Prelaunch Wii Kiosks Only at GameStop, Pre-Order News

saintory writes to mention a Dallas Morning News article about Gamestop's annual new product conference. Employees and new vendors were given a chance to take a look at the upcoming next-gen consoles, and a few details about the Wii retail strategy were revealed. For example, Gamestop will be the only place to demo the Wii prior to the November 19th launch. More frustratingly, "GameStop has not yet decided when, or even if, it will offer pre-orders for the new systems ... Last year, at the launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360, GameStop accepted more pre-orders before Christmas than it was able to satisfy. Microsoft's manufacturing problems turned into GameStop's angry customer problems. 'We did learn a lesson last year,' said Steve Morgan, president of GameStop. 'I think the lesson is caution and optimism at the same time.'" Update: 10/03 18:20 GMT by Z : Okay, there is *some* pre-order news. I was told last week to contact the Gamestop folks today (Tuesday) for details. At least at my local Madison store, they're going to be accepting preorders as of Monday the 16th (two weeks from yesterday). One would assume they're not some sort of 'rebel' store, so this is probably along the lines of what we can expect nation-wide.

UK

[Spad]

Game [game.co.uk] is already offering Wii pre-orders, although the individual stores are only doing so once they've had their allocation confirmed. Personally, I've had my Wii pre-ordered for over a week now - as the EU release date is almost a month after the US, you'd think Gamestop would have some idea as to their allocation by now. Unless, of course, NOA is much less efficient than NOE.

Re:

[Ewan]

More likely game (who I've preordered with too) are just blagging it and hoping to get away with it, going to Nintendo with a "We need more stock, we're your biggest pre-order location"

Re:

[Spad]

Perhaps, but my local game refused to take pre-orders initally until they got their allocation of 50 confirmed.

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[VJ42]

I've had my Wii pre-ordered for over a week now

Same here, apparantly I'm 9th on their list; but this is a very quiet (99% of the time it's deserted) Game on the top floor of a Debenhams. I'm guessing it'll be very busy come the 8th of December, (hopefully still quieter than the other two Game stores in town).

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[Spad]

Would that be the one in Guildford by any chance?

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[VJ42]

No, Southampton actually. And I just realised that I've accedentally lied in my previous post, there are three other Game stores in town, not two.

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[Frizzle Fry]

Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo World Store [nintendoworldstore.com] in Rockefeller Center is taking pre-orders.

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[LordVader717]

Don't take that as a guarantee. Until the official preorders start, you're only relying on the vendors ability to secure the supply (which is still good, but not fail safe). I always wait for official Nintendo preorders.

Re:Pre-orders are bad

[voice_of_all_reason]

Yeah, but that has issues in and of itself. Waiting sucks, it favors those who don't have jobs, and you can't simply beat line-cutters to death on the street without having to explain yourself to the police.

I'd suggest a lottery system given away a week before the release, but that has it's own problems. Do it on the internet and you have IP spoofing to get multiple tickets. Do it in person and you'd either have to card/register first (just as long/invasive) or risk people hopping store to store to get tickets.

Maybe like the old days? Mail away for a ticket, 1 per address?

Then again, we are a Capitalist Republic. You can always guarantee you get a system, as long as you have some dough.

Re:

[__aaclcg7560]

... you can't simply beat line-cutters to death on the street without having to explain yourself to the police.

Wouldn't waiting in line for a next-gen video game console make that obvious? I guess video game-related violence is not that wide spread as the media claims to be.

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[Detritus]

Yeah, but that has issues in and of itself. Waiting sucks, it favors those who don't have jobs, and you can't simply beat line-cutters to death on the street without having to explain yourself to the police.

That's why the mobile wood chipper was invented.

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[Lectrik]

Yeah, but that has issues in and of itself. Waiting sucks, it favors those who don't have jobs, and you can't simply beat line-cutters to death on the street without having to explain yourself to the police.

well, almost nothing beats having the guy that runs the local Gamestop as a brother in law that will personally gaurantee that you will have a Wii ready for pick up as soon as they come in. My EB Edge card has accumulated enough from trade ins (mostly from the PS2 games collecting dust) to almost pay for

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[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

you aren't making sense.

so someone who happens to have no time commitments on the day of launch is more deserving than someone who planned ahead and preordered (often with deposit and/or a pick-up-by time) as soons as they were able to?

online preorders are also limited, by account or even delivery address.

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[BadAnalogyGuy]

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

Someone who is willing to wait in line for the chance to buy one is more deserving than someone who expects things handed to him on a silver platter.

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[Macthorpe]

What a ridiculous comparison.

How on earth is having the foresight pre-order something that could be popular anything to do with expecting things being handed to you on a silver platter? If anything you have to go out twice to a game store to pre-order a console and only once to buy it on the day!

Re:Pre-orders are bad

[VJ42]

What a ridiculous comparison.

Cut him some slack; look at his user name. If bad with analogies, he's unlikly to be that good with comparasons now is he?

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[CarnivoreMan]

lol. Very good point. I would give you 5000 insightful points if I had any.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Pre-orders are bad?

