Topic: Am I screwed? Should I already have pre-ordered?

[JonLeung]

With the major Wii hype this year, and the PS3 trying to kill itself before it's even released, I'm starting to grow heistant about my chances of securing a Wii, since I haven't pre-ordered.  Am I just being paranoid today?

I've never relied on preorders.  Well, I've done so - twice...and neither of them went through.

Okay, the first one wasn't a pre-order, exactly, but more like a reservation that turned out to be unnecessary.  I went to an EBGames when the GBA was new...I think this was the summer of 2001?  I was surprised to run into a Drama classmate who was working there.  I asked her about CastleVania: Circle Of The Moon.  She put my name down and said I'd be contacted when they got a shipment of more of them.  They called me back a couple months later - when I'd already acquired the game elsewhere and finished it the morning they called me.  >_<

Then I was hyped about the GameCube, so I had it pre-ordered at Future Shop.  I was waiting in front of the store the morning of launch, and the only person ahead of me was this mother who was getting it for her boys and husband.  For a while it seemed like we were the only ones waiting, though a couple more people eventually showed up.  But then my dad, who seemed to be embarrassed about the whole waiting-in-line thing, had cruised around the block and found that Zellers had already opened and had lots of GameCubes and no line-up at all.  So we grabbed a Jet Black GameCube from there instead (and cancelled my Future Shop pre-order later in the day), and I was already back home taking on the Death Star in Rogue Leader just as Future Shop was opening.

I got the DS on the first day at Wal-Mart, no problems save for a small line-up.  Throughout the course of the GameCube, I've managed to score games on the first day of release (or at least the first day I had time to go shopping for them), never bothering with pre-orders and never having difficulty finding those games (except for when renting - stupid Blockbuster and Mario Superstar Baseball!  $#@%! But that's another story).  Oh, wait, I did have trouble getting Nintendogs...

Now all that unnecessary banter above has led me to believe that on whatever day the Wii comes out (which we'll hopefully know next week), I might be able to waltz into a Zellers or Wal-Mart that morning and just pick up a Wii and a couple games off the shelf.  That is, if it was as relatively unhyped (well, compared to the Xbox) like the GameCube or like the DS (which initially wasn't as hot as it has come to be).  As my singular difficulty with Nintendogs shows, I may be in for some trouble if I don't get off my lazy butt.

Every week this year it seems like there's been praise for the Wii and disdain for the PS3.  The Wii is even interesting people who at one point seemed to be anti-Nintendo fanboys.  These people are now going to be after the coveted Wii, and now I wonder if I should've already pre-ordered.

I already spent a few hundred dollars to go to E3 and see the Wii for myself firsthand - it'd look bad if I couldn't get my own Wii just as early as anybody else this autumn!

Again: should I have already pre-ordered?  I don't know why I feel like I should at least wait for Nintendo's unveiling of the date and price...

[NWR_pap64]

When I went to visit my friend in summer we went to a couple of Gamestops and he would always ask if they were making Wii Pre-orders and all of them said that they were not doing any pre-orders for hardware, they were only taking game pre-orders.

This was in summer, though and things may change after the press event next week. I would recommend calling the stores in your area and ask about the pre-orders.

[Ian Sane]

Even though the Cube was never quite as hyped as the Wii is it still sold like hotcakes on release day.  New consoles always do because there's always enough hardcore early adopters to buy the initial stock.  So odds are you probably will be able to waltz into Zellers on release day and get one.  No one ever thinks to go there anyway.  The only time I've had to deal with a system being totally unavailable is when the initial supply was low like the PS2 or X360.  I think Nintendo is probably going to be okay since they're usually good about that sort of thing.

Still it wouldn't hurt to ask around regarding pre-orders, just to get a feel for how many the existing stores have.

[couchmonkey]

Well if you want to avoid the stress, why not try pre-ordering right now?  Maybe it's too late, but it couldn't hurt to try.

That being said, you know Wal-Mart and probably a lot of similar retailers won't take preorders at all, so a lineup will probably work fine.  I found there was quite a crowd waiting to get Cubes at my Wal-Mart, but there were still more than enough to go around.  I'm just lining up, personally.

And Nintendo isn't shorting us like Sony is...I fully expect Wii to more or less sell out on day one, but I think the only people that really miss out will be the ones who didn't know what day the launch was.

[Adrock]

I didn't reserve Gamecube, but I got one launch day. I just had to stand in line since like 7 am. You're better off reserving Wii. The problem is no one is taking pre-orders until the launch date and price is announced (as far as I know and I've asked every retailer in my area). Still, some people who reserved 360 didn't get one at launch anyway so you never know what might happen.

[TrueNerd]

I also have been told by GameStop that they have yet to take any preorders on either the Wii or the PS3, and yesterday's revelations from Sony is exactly the reason why. They don't want to f*ck everyone over like they did last year with the 360. They were taking an infinite number of reservations and had an incredibly finite amount of units to sell. It was like that episode of Seinfeld when Jerry reserved that rental car and they didn't have it, minus the laughter.

Anyways, I would imagine that GameStop will be open to registration soon after next week's megaton.  

[Dirk Temporo]

I don't know of a single place that's actually taking pre-orders for the Wii yet. I don't think it's going to be a problem since nobody else could have pre-ordered yet either.

[couchmonkey]

So the REAL race will be to see who can pre-order fastest!  And personally, I laughed a lot when people couldn't get 360s!  I also rubbed my chin and declared, "HMMMMMMMMMM" when I saw them selling for over $1000 on Ebay.

[Caliban]

I bet you can pre-order a Wii quicker than you can for the PS3.

