The State Of Wii Preorders 160
1up has a hilarious article up looking at the state of Wii Preorders across the U.S.. Despite the fact that preorders began (and likely ended) this morning at EBs and Gamestops across the country, the employees of the megalithic game store were less than fully prepared. From the article: "WEST VIRGINIA: GameStop #1330: 'We don't know. I mean, we're gonna be doing reserves. We're just waiting for them to tell us we can.' WISCONSIN: EB Games #4626: 'It looks more like we'll just sell that one. Because there will be 2 to 4 million units available on launch day, and EB/GameStop will be getting 70% of them that first come first serve would be doable. Even a smaller store like ours could be getting upwards of 50 units day one.' WYOMING: EB Games #4294: 'Any day now, man. Any day now.'" Despite my wife's best efforts, I missed out on a preorder by three people in line. Stupid cross-country trips.
Pfft (Score:2, Funny)
Not certain about the Wii (Score:2)
Can anyone name a game that will be a must have or should I just stick with my PS/2?
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Trauma Center.
Others I'm more, or less, interested in seeing how they turn out: Red Steel. Elebits. Rayman.
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Versus the IBM Personal System/2? I hear there's this awesome game called Wii Sports: Tennis that knocks the socks off of Pong.
Re:Not certain about the Wii (Score:4, Insightful)
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Perhaps the packed in game Wii Sports will keep you occupied until something you find interesting comes out
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I'm interested in the Wii, moreso than the XBox 360 or the PS3. But I'm going to be "sticking with the PS2" myself for a while. For one thing, there's still a good 10 games that I'm interested in, and I have a Real Job so it takes a while to get through them. Fortunatel
Best game ever will be available at launch! (Score:3, Insightful)
The sequel is also good: Buy another a few weeks later.
Uh.. Zelda? (Score:4, Informative)
You're right though: a lot of the other titles are widely ported mass market games. But many of them seem to be somewhat modified -- the Wii version of Madden allows you to use the motion sensor to control the gameplay. Ubisoft is making a racing game using the remote. They put out a plastic steering wheel and you put the remote in it, at which point it can detect you turning it one way or the other. Tom Clany's double agent is well anticipated, but many people I think would rather get it now on another platform than wait a month for the Wii version. There's also Trauma Center, a Wii exclusive and definately not a game that surrounds itself with the familiar; it's a surgery simulation game.
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Nursery rhymes (Score:4, Funny)
This little gamer went to EB.
This little gamer got a preorder.
This little gamer got none.
This little gamer cried "Wii Wii Wii" all the way home.
Monday for Canadian Wii preorders (Score:4, Informative)
You need $50 in trade-in credit or $200 cash down.
They're expecting a line up too.
My question: WTF?!
This is getting a little out of hand. What's next? The Wii2 launch will require you to line up to get a # so that you can line up to pre-order, and then line up again to pick up on launch day?!
Problem is, I was going to maybe pre-order a PS3 to sell on ebay
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a) Take a friend/your girlfriend along and have him/her order the other one.
b) Pre-order from two different stores
or even c) Come back later (won't work if the line-up thing happens) when there are different employees, and pre-order the remaining system under a different phone number.
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Sometimes it's not economic imbalance, sometimes it's just emotional. I'm sure there's a thesis in here somewhere for some aspiring economist...
Re:Monday for Canadian Wii preorders (Score:4, Insightful)
There is a very good reason for not raising prices, if the Wii or the PS3 was priced higher, then while those companies would make more money, some people would be turned off by the high price and buy an XBOX 360. And once someone already owns a 360 they are less likely to buy another console in the future because of the investment. By pricing the PS3 and Wii lower than demand, instead of buying a 360 people may wait for the other consoles to become available. Also, optimal pricing is hard to predict, like the 360 in Japan (which got a small fraction of consoles compared to North America) and the PSP didn't sell out at launch.
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Re:Monday for Canadian Wii preorders (Score:4, Interesting)
Back in 2001 I pre-ordered a Gamecube at Futureshop and when I walked in they must have had (at least) 50 Gamecubes in a pile and everyone who pre-ordered ended up with a system; today, the Wii is launching with (about) twice as many systems as the Gamecube did and EB Games are averaging 10 systems per store for to pre-order. It seems that something is off to me, either EB Games is getting screwed on the number of systems they're getting, or they're purposefully limiting pre-orders.
Which brings me up to my other question
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This is unconfirmed. A Nintendo executive did give a number, but then another (presumably more important) executive said he was wrong.
That's the answer to all of your questions, actually: Nintendo won't tell EB (or anyone) how many consoles they're getting. EB really wants to avoid a situation where they oversell preorders, so they're being very conservative with their preorder allotment. If rumours are accurate, most EB store
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I'm not sure how things
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Back in July 2001, Futureshop hadn't yet been screwed by the demand for the Xbox 360 far outstripping the available supply. The more preorders the store takes and is unable to fulfill, the more disgruntled customers there are. Better to avoid taking preorders, and thus disappointing many people.
