Diamond Princess said:There are "Wii reservation stories", going all around the net, right now. As for me, I thought I would be slick, and drop by and pre-order one on my way to school this morning. I live in an urban neighborhood, where Sony, reigns supreme. So basically, I thought no one would show up early to reserve a Wii. Eventually, I arrive at my local Ebgames, just to see well over 30 people in line. So we(me and friends) parked in the parking lot somewhere, and I called up a few other stores on my cell; Surprisingly enough, some of them picked up. However, they were already at their limits.
I got kind upset, as the regrets began simmering, because I gave up on going up there two hours earlier like I had initially planned yesterday. To make myself feel better though, I actually told them to drive around and I rolled down the car window and called them all a bunch of " random insults " mainly stereotypical ones(bunch of geeks, waiting outside for a stupid gaming console, ect)for a moment, and went on to school. They didn't hesitate to retaliate with their own insults either, especially considering the car we were riding in--we quickly became a riding target of negativity. Nonetheless, it was amusingly fun. But, maybe I should have reserved both the Playstation 3, and Wii when I had the chance. I hope this wont come back to bite me in the ass.
I say this, because, I heard that some people actually waited outside at 1am. If they have that kind dedication for the Wii, then on the day before the Wii and Playstation 3 launch, they could possibly begin camping out an entire day before the store actually opens. I really dont have the time to deal with that, as far as the Playstation 3 goes anyway. It's good to know that I can get the Wii, sometime in December atleast.
To make matters worst, this school day is going slow, I cant wait to get home.
I'm willing to bet half, if not all of your story is exagerrated. Too much of it seems farfetched in PS3's favor.SaiyanPrideXIX said:I have to share what just happened to me at the store when I went to go preorder Smackdown Vs. Raw 07.
So I'm in line with an obvious bunch of Wii folk; Moms, grandparents, etc. The line is out the door because none of these people have any clue how reservation works and the guy has to explain it to each one of them before they'll give him their info. He tries with each person to hurry it along by just asking whether they want to preorder games or just the system, and then immediately asking for their phone number--but none of them were having it. Each and every person in line before me needed a full rundown of their policies before they would even give him their phone numbers.
So I'm at the back and some dude comes rushing in all panicked and out of breath. "Do you have any Wii preorders left?!!?" he exclaims.
The guy behind the counter counts up the people in the line, then looks at his screen, and goes, "Sorry man, this guy's got the last one," pointing to me.
So the guy starts to leave all disappointed but I quickly stop him and explain, since I'm not there for the Wii, he gets the last one. He thanks me but is fascinated how I can not want it. I explained to him about where I thought the future of gaming was going, and how I thought the controller was gimmicky, etc. He starts talking to me about the brilliant applications the controller could have. I say to him that, yeah it's great if it could be like that, but that I doubt they'd take the thing in that direction. We go on like this for awhile before I finally get irritated with the guy's ignorance to the history of games ("You know Nintendo invented the Playstation, right? And Sony stole it from them! Like they steal everything!!"). So finally I say, "Look, all I know is, 20 years ago, dudes like you said this same crap about Robbie the Robot, and 10 years ago dudes like you said this same crap about the Super Scope 6, and you all end up the same way--****ed. So you can have your controller, man--but I've got games to play."
Now the dude finally leaves me alone.
I get to the front and the dude, thankful to see a regular customer who knows the deal, immediately asks me for my phone number so I can preorder the Wii. I tell him I'm not there for it and then we do my business with SVR07, takes all of 2 minutes.
I started to browse and took note of the sheer amount of people who had been there to get the Wii, and the various stragglers who came in too late. Totalling over a 50+ people, and the store had only been open for an hour and a half.
So the dude who was behind me is at the counter and is trying to shoot the **** with the clerk. He points to me and says, "This guy thinks the PS3 and the 360 are better! Can you beLIEVE it?!" the second syllable of "believe" sounds liek nails on a chalkboard, it's so high. Then he mentions how no one was there to get the PS3 and so many people were there to get the Wii.
I was kinda pissed but then another clerk walking by casually says, "Oh, the PS3s are all long gone. The last of those preorders went out the door this morning."
The nerdy guy says "You've only been open since 10!!"
The guy behind the counter chimes in. "Well, yeah--the PS3 crowd though, they all had their stuff ready to go, we were really shelling them out. They were gone a half hour after we opened the gate, all 50."
"40?!?!" the guy yelps. "You only had 25 preorders for Wii!"
"That's what they gave us," the guy behind the counter shrugs.
"Well!" the dorky dude exclaims. "What does it matter anyway?! I bet nobody can pay the full price on that thing anyhow--"
"Actually," the other employee says, "most people paid full. I didn't get any who paid less than 250, anyway."
"200 was my lowest," the guy behind the counter says. "it was a lot easier to move 'em, no grandmas in that line."
The other guy goes "Amen, frigging soccer moms," and walks off.
"So...you wanted a Wii, right?" the guy behind the counter says with a grin.
I guess he annoyed the clerk as much as he was annoying me, heh.
(Not meant to be anti-Wii or anything, I just thought it was a funny story)
I find the people that work at these places know even less.SaiyanPrideXIX said:After all, from what I saw and what they said, they'd been dealing with people all morning who hadn't the slightest clue about videogames--that's why I was in line so long.
I do remember alot of videos, blogs, articles, ect; In reference to camping out, a day before the "Xbox 360" was actually released. Of course, that applies to some of the previous consoles before it as well(PSP, Playstation 2, ect). However, I never seen anyone camp out for pre-orders before. The Playstation 3 pre-order announcement, arised well under 15 hours, and people were already out there as soon as possible, filling up in lines, to get the open reservation slots everywhere in the U.S, within in an hours before store openings. That was highly unexpected, in my limited experiential perspective, among the launch history of the gaming industry.Mogwai said:The same thing happens everytime a new console is released, hell i remember the movies that went all over the internet when the xbox 360 was being waited on people out in the FREEZING COLD, laying in sleeping bags waiting for the store to open, i mean jeez people you waited a year to 2 years for the console you can't wait a few months for the second shipment?
This is why i love my pc it can play just about anything from now until dx10 is required.
For the record even if Sony sold all their ps3s at launch they would lose money.Mogwai said:Just got a call from my father as i told them i don't want anything for christmas this year but they ask/bug me anyways, so i said fine then a Wii and zelda twighlight princess.
He said ok so when he went to preorder it, there was a 12 hour waiting time before more wii's hit the store, the guy said it would be very possible for him to get a wii, but ps3 would be non existent as they are all sold out even in the new shipment.
Yup sony will fail alright considering iv yet to encounter a preorder that isn't taken up lol.
I believe that he was being sarcastic...Shiyojin Rommyu said:I just have to play the Devil's advocate here, Mogwai:
How will SONY fail, if all of their units are sold out before they've even hit the shelves?
sarcastic? ..no one said anything about sony failing so what would be the point ?clen said:I believe that he was being sarcastic...
Shiyojin Rommyu said:I just have to play the Devil's advocate here, Mogwai:
How will SONY fail, if all of their units are sold out before they've even hit the shelves?
We get to do both. Infact, many people have pre-ordered their games, many months before the actual system itself.Shiyojin Rommyu said:Yes. But if they didn't actually sell them, they'd make an even greater loss.
So I guess you could say they would fail less?
Anyway, enough of this.
So over there, in the States - do you guys get to preorder games along with the system, or just the system?