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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."
Or 2) They are saving all of their shipments for overpriced bundle packs on their website, since they flat out said before summer they will only offer the Wii as a bundle pack.
Either way it just goes to prove real gamers dont use the EB/Gamestop monopoly on game shops anyway. Ill just show up at Target or Best Buy when the Wii comes out thank you very much
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
This is mostly a Gamestop/EB problem. Having 2 million units for launch is not small by any means. I'm sure Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and Toys'R'Us will have plenty of stock on hand. Like many people above you said, it's probably the Gamestop/EB corporate center hoarding a ton of them to sell on their website in bundles.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
I know it's been said repeatedly in different sites, but if you live in NYC you can just walk on over to the Nintendo World store near Rockefeller Center and place a preorder. They've been taking preorders for a few weeks already, to which I've done mine during lunch. Plus I have a hunch that they are less likely to overcommit and fail to deliver on launch date, something EB and Gamestop have been notorious for.
I assure you, it is a very real marketing ploy, not a fake one.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
who has come out with something "different" in a console system in the past few years? other than the DS (dual screens + touchscreen) i can't really think of anything.
I may be alone, but I feel that Sony's EyeToy was fairly innovative. It may not have been the first camera system for on-screen gaming, but they did a nice job with ease of use and supporting it with some fun games. Very much in the same vein, Apple may not have made the first portable digital music player, but they made a nice software/hardware package that made the thing mainstream.
I would show the EyeToy to folks who are non-gamers, and they thought it was interesting enough to buy a Playstation 2. Mind you, these were folks who would never consider playing typical console games. If Sony had packaged an improved EyeToy with the PS3 (maybe with a Fitness Game), I think they would have gotten a lot of good coverage from the mainstream press.
"dreadfully boring Red Steel gameplay" It might not appeal to you, but what about Red Steel's gameplay is boring? The run-and-gun formula that so many shooters employ? It's tried and true, that's for sure, but it also sells. Think of games like Half-Life, Halo, Doom, etc. The thing about these games that separates good from bad typically isn't the control scheme, but whether or not the game catches your interest--e.g., a story. I, for one, don't feel qualified to judge that aspect of a game until I've played it. It's a little like basing your opinion of a movie off the commercial. Certainly, though, it's rare for a company to come out with an entirely new kind of game; they just change something about previous games, usually bigger guns and prettier graphics. But I think Nintendo has something more than a gimmick with their new controller. If they can take a complicated game and make it easy to play by using motions and gestures already intuitive to us, that's a good thing. I'm all for ending the trend toward controllers with more buttons than I have fingers. When I want that, I'll go back to PC gaming. I can type a hell of a lot faster than I dance the Button Mash.
I would rather wait for Costco Wii console bundle, which the price will probably end up just below $250 with a game and an ccessory or two.
You should have seen how fast 360 Bundle went last christmas. Just below $500 and you get a game, charger and two wireless controllers. Of course, it still available today.
So screw you Gamestop, I'll stick with my local wholesaler.
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