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When I would go in to buy a brand new game, I would get an empty box at the front counter, and then one of the sales people go out back and get you the game media and game manual, which they store in a ziplock bag. Why the hell can't they keep the game content inside the box unopened? I don't trust t
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GOTO ZELLERS!!!
Believe it or not Zellers has been quietly doing Wii pre-orders. I ordered mine on the 6th and just recieved a call from Zellers headoffice asking for the date of purchase because the person forgot to put the date of purchase in their book (they could of checked the receipt but i'm sure a call was easier).. But anyways, that followup call confirms I'll have it on the 19th..
Cout your local Zellers and they may have some avail, I think it was 1
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That's what I heard too, which pissed me right off. I no longer shop at EB because I hate their policies. They want you to trade in $50 worth of games, so that they can turn around and sell those games for $100+. $50 in used games or $200 for a pre-order? I told EB to go fuck themselves, I went to toys'r'us, they said they stopped doing preorders, so now I'm just hoping that I can get a Wii on release from somewhere in Canada, no pre-order for me =(
Here's an idea... (Score:2)
-Rick
Depends on where you are (Score:2)
Couldn't be happier about it.
-Trillian
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BS (Score:1)
Pre-ordering the Wii is a waste (Score:2)
Nuff said.
This isn't going to be like the Xbox360 debacle.
Besides, stores will have plenty a week or two later. Is it really worth lining up just to get a spot in a line-up?
Reminds me of concert tickets. Come line up for your chance to be in a lineup for your chance to buy some concert tickets. Wow, could I?
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Anyone spending money to pre-order the Wii is a fool.
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Meanwhile, Wal mart has 25 in stock. If you buy it at Wal mart, you don't get the EB depoist back (or it's a PITA)
Foolish to lock yourself into one store when you can just shop around on release date and buy it from whomever has stock.
JON
Long lines (Score:2)
Chasing the Wind? (Score:2, Funny)
I don't understand why these game systems are shortaged at launch. 80 or a 100 XBox360s for a town of 130k people? One or two PS3s or Wiis per game store? Are they trying to funnel them through the big box stores? Are they under-estimating demand or trying to create artificial scarcity?
If a car company could only supply one new car of each type per dealer per town, they would look foolish. Why is the same kind of behavior normal when applied to ga
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People generally dont get their that day it arrived to buy one asap.
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So, it appears that the chances of pre-ordering are Wii-mote?
Someone should put you in jail for that pun. And then send you to hell. And then put you in some sort of jail they have set up in hell. (Paraphrased from a friend of mine.)
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EBgamesStop not the only game vendor (Score:3, Insightful)
While the EBGames/Gamestop pre-order is making news, they can't be the only store doing pre-orders. At some point stores like Walmart, Target, BestBuy, FutureShop, etc. will start pre-ordering. The question is, has anyone heard news on when? Where? How many?
The 'state of Wii Pre-orders' shouldn't be limited to one chain. It should count all chains. The 1up article is a bit limited in scope (however, still an interesting/funny read).
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You get nothing from your Gamestop preorder anyway (Score:3, Insightful)
What are people paying $50 for? If they want money, I'd better get a guarantee, or at least more that $50 back when they're telling me they aren't actually going to sell me the machine I pre-ordered.
Re:You get nothing from your Gamestop preorder any (Score:2)
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http://www.ebgames.com/gs/wii/wiipre_ebgs.asp [ebgames.com]
"...a reservation deposit does not guarantee receipt of a system available to purchase at launch."
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Re:You get nothing from your Gamestop preorder any (Score:2)
Yes but keep in mind that while thinking like that you can't also desire allowing pre-orders more than a month in advance.
EBStop had to know how many units each st
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keep in mind that while thinking like that you can't also desire allowing pre-orders more than a month in advance
Explain to me the difference between standing in line for a pre-order and standing in line for an actual console.... Now, tell me what the hell *we* need pre-orders for.
Pre-orders benefit only the retailer at the expense of the customer. Nobody should 'desire' pre-orders.
I do know a number of people who work there and [...]
I also know a number
Well, pre-order with caution (Score:2)
I'm not sure whether that is supposed to be some sort of insult but if it is, I think it's spelled Kool-aid. Thank's for drinking that cool-aid ;)
I don't desire a pre-order, i desire a Wii. If I didn't have family at that store I wouldn't have bothered with it, standing in line for stuff is dumb.
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Wal-mart, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc don't do preorders.
Pretty organized (Score:4, Informative)
Wii: $50
Remote: $10
Zelda TP: $5
Classic controller: $10
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Only on the NES and TurboGrafx-16, whose button configurations are similar to that of the Wii Remote held sideways. The Super NES and Nintendo 64, on the other hand, have a lot more buttons. In Super Mario World, how would the player spin-jump (Super NES A button) or use the camera panning controls (Super NES L/R buttons)?
