I did the Wii pre-order thing at my local GameStop this morning.  After reading all the overzealous internet stuff, I decided to err on the side of caution and arrived at 7 AM, three hours before opening and over an hour before the next person showed up.  However, once there were two of us, the rest showed up quickly.  I think we reached eight (our store got 12, four for the employees and eight for customers) by 8:45 AM, and we turned away another 5-6 people after that, though one of our original eight sold his spot in line to someone for $20.

Of the eight, I believe there were four who were pre-ordering because they actually wanted the system for themselves, two who were getting it for ebay, and two who were getting it for a relative.

In terms of products, I think most people were planning to just pre-order Zelda, and I didn't hear any other games mentioned.  I pre-ordered the system, Zelda, one extra Wiimote, one extra nunchuck, and one classic controller.

Although I sure felt like a loser sitting outside GameStop in the cold for three hours, it's a hell of a lot better than having to sit outside Best Buy in the extreme cold for 12 hours in November.

My local EBgames and Gamestops sold out their pre-order allocations.

Even Nintendo World in NYC was quickly running out of pre-order allocations.

I think I'll just wait for the initial rush to pass.  Nintendo is making a lot of units, so I expect supplies not to be scarce.

I was all hyped to get a Wii until I realized I really only wanted Metroid Prime 3 and it's no longer launch, not being much of a Zelda fan. So, I'll be waiting until that comes out, or Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 and 3 make it to virtual console, whichever occurs first, to get my Wii.

Here's a copy/paste of my preorder adventure from my LiveJournal... hope it doesn't get the tl;dr treatment (too long; didn't read) ;)

Today I did something I thought I'd never do. I woke up at 7am... yeah, that wasn't too legendary. On the other hand:

I sat out in front of GameStop two hours before they opened to guarantee I was one of the first people in line to preorder Nintendo's new system, the Wii.

I was only the second non-employee there at 8am. The only person in front of me was a doting mother who had lots to say about her 13 year old son, hehe.

At about 9:30, the real dorks started showing up... this one guy wouldn't shut up about how he got 120 stars in Mario 64. Yeah, yeah, shut up already. Overall, it was just a bunch of overeager gamer penises. (thanks, virt, for that phrase. I use it a lot.)

Anyway, Jeremy had a presentation to do at work at 9am, so I was there all alone, hehe. It wasn't that bad. The mom and I chatted a bit, and I played my DS a bit (most people in line either had DSes or laptops) After one dude said loudly about how his girlfriend was always screwing up his computer, and how he'll never let a woman touch it again, I stood up, stared him in the face, and just kinda spouted off about how not all women are like that, and how I could probably school the whole group of them in Windows hacking. The dude then asked me what game I had in my DS... I replied "oh, Castlevania" and he narrowed his eyes and said "oh, no multiplayer, eh?" ...which is good for me, because I probably would've been schooled in the art of gaming otherwise. :p

By the time the store opened, there were about 20 people in line (the employee had said that the store had 16 preorder slots). By this time, Jeremy had freed himself from work and come back to the store (yay!) and we'd decided which games we were going to preorder.

So... what we are picking up on Nov 19th (preorder paid in full):

- 1 Wii system
- 1 extra Wiimote
- 1 extra Nunchuck controller
- 2 Classic gamepads
- 1 copy of Red Steel
- 1 copy of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- 1 copy of Trauma Center
- 1 copy of Excite Truck

I wanted to check out Rayman: Raving Rabbids (cuuuuuute), but Excite Truck won out. Oh well, it's not like these aren't all going to be in the Greatest Hits line eventually for 29.99 or less.

Why did we make sure to get a preorder? The Wii is going to be awesome to tote around to our families' places this holiday season. Maybe I'll be able to get my brother into video gaming again, though I doubt it. He's into much more "adult" things right now, like... Pink Floyd, selling prescription drugs online (wtf?), and smoking. Yeeeah.

I had to be at work, so I couldn't do it.  I was tempted to call out, but I just can't imagine standing in line just to pre-order. 

There are still some things I just won't do!

Still, I'm confident I'll get one on launch day.  Don't ask me how, I just also seem to come out on top!

One of my best friends works at EB, so I gave him a shit ton of money last night and he put my pre-order in for me before the store even opened. I guess that makes me a dick, but that also makes me a happy future owner of a Wii, an extra chuck-mote and Zelda. BAM.

I'm getting one, but no sense in getting one RIGHT at launch with all of the stuff coming out for the current systems...Figure I'll wait until at least Smash Brothers Brawl comes along (and also Prime 3 and Super Paper Mario) and see how the VC shapes up (see how the TG16 games and MAYBE Japanese titles come along), plus let all of the craziness settle down. Zelda TP looks nice, but I wouldn't define it as a killer app for myself right now.

I'm looking at late spring/early summer as being the right time to splurge.

I fail (again) as an early adopter.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were enough units that other retailers get them like Target, Best Buy, and Toys 'R Us

I'm not too worried about snagging a Wii at launch.  One million of them or thereabouts will be out there, x many tens of thousands will be pre-ordered...which leaves, what, around nine hundred thousand and change for the rest of us?  And, hell--if I'm actually going to wander around anywhere on launch day, I'm going to bleepin' buy something that day.

I would be surprised if I couldn't just waltz into a Walmart and buy it in the evening.

Well, you never know.  It's possible Nintendo will not have all the units ready on time, which will make launch Wiis quite a ticket on ebay!  Of course anyone who purchases a launch system from ebay either:

a)has plenty of money to spare
b)is a fool

but yeah, hopefully that won't happen!  I haven't been excited about a new system for a long while, but the Wii promises to be something special

cheers,

-avatar!

I did the same thing, except I didn't get the extra controller.  Hookups ftw.

Both true.  :-)  I sure would have done the same if I had the hook up.