[zippthorne]

I don't get it.. Just tell everyone their number (and reserve a few at the begining with higher prices for "money is no object" types if whatever sales agreement they've made allows this). When your number or more have been delivered to the shop, go down and pick up your unit. They could even notify people with phone calls or email so no one foolishly goes down on launch day for a system that hasn't arrived yet.

If systems are selling out, there's a market failure there: they're not charging enough. They

Re:

[maxume]

As long as they sell out, the stores don't care. They would be happiest if the could auction them off, but idiots would *really* think that was unfair, even though giving the systems to those willing to pay the most is probably at least as fair as any random sort of distribution.

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[SeePage87]

Pre-orders are _not_ bad. I understand the desire to give the consoles to the "die hard" fans who camp out, but there are also those "have a job" fans who don't have that option. Fairness aside, pre-orders are a great way for store to measure the demand of a product before it is available. Without pre-orders it becomes much more difficult to figure out how many Wiis are needed. If you still want to be a die hard fan to retain your geek pride then be among the first to pre-order.

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[Damvan]

If the 360 launch taught us anything, those "die hard" fans camping out are likely to not be die hard fans, but rather people looking to make a quick buck on Ebay.

Re:I just hope, or why I don't care about HDTV

[WillAffleckUW]

It's a fact that the Microsoft XBOX 360 and the Sony Playstation 3 will give you 1080, while Pretendo will just give you Piss as in piss on you as they always have.

Why would I care about 1080 - i or p? I don't plan to buy an HDTV until flat-panel HDTV costs less than $300 for a 30 inch set. My first degree was in Business Management (Sales and Marketing focus) - I know the price will drop to around $300 if I just wait a few years. Until then, my digital cable settop box will convert the shows for me.

By t

Who's fault is it?

[MMaestro]

Last year, at the launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360, GameStop accepted more pre-orders before Christmas than it was able to satisfy.

And who's fault was that?

You'd think that after the horrible PS2 launch (faulty hardware, long lines, too many pre-orders not enough units...) retailers would be a bit more cautious about pre-orders. Instead we STILL see them shoving pre-order offers in our faces. They have no one to blame but themselves.

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[hab136]

You'd think that after the horrible PS2 launch (faulty hardware, long lines, too many pre-orders not enough units...) retailers would be a bit more cautious about pre-orders. Instead we STILL see them shoving pre-order offers in our faces. They have no one to blame but themselves.

Game stores love pre-orders. You give them money now, they give you the product later. Pre-orders without enough product to back it up? You give them money now, they give you the product even later. It's an even better deal f

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[TemporalBeing]

You give them money now, they give you the product later.

Not quite. You might given them a small fee (e.g. $5), but you don't normally pay full price up front. Online retailers (e.g. Amazon.com) don't charge anything. In both cases you usually get a discount from the price when it does come available. So the retailers don't usually win out other than that they can say to the vendor that they can guarantee X number of sales. This also usually means that they will get at least X units of the product to prov

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[hab136]

Not quite. You might given them a small fee (e.g. $5), but you don't normally pay full price up front. Online retailers (e.g. Amazon.com) don't charge anything.

Depends on the store I guess. ebgames.com/gamestop.com is quite willing to sell me Burning Crusade (expansion pack for World of Warcraft) now for $39.95, even though there's no official release date, just "Q4 2006". Gamestop has been selling it all year, at full retail price. Likewise for Super Mario Galaxy for Wii (to be released 11/15), selling

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[MikeFM]

GameStop here told me they weren't planning on any PS3 pre-orders because of the expected shortage. They suggested I camp outside the door the night before release if I want one. Ummm.. I'll spend $600 for it but camping out is to much for me. I'll give em an extra $100 if they'll just mail it to me on launch day. ;)

I like being able to preorder.

[tarun713]

I'd like to grab one on release, but I don't have the time to camp out on release night to get one - I'd much rather be able to preorder earlier, even if it means I won't get one immediately on release but within a few weeks after, so I don't have to repeatedly call and check to see if there are any available.

Local game store...

[BMonger]

My local game store is just writing people's names down on a list with their phone numbers. As they get stock in they're going to call you and if you already have one they'll move to the next person on the list. Hopefully I'll get one launch day from there but it's nice as it makes me free to get one elsewhere if I see it.

Lines out the store

[Dissenter]

Eventually people will learn that their local retailer gets shipments on Tuesdays or something like that and you'll have a line outside the door every Tuesday morning to see if they got any in. That's a great marketing ploy since most retailers are pretty dead in the early hours.

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[SScorpio]

The products will ship on Tuesday; however, most retailers won't get the package until Wednesday. The Wii is a Sunday launch though, so the stores will have stock ready to be placed before hand since you don't get normal Fedex shipments on Sunday.

Walmart declined the demo units

[cdneng2]

Walmart was apparently offered the Wii demo units, but declined due to safety concerns with children, and lack of floorspace. [joystiq.com] Of course, that's just rumour.

This is annoying!

