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Wii Pre-Orders at EB Games and Gamestop
Punkster812 writes "Tomorrow, Friday October 13th, EB Games and Gamestop will begin taking pre-orders. They say they have very limited numbers and will do a first come first serve. A $50 deposit is the minimum down payment for a console and they suggest for you to call your local store for availability. Their online pre-order information will be released at a future date. For full information, visit EB Games or Gamestop for full details."
So far Nintendo has had a good record on this account. Either way the Wii is promised to have an updatable operating system. And there are few drastically new things on the Wii, I would estimate at worse you might have to update that as changes to their OS are rumored to be fairly new, possibly unstable. Otherwise one might want to wait a while on picking up extra controllers and there is a good chance the first version of the Wiimotes will have some problems.
Just got back from the trenches, pre-ordering my Wii. Here's what it looked like at a North Baltimore Game Stop...
:)
7:30am - Arrive to meet friend. One person is already in front of us.
8:00am - Four more people are behind us. Manager is already there to make sure things are okay. Tells us there are 12 units for pre-order (and 2 which the store is allowed to let employees pre-order.) Also informs us they are openning up at midnight on the day of the Wii launch.
8:15am - Some guys join the line, they came from a line of 20 people at the Game Stop in the "Hunt Valley" mall area.
8:30am - Line is full. Manager tells people in line that anyone else who shows won't be able to pre-order.
9:00am - Some hard core games show up and tell us it's crazy they don't have more pre-orders because "5 million units are being produced"... walk away very pissed.
10:00am - Manager opens to the doors and we rush in; not so much to pre-order... but also because we were all freezing. (Temp started at 37 and only rose to 50 by 10am.)
$50 pre-order. $30 for a 1yr warranty.
Everyone in line was getting one for themselves, except for one mother... determined to get a unit for her sons as a Christmas gift.
FYI: in PEI, at least, Zellers of all places had them for pre-order about a week and a half ago. Admittedly, it wasn't the console by itself (the pre-order was for console + Zelda + Extreme Trucking) but it was definitely available.
My alarm failed to go off this morning in the usual fashion; it went off at 7 am, I hit the switch and rolled over. Next thing I know it's 9:20. Figuring I was either destined to be successful or not I went through the motions of getting out the door and to the store. I had 3 stores in mind, I had planned on cruising by and seeing what the lines were like at each store. When I got to the first one there was no line at 9:55 with the store opening at 10:00 so I stopped. Parking right outside the strip mall store I could see it was just the two employees inside, strolled over and waited for them to open the door. I couldn't believe it. I was first in line? I had to confirm the store opening time... yup, right there in the window it said the store hours 10-9. In the next minute five more people showed up. The store manager came out and told us he'd check the computer because he wasn't sure he had any preorders left. I said what the hell are you talking about, the store isn't open yett, how could you be out of pre-orders!! He continued ignoring us and locked the door. I was furious. He comes out 10 minutes later to let us in and advises they have 3 pre-orders left. He then tries telling us that they had let the line of people waiting outside in when they showed up for work at 9. Sorry, I don't buy it. One guy was demanding to know the managers name, district managers contact info, and was told they don't give out that info, the cashier gave him the customer service number and said good luck. This type of treatment to customers is why people avoid Best Buy, but I'm hoping there are specials out there or at least a ready supply of product at another store so I can cancel my pre-order with EBGames / Gamestop.
yup, people make a big deal over this pre-order stuff when most of the stores that sell video games don't even take pre-orders. EBgames/Gamestop are small fries compared to Walmart and Best Buy, they get only a fraction of the stock. Unless you're #1 on their pre-order list you might as well through your money in a bank and wait for a few months past launch because their console allocations are crap.
I've found the absolute best place to get consoles on launch day are stores like Costco and Sam's Club. Most people don't think of them when they think new video games, also the membership fee turns away pretty much anyone who doesn't already have a membership. I camped out at Sam's Club for my Xbox 360 but I didn't even need to, because they had 20 units and there were only 14 people in line including myself. Most of the people only showed up about 15 minutes before they opened and NONE of them seemed the hardcore gamer types. Mostly parents or girlfriends buying them for Christmas gifts, a few of them just happened by saw the line and decided it'd be worth picking one up because of the demand. Even after my $30 membership fee, the savings from the console, controller and game I bought was about $40 so I actually paid LESS then I would have at EB or Walmart.
I had a friend wait out at Costco which got 50 something units there were apparently only 5 or so people in line. He went back the next day and they still had 30 of them so he bought a few more to sell on ebay. Way back at the Gamecube, Xbox, and even PS2 launches the situation was essentially the same.
Pre-ordering really only benefits the store, who basically gets your money early and at the same time prevents you from taking your business elsewhere. I had another friend who had pre-ordered his 360 at EB... about a month later he still hadn't got it, he was in Best Buy and saw that they had just got about 10 in... too bad he'd already giving all his money to EB, he had to keep waiting until THEY got stock.
Collector's Edition
That's not a reservation, it's a carnival game. I was going to preorder a Wii at the EBGames that's less than half a mile from my house, but screw it. What's the point?
EB Games Canada Scroll down, there's all the info you need.