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If Nintendo really wanted to blow our minds, they'd make the Wiimote's motion-sensitivity mappable to Virtual Console keys.
Pressing the right shoulder button (or was it left?) to look above you was never exactly intuitive. What if you could raise the controller up in 3D space and affect the on-screen view that way? What if you could play Super Mario 64 all over again, but wi
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One good example where this could be done: Castlevania III.
The Japanese version of the game had three extra sound channels built into the cartridge, using a custom Konami-designed chip; the result was quite possibly the best-sounding music of any 8-bit Nintendo game.
When Nintendo was designing the US/Euro release of the NES
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Almost. The Z button is in the wrong place (where R1 is, not where L1 is), making Z-targeting harder. I'd imagine that Nintendo's emulator would be able to reassign GameCube L to N64 in games that don't use the L button. But what might be harder for the emulator to work around is the lack of a six-button layout under the right thumb (especially in fighting games). You'd have to use the GameCube's X and Y and miss out on N64
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In fact, the way the N64 controller was designed, you were pretty much always using either the L button or the Z button -- very rarely would you use both, and even in those cases they made sure that both buttons weren't important (such as the taunt button in Smash Bros).
--Jeremy
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Wii will rock! (Score:2, Insightful)
There is nothing revolutionary about the horsepower, graphical abilities or capabilities.
There is not even anything special about the controller. That's not the point. (Sony and MS will make competing controllers that will probaly be better. i.e more sensitive, better range, more buttons, etc)
The point is (and this is the MAJOR point of every Console in the history of consoles)...
the Wii controller comes in the box!
why is this so important?
people don't buy add-on hardware for their consoles. that's the whol
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No, it really hasn't.
I was first in line. (Score:1, Funny)
My GameStop was different, I guess. (Score:2)
The first guy in line was an employee of the store. Behind him was a doting mother of 3, behind her, was me. I got there two hours before the store opened. The employee had already printed out preorder game and accessory lists, and was extremely well-informed.
The guys I were in line with were the sweaty fat gamer nerd type - one wouldn't shut up about how he got 120 stars in Mario 64.. *yawn*
Anyway, I put down full price on a Wii, two classic controllers, an extra nunc
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Should we notify the authorities ahead of time?
(No, the jokes won't stop.)
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Hey, let me show you my Wii! You can play with it all night if you want!
*nephew's face turns pale as he starts crying and runs out of the room*
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Why bother with pre-orders anyway? (Score:2)
Three reasons (Score:5, Insightful)
1: Interest on $50,000,000 for a month (You really think the costs of running the pre-order operation for a day are going to exceed $4 million?)
2: Gets the customer into the store two times, increasing the opportunity for additional sales
3: Requires the customer to provide personal information that they can sell
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Somewhere else in this thread are people claiming that EB/Gamestop are getting 60% of the initial shipment of 2 million units; small stores would be getting 15-30 units. Larger stores in big cities would presumably get many times that.
Obviously, if that is incorrect my point is based on a fl
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2) The reason they want people to preorder consoles is nearly the same. It gives them a read on the demand for the console, so that t
I checked my local Gamestop at Opening time... (Score:2, Interesting)
Skunked (Score:3, Interesting)
From what I've gathered, they had a lot fewer units allocated than they did for the PS3. When I asked on Wednesday, the clerk said those had sold out in about 15 minutes. It's kinda odd, considering that the Wii's going to have about 10x the availability. My guess is that Nintendo is purposefully avoiding selling the majority of their hardware as preorders. They want to get the hardware into the hands of the general public, not the sorts of people who read gaming sites or get email notifications from EB. It makes sense, though, when you consider how vital Nintendo's market expansion plan is to the system's success.
Re:Skunked (Score:4, Interesting)
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That's exactly what I meant. I think Nintendo is trying to emphsize more mainstream stores (Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Sears, etc.) over the gaming specialist shops. Places like EB, Babbages, and Gamestop don't cater to the new demographic they're trying to cultivate, so it would make sense for them to focus the majority of their push elsewhere.
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I have windburn from the cold.
Perhaps, since you live so close to me, I can come over and play it when it arrives?
Major Question for Pre-Ordering (Score:1)
Are there any giveaways that stores are doing if you buy from them instead of someone else?
For the DS Lite launch, Circuit City gave away DS Lite kits and Best Buy gave away copies of Brain Age!
What are the sellers doing this year?
Other than "getting it first", what's the incentive for pre-ordering?
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easy to get one for me (Score:2, Interesting)
So, all in all pretty easy for me.
I know what I want (Score:2)
Going against the grain (Score:2)
However, I pretty much went against the crowd this weekend: I went and canceled my order. I refuse to play silly-buggers with Nintendo's retarded regioning policy for yet another console generation, and I certainly don't want my Virtual Console game selection to be limited to what was available in PAL back in the 8/16-bit era (which is what they're apparently doi
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General rule of thumb (Score:2)
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