[Klowner]

I've been faithfully swinging by my local EBGames every couple days on the way home from work to see if they're taking pre-orders yet, and of course they're not yet but I was told that they should know sometime this week exactly when they will be. I was also told that instead of pre-ordering a Wii, I should just pre-order a Wii game... How does that help me get a Wii? Heck if I know.

Time to go to Toys-r-us

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[carou]

You should ask if they'll let you book you pre-order in advance.

Limited or Non-Existant pre-orders may be GOOD

[thebaron2]

Limited or Non-Existant pre-orders may be GOOD... at least for the retailers. Who doesn't like long lines snaking around their stores? If the Wii is a successful product - which I think it's fairly safe to assume it will be - then it's release will likely mimic the releases of previous "next-gen" systems (I say "next-gen" using the term completely relative to a console's particular time-frame; N64 was, to a degree, "next-gen" for its time). Especially recently, major console releases have seen incredibl

FYE

[Hes Nikke]

here in the states, FYE is taking pre-orders with a $50 deposit on the system, and $5 per game. i'm 3rd in line for my Wii. i have no idea why, but the PS3 already has 13 pr-orders. O_o

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[Gulthek]

i have no idea why, but the PS3 already has 13 pr-orders.

So they can make a healthy profit by selling the system on eBay. $2000 for a PS3 on eBay this holiday season.

Wont have any effect

[grapeape]

The first shipments of the Wii will be going to the "hardcore" gamers and the pseudo-enteprenuers looking to rip people off on ebay. None of them are going to care about an in store kiosk. Has anyone ever been in a store like Best Buy or Target and found a Kiosk actually open to test out, every time I see them they are crowded by small children who's parents found the video game department to be a babysitter for them. Toys R Us, Best Buy and others are going to be free to setup their own consoles, most d

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[grapeape]

wow really, they do a crappy job around here then. I've seen one store (the local target) with an actual console for anything its a nintendo DS one with a download station. Most other stores here just have consoles locked in plexiglass boxes with the controllers sticking out.

want it? get it

[dolson]

If you want something so badly that you need to pre-order it, you should want it bad enough that you are willing to actually go to the store when it is first available. If you can't be bothered to, and other people get it before you, then you can't want it bad enough. I don't understand the big fuss about pre-ordering something. It makes sense for many reasons that places don't allow pre-orders.

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[Builder]

In a lot of cases, places only have enough stock to serve the people who preordered; so in many cases, if you don't preorder, you don't get.

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[(A)*(B)!0_-]

"If you want something so badly that you need to pre-order it, you should want it bad enough that you are willing to actually go to the store when it is first available."

Thanks for clearing up who "deserves" to be able to buy a Wii and who doesn't. Because it really matters to me whether I am deserving or not and I am sure it matters to both Nintendo and whatever retail location I buy it from. I'll let them know that I am not deserving of the Wii because I didn't stand around in line, then I will drop my

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[Knara]

I don't get it either. Why people need to have systems on launch day has always confounded me, but even moreso after a few years working for the late, great EB. It's not like the system is going to disappear and never be seen again, so why not just wait until its easier to find and purchase?

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[batkiwi]

It's pretty obvious which people commenting on this story are students and which are living in the real world...

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[Raenex]

Want it bad enough? Pay for it. It's a free market, and Nintendo is in this to make money. Nintendo should sell them on Ebay until the demand drops, and then flood the stores.

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[devnull17]

I'd agree with you if things were a bit different. When you do things like this on weekday mornings, it tends to favor the unemployed, and I don't think that's terribly fair. I'd be quite willing to line up outside a store on a Saturday morning, but I can't ask my boss if I can show up a few hours late (GameStop opens at 10:00) just so I can pre-order a new game system.

Further, this whole "buy-all-the-consoles-you-can-and-sell-them-for-ou trageous-prices-on-eBay" thing really sucks. If everyone who boug

Amazon

[blackmonday]

I pre-ordered a Wii on Amazon a couple weeks ago. They had a short window in which to order and I got lucky. Hope I get mine fast...Free shipping and no tax so I won't complain if it takes a couple days.

Wii Demos

[justaj]

I'd be shocked if Gamestop didn't do pre-orders. And actually, some of their employees are under the impression that there WILL be preorders. For whatever thats worth.

My local Target has started putting up a Wii display, but oddly enough no PS3 display. (which actually comes out 2 days earlier) It doesn't look like they're going to demo it but there really wasnt a way to tell. (I have a picture of the kiosk at www.unofficiallwii.com)

I still haven't been able to preorder the Wii, no place is taking them

Toys'R Us (Canada)

[Yvan256]

In Canada, Toys'R Us had the Wii for pre-order a few weeks (months?) ago. Their website [toysrus.ca] no longer lists it as being available for pre-order, though.

Madison rawks...

[heartless_]

That is all. WI > * Anyone cracks a Packers joke and it is on.

Trade-ins for Pre-order

[pat_trick]

At the Gamestop at Ala Moana in Honolulu, they're only accepting trade ins as payment toward a pre-order. No cash.

I'm going to be camping out at Best Buy instead.