a similar experience, except EB Games Canada lumped together
the pre-orders for both new consoles on the same day. EB Games stores that were
not situated in malls opened early at 8:30AM specifically for pre-ordering. We
arrived on the scene at 7:00AM (we would have been there earlier, but there was
news to be done) to find about a dozen gamers standing outside in the cold.
Some had brought their own foldable chairs along with blankets for warmth. Nine
people were there waiting for PS3 with the rest for Wii. The first person for
PS3 was there just before midnight, with the 8th hitting the line by 3:00AM. We
knew ahead of time that most EB Games stores would only be doing 8 pre-orders
for PS3, so we left for another location -- one in a mall that opened at
10:00AM.
We were half expecting an even larger group inside the
mall, mainly because it was in a more popular location and gamers didn't have
to wait out in the cold, but we still took our chances. It turned out to be a
wasted effort (except for the comedic value) as we saw well over 50 people by
the store doors.
With nothing else better to do, we returned to the original
'outdoor' location to see what kind of pandemonium there would be at the 8:30AM
opening. The crowd had split into two: a line of 8 for PS3 and a line
of 15 for Wii, which yours truly managed to be the last one for the latter.
While the PS3 line were all composed of young adult males, the Wii line was a
bit more diverse with the addition of females, some of which were buying it for
themselves and others for their children who were in school.
Our experiences were largely uneventful, but we've heard
reports of mall security guards abusing their mall-cop powers by letting select
individuals of their choice into the malls before the doors opened to the
public. Others report extremely positive line-mates stories of sharing
pizza, coffee, McDonald's breakfasts, and basically everything short of
campfire singalongs of Goombaya.
We're sure that some of you have your own stories to tell,
so please share them with us all in the comments section below.
