Monday, November 20, 2006
Who Needs Exercise When You Have a Wii?
Muhahaha, won't need to line up they say. Plenty of supply they say.
Actually, reading news on Kotaku seems to indicate that the Wii were in short supply at various places, but not all. Like, there were photos of stores where there was no one in line to get a Wii or that very few people lined up. So I guess GTA had more people who wanted one than there was supply.
I guess I'll recap the past month or for the November console launches:
I am interested in the PS3, but once they released the pricing I knew I won't be getting one anytime soon. Just too expensive for a gaming console, and in retrospect buying the PS2 launch bundle wasn't a really smart move. I'm pretty sure I'll get one eventually, just not for $660.
I was really interested in the Wii when they revealed the controller at last year's TGS IIRC. I liked the idea, and after watching the promotional videos, I was sure that this would be a very unique console. Coupled with the fact the next Smash would be on it, the Wii would be a must have (at the latest by the time SSBB came out). When Nintendo came with more news such as the Virtual Console and the pricing, I became more interested in getting a Wii at launch.
The few weeks prior to the launch though, my plan was to show up to a store a bit before they opened up and see if I can take a Wii off the shelves, and if I couldn't, I'd wait for the subsequent shipments. I'm not sure what changed along the weeks, but as the launch date approached, I just kinda wanted the Wii more and more.
Seeing the people lining up 2 days for the PS3, I knew I wasn't hardcore enough to do that for the Wii. But I was willing to line up Saturday night to guarantee that I'd be swinging to slash things in Hyrule. Unforunately, no one in 'sauga wanted to line up with me, so I was in a bit of a rut in that if I lined up, I'd have no real company nor could I step out of line for a washroom break or a coffee run.
On Saturday I decided that I'd do some reconnaissance to check out how long the Wii line would be at the Heartland Best Buy (BB) and Future Shop (FS). I asked at BB on Thursday night and the staff didn't think there'd be a line for the Wii. So I show up around noon on Saturday and there's about 10-15 people lined up out front. No where near as many people as the PS3, so that was a good sign. I went into the BB to see how many units they had, and the staff answered that they had at least 100 units. Recon at FS revealed had no people in line at noon and the store had about 50 units. So I went home feeling fairly confident that I can get a Wii, only question was when I should arrive at the BB.
Did some stuff at home Saturday afternoon, and then more recon at BB and FS before heading out for dinner at 6pm. At that time, the line had grown to "edge" of the "first side" of BB (the side that the entrance is at). From my recollection the PS3 line on Thursday night was longer than that, and they had less than 50 units of PS3. So accounting for higher density I figured that maybe 40-50 units were accounted for in the line. No one at FS yet. Dropped by after dinner around 7:30pm and the BB line grew about 3, 4 people, still no one at FS. So at this point I kind of knew that most of the hardcore Nintendo fans would have shown up, and the remaining units will go to those who have a little more patience than the rest. If someone had wanted to line up with me (perhaps I should have called Lowry, as I'm sure he was lining up somewhere), I would've totally lined up after dinner at BB.
I made a mention of lining up to my Mom during dinner, and then she was saying stuff like "what if you get robbed?", "you're going to freeze", etc (Mom stuff). So I couldn't exactly go line up right after dinner (I kind of half wanted to after seeing the BB line reaching the "corner"). So I went home and took a nap, intending to wake up later on in the night, and head over to the BB to wait for a few hours.
I ended up falling asleep around 1:30 or so, and woke up at 3:30. I knew that by that time I had to head over to the BB if I wanted to get the Wii for sure. So that's what I did. As I was driving past FS I see a line of at least 40 people, which I thought was trouble, as that line went from 0 to 40+ in 8 hours or so. I went to the BB, and the line covered about half the wall beyond the corner. I parked, did a count of the number of people and chairs in the entire line, and figured that there was maybe 50-60 people in line. Since they had well over 100, even with people cutting in line and staff holding a few units, I had a pretty good chance of getting one. And so I plopped myself in line.
