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Reader Comments (17)

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 7:10AM (Unverified) said

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im camping and the gamestop near me is opening as early as 6! probably because of black friday.

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 7:14AM (Unverified) said

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Surprisingly no information comparing North America wii launch/preorders with what's happening here in Europe. I've just been confirmed by a nice lady from amazon on the phone that amazon.co.uk are sending me a Wii for launch day (8th December) and that the console pre-orders sold out within 2 minutes! No camping out for me, just a frantic hour of page refreshing.

Why is it that there were so many people queuing for the American launch, why not just do allocated preorders like some companies over here (UK) do?

Posted: Nov 22nd 2006 6:12AM (Unverified) said

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Lucky boy, It seems you were one of the very lucky ones, I'm jealous. I too was refreshing my page like crazy but got no where near a buy now sign. Oh well! some lucky non-game loving f@ck will no doubt be robbing me in broad daylight on eBay instead

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 11:08AM (Unverified) said

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An excellent question, James. The most likely answer, at least in my mind, is that retailers are trying to avoid the ugly situation with the Xbox 360 launch last year, that is, having more pre-orders than actual consoles shipped.
By having it first come, first serve with lines, the retailers don't have to apologize or otherwise reimburse their customers if their pre-orders are not fufilled.

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 11:16AM trax21 said

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I just called my local Gamestop and they couldn't confirm this (although they did say they were opening at 7am on BF). My quest for Wii has been fruitless thus far, though, so this is worth a look. Thanks for the heads up :)

Wonder how many games, accessories, etc. they'll force you to buy with it... I didn't bother asking about that though.

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 12:36PM (Unverified) said

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I was just in a EB Games in a medium size town in Iowa, and I overheard them telling someone who was getting a replacement Wii for one that was defective (didn't power up, apparently) that they were not supposed to sell any more until Friday, but have received authorization to release one for this guy. So that seems pretty official, but I have no idea how widely those instructions were given.

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 12:47PM Shogan said

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The guy at my Gamestop told me last night they expect to stock up on controllers for Friday as well... and have some nice sales. I got the Wii, but I need 2 more sets of controllers! :D

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 1:55PM OshiHidra said

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Err, in regards to quantities, I was told by my EB's Asst. Manager that it would be a VERY small shipment; only 4 or 5 consoles.

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 9:20PM (Unverified) said

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There was a Nintendo Wii display kiosk at my local mall on Sunday. The very nice (and cute) Nintendo employee told me that the Gamestop and EB in the mall (yes, there's one of each) would be getting a shipment TODAY (Tuesday). I called EB and they said "Nuh-uh, Friday". My husband called Gamestop and was told basically "Yeah, we're gonna get em earlier, but we're not selling em until Friday".

It makes sense. It's the biggest shopping day of the year in the U.S. No store is going to take the chance of being out of stock on Friday.

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 3:37PM (Unverified) said

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I work at GameStop, and I can confirm the article is accurate. The store I work at opens at 7am on Black Friday, and any Wii systems we receive during this week will be kept in back until the fateful Friday. So far, we have no received any more Wiis (and have no idea how many we're getting), but when they do we'll keep them for Friday.

On the same key, we have a bunch of copies of Twilight Princess that we aren't selling because people reserved them and never picked them up. Policy is that after 48 hours, reserves are taken off deck and are up for grabs, but we're keeping them all off the shelves until Friday. Why? I don't know, and it's stupid with people coming in wanting to buy them and we won't sell them.

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 5:53PM ipodman715 said

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I called EBGames and they're getting more consoles on Friday too.

Posted: Nov 21st 2006 8:55PM (Unverified) said

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According to a friend who works at Best Buy, the Wii will be in next Sunday's ad (11/26). As such, the stores will be holding onto any systems to cover the minimum numbers promised in that ad. Best Buy probably won't have as many as they did for the launch, but the stores should have a decent number of units for sale Sunday morning. Happy camping!

Posted: Nov 22nd 2006 11:12AM (Unverified) said

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Just called my local Gamestop and they say that they're not getting many in and that it'll be first-come-first-serve - no handing out numbers or anything - they open at 8am. Sounds to me like it'll be a mob scene...

Posted: Nov 22nd 2006 2:32PM (Unverified) said

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I just got back from the local GameStop in Vegas, and when I queried the lead fool as to the truthiness of the aforementioned hoarding, he quipped "Internet rumors make people kill themselves. That's just crazy talk." He then proceeded to prattle on, at length, about just how crazy it was that they should be stockpiling them. On and on and on and on.

Another minimum wage idiot betrayed by psychology 101.

Posted: Nov 22nd 2006 6:23PM (Unverified) said

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Yeah, my EB opens at 7 am on BF... 40 consoles. But considerin I live in whiite, middle-class surburbia with population of ~40,000... it'll be a mob scene.

Posted: Nov 23rd 2006 6:49AM (Unverified) said

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im going to camp out for mine, but, i dont know how early to camp. (i was initially thinking 1 hour, but im guessing ill need ~2 to guarantee a wii)

how long are you guys planning to camp for, or rather, how long SHOULD one camp for to have a good shot at getting a wii this friday?

Posted: Nov 24th 2006 12:59AM (Unverified) said

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To the ppl who work at the stores how many wii-motes are you guys getting? Because my friends and I wanna get wii-motes.

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