Originally my plan was to play GBA while waiting in line. However, it was much too cold to not wear gloves. Thus I spent my time keeping my body warm (it was quite cold outside, heh) and having some small talk with the people in line. At first I was expecting to wait until 8 am for the store to open, but along the way I heard someone say that the BB staff will hand out tickets at 6am. Around 5:30 am a few BB staff started showing up. A staff came by the line and said that they had 120 units, and he was doing a quick head count to see if they had enough for the entire line. He thought that they would have enough, and then went and did a tally asking each person in line if they were buying a unit (in case some people were there to keep people company, or like, father with sons). He came by and I was number 75, and at that point I knew that I will get a unit even if a lot of people jumped into line in front. A bit later on the staff then said that at 6 am they'd start giving out tickets, and that the tickets were good until 10 am. More staff came by to tell people what they had in stock, answer questions and promote their extended warranty program. At around 6:30 am I received my ticket, number 74 of 120, and proceeded to go home to warm up and eat breakfast. The BB staff said that they'd put people back in their spot in line starting 7:45 am, and at 8am they'd let customers in 10 at a time, and that all the Wii stuff will be at the front desk (cashier areas).
So I went home to warm up and eat some breakfast, as well as doing some browsing on what launch games (besides Zelda: TP) I might want to get. Got back to BB at 7:45am or so to stand back in line, and by then everyone (who had a ticket) was in high spirits. While standing in line I saw some people approach the store and the line, most likely trying to get a Wii but were turned away. I was home at around 8:45am, happy owner of a Nintendo Wii.
Rest of Sunday went by pretty quickly, I spent an hour or so setting up the Wii and connecting it to the wireless network, then played a bit of Wii Sports before going to church. After church and lunch I came home to sleep. Around 4pm people started showing up to see the Wii, and around 6pm I went to pick up my Dad for dinner at my aunt's. Coming home I told my stepdad about Wii Sports boxing and that he might like to play (since he's into martial arts). I showed him a game and he found it interesting, and called my mom down to check it out. And so my Mom and Stepdad each played a round of Wii Sports boxing, which was very cool. They both enjoyed it too, heh. Another hour of Wii Sports and my arm is sore from all the "exercise", I was also tired, so I proceeded to bed.
Browsed some websites today to see when stores were expecting a second Wii shipment. Seems that general consensus is that Nintendo can get units out quick, maybe in a couple weeks. The more Nintendo units sold the better, it might mean that they can get some solid third party support again, which means more games for the Wii, heh.
So you Waterloo guys should come out heh.
Actually, reading news on Kotaku seems to indicate that the Wii were in short supply at various places, but not all. Like, there were photos of stores where there was no one in line to get a Wii or that very few people lined up. So I guess GTA had more people who wanted one than there was supply.
I guess I'll recap the past month or for the November console launches:
I am interested in the PS3, but once they released the pricing I knew I won't be getting one anytime soon. Just too expensive for a gaming console, and in retrospect buying the PS2 launch bundle wasn't a really smart move. I'm pretty sure I'll get one eventually, just not for $660.
I was really interested in the Wii when they revealed the controller at last year's TGS IIRC. I liked the idea, and after watching the promotional videos, I was sure that this would be a very unique console. Coupled with the fact the next Smash would be on it, the Wii would be a must have (at the latest by the time SSBB came out). When Nintendo came with more news such as the Virtual Console and the pricing, I became more interested in getting a Wii at launch.
The few weeks prior to the launch though, my plan was to show up to a store a bit before they opened up and see if I can take a Wii off the shelves, and if I couldn't, I'd wait for the subsequent shipments. I'm not sure what changed along the weeks, but as the launch date approached, I just kinda wanted the Wii more and more.
Seeing the people lining up 2 days for the PS3, I knew I wasn't hardcore enough to do that for the Wii. But I was willing to line up Saturday night to guarantee that I'd be swinging to slash things in Hyrule. Unforunately, no one in 'sauga wanted to line up with me, so I was in a bit of a rut in that if I lined up, I'd have no real company nor could I step out of line for a washroom break or a coffee run.
On Saturday I decided that I'd do some reconnaissance to check out how long the Wii line would be at the Heartland Best Buy (BB) and Future Shop (FS). I asked at BB on Thursday night and the staff didn't think there'd be a line for the Wii. So I show up around noon on Saturday and there's about 10-15 people lined up out front. No where near as many people as the PS3, so that was a good sign. I went into the BB to see how many units they had, and the staff answered that they had at least 100 units. Recon at FS revealed had no people in line at noon and the store had about 50 units. So I went home feeling fairly confident that I can get a Wii, only question was when I should arrive at the BB.
Did some stuff at home Saturday afternoon, and then more recon at BB and FS before heading out for dinner at 6pm. At that time, the line had grown to "edge" of the "first side" of BB (the side that the entrance is at). From my recollection the PS3 line on Thursday night was longer than that, and they had less than 50 units of PS3. So accounting for higher density I figured that maybe 40-50 units were accounted for in the line. No one at FS yet. Dropped by after dinner around 7:30pm and the BB line grew about 3, 4 people, still no one at FS. So at this point I kind of knew that most of the hardcore Nintendo fans would have shown up, and the remaining units will go to those who have a little more patience than the rest. If someone had wanted to line up with me (perhaps I should have called Lowry, as I'm sure he was lining up somewhere), I would've totally lined up after dinner at BB.
I made a mention of lining up to my Mom during dinner, and then she was saying stuff like "what if you get robbed?", "you're going to freeze", etc (Mom stuff). So I couldn't exactly go line up right after dinner (I kind of half wanted to after seeing the BB line reaching the "corner"). So I went home and took a nap, intending to wake up later on in the night, and head over to the BB to wait for a few hours.
I ended up falling asleep around 1:30 or so, and woke up at 3:30. I knew that by that time I had to head over to the BB if I wanted to get the Wii for sure. So that's what I did. As I was driving past FS I see a line of at least 40 people, which I thought was trouble, as that line went from 0 to 40+ in 8 hours or so. I went to the BB, and the line covered about half the wall beyond the corner. I parked, did a count of the number of people and chairs in the entire line, and figured that there was maybe 50-60 people in line. Since they had well over 100, even with people cutting in line and staff holding a few units, I had a pretty good chance of getting one. And so I plopped myself in line.
Originally my plan was to play GBA while waiting in line. However, it was much too cold to not wear gloves. Thus I spent my time keeping my body warm (it was quite cold outside, heh) and having some small talk with the people in line. At first I was expecting to wait until 8 am for the store to open, but along the way I heard someone say that the BB staff will hand out tickets at 6am. Around 5:30 am a few BB staff started showing up. A staff came by the line and said that they had 120 units, and he was doing a quick head count to see if they had enough for the entire line. He thought that they would have enough, and then went and did a tally asking each person in line if they were buying a unit (in case some people were there to keep people company, or like, father with sons). He came by and I was number 75, and at that point I knew that I will get a unit even if a lot of people jumped into line in front. A bit later on the staff then said that at 6 am they'd start giving out tickets, and that the tickets were good until 10 am. More staff came by to tell people what they had in stock, answer questions and promote their extended warranty program. At around 6:30 am I received my ticket, number 74 of 120, and proceeded to go home to warm up and eat breakfast. The BB staff said that they'd put people back in their spot in line starting 7:45 am, and at 8am they'd let customers in 10 at a time, and that all the Wii stuff will be at the front desk (cashier areas).
So I went home to warm up and eat some breakfast, as well as doing some browsing on what launch games (besides Zelda: TP) I might want to get. Got back to BB at 7:45am or so to stand back in line, and by then everyone (who had a ticket) was in high spirits. While standing in line I saw some people approach the store and the line, most likely trying to get a Wii but were turned away. I was home at around 8:45am, happy owner of a Nintendo Wii.
Rest of Sunday went by pretty quickly, I spent an hour or so setting up the Wii and connecting it to the wireless network, then played a bit of Wii Sports before going to church. After church and lunch I came home to sleep. Around 4pm people started showing up to see the Wii, and around 6pm I went to pick up my Dad for dinner at my aunt's. Coming home I told my stepdad about Wii Sports boxing and that he might like to play (since he's into martial arts). I showed him a game and he found it interesting, and called my mom down to check it out. And so my Mom and Stepdad each played a round of Wii Sports boxing, which was very cool. They both enjoyed it too, heh. Another hour of Wii Sports and my arm is sore from all the "exercise", I was also tired, so I proceeded to bed.
Browsed some websites today to see when stores were expecting a second Wii shipment. Seems that general consensus is that Nintendo can get units out quick, maybe in a couple weeks. The more Nintendo units sold the better, it might mean that they can get some solid third party support again, which means more games for the Wii, heh.
So you Waterloo guys should come out heh.