I will pre-order, with relative ease, a Wii and anything else related to it, like games and accesories/controllers, when the north-american price and release date are anounced.

[JonLeung]

Part of why I was wondering was that I was in Toys ? Us a week or two ago (I live in Canada if that matters) and I saw that they were advertising that they were taking Twilight Princess (I forget which version they meant) pre-orders as well as Wii pre-orders.  The in-store ads were very simple.  They said something like two controllers and something else - maybe a game - but I don't know if it was a real bundle, as in, it sounded speculative.  No price was shown on the ad, though I think they said to put $50 down to reserve it.

I suppose I could've asked for more info, but I'm guessing they won't have Wii ads in their flyers or a more confident ad campaign until they know the real details like date and price and available games and accessories.

Good to know, though, if most people haven't preordered yet that I'm in the same boat at this point.

Gosh, I hope they have the component output cables on the first day.  I don't want to have to show off the Wii to my doubting friends the first day and have it actually look less crisp than my GameCube.  >_<

[Ian Sane]

"Part of why I was wondering was that I was in Toys ? Us a week or two ago (I live in Canada if that matters) and I saw that they were advertising that they were taking Twilight Princess (I forget which version they meant) pre-orders as well as Wii pre-orders."

Although I haven't seen the Wii pre-order ads Toys 'R' Us in Canada has been advertising pre-orders for Twlight Princess for a long time.  The original ads were back when it was a Cube game only.

[RickPowers]

Go to Walmart midnight on launch day.  Problem solved.

[jasonditz]

I'm not going to pre-order until the date and price are announced either... I can't imagine that when some of the websites aren't even taking pre-orders yet it's "too late".

[Ceric]

Is the US the only place that doesn't have Pre-Orders?

[jasonditz]

You can find pre-orders in the US if you want, I'm sure... but there are sites (Gamestop) that still aren't taking pre-orders... unless the largest game retailer in the country is getting absolutely no launch Wiis, there are still some pre-orders to be had.
 

[KDR_11k]

I'll just waltz into a store on launch day, chance is they'll still have a few consoles around (they did on XCircle launch). Although I don't think the Wii will offer enough at launch to make that a good idea.

[Hostile Creation]

I'll probably preorder someplace online, or just buy it day of online.  Who knows.  I'm not even sure where I'm going to be when it's released.

[Mario]

Got my preorder down a week or so ago, I was on the third page. About 20-30 per page so i was 60 something on the list? This is Australia as well, we care about Nintendo the least.

[RiskyChris]

Quote
Originally posted by: jasonditz
You can find pre-orders in the US if you want, I'm sure... but there are sites (Gamestop) that still aren't taking pre-orders... unless the largest game retailer in the country is getting absolutely no launch Wiis, there are still some pre-orders to be had.

I'm pretty sure the largest game retailer in the country is Wal-Mart.

[BigJim]

Most stores probably don't even know what kind of supply they're going to get. Or IF they do, they're only just finding out. Relying on such early pre-orders are a crapshoot. If you have to wonder or be concerned about your pre-order, then it defies the purpose of the pre-order.

I only rely on online pre-orders from reputable stores like Amazon and EBGames. They sell the stock they know they're going to get. Then the product is removed from sale when the allotment is sold. Period. You know if you're in or out. If by CHANCE their computers oversell, they would cancel the order and inform you shortly after you ordered it. You wouldn't have to find out the day of launch.

I pre-ordered the $400 EBGames GameCube bundle. It arrived on the Friday before the official launch date. It's just as viable as showing up at a store, if not much easier, AND I never had to worry about it.

[nitsu niflheim]

they got burned by Microsoft over the Xbox360 so most stores are waiting until they get 'concrete" figures before they start accepting pre-orders, and with what happened last fall I'm really not surprised.

[Ceric]

That's how it should be.  You shouldn't take pre-orders unless you can quarentee product.  That was understood before but lost now till they got burned.  The fact of the matter is I almost wish that we didn't go into this pre-order mode.  It give games longer legs.

Here me out.  For consoles it makes since to have Pre-orders because you want to get the most hardware out at a given time.  Games it makes less sense.  Why?  You want to get a lot of product out initially be gaming buying is still a impulse type thing.  I mean how many of you bought a game because it "looked good" even though you never heard of it before?  With Pre-orders you greatly lessen that opportunity.

It takes 2 trips to the game store to preorder a game 1 to do the order and another to pick up.  For the most part you go straight to the counter in both.  Don't even eye the other games.  Now if there were no game pre-orders then you have to search the shelf for the game that may or may not be there but in so doing you'll notice other games you like to try and expand your collection.  It would also lend to a more longterm demand for a game.  No more spike of everyone who wanted it the first day and then a few the next few months and the game goes out of existence it would seem.  Interested people would be paced a little.  Also there be the collectors side of this as well.

(Also I wanted to put this analogy in but couldn't find a spot.  It be like using an electronic dictionary to using a bound one.  Sure with the electronic dictionary you find the word faster but with the bound one you expand your vocabulary faster.)

Edit: Corner does not mean the something as counter.  I think and type faster then I can actually acquire the right word it seems.

[couchmonkey]

What?  No, no, I never buy a game without knowing what I'm getting into first.  They're just too expensive - or rather they used to be just too exepensive.  That has started to change thanks to discs but growing up with NES, SNES, and N64 taught me to research all my buying decisions way ahead of time.  I didn't want to be saddled with an $80 CAN purchase that I didn't like.

(Edit: But yeah, your theory might apply to other people, I'm a very cautious consumer.)

[JonLeung]

I rent the majority of the games that I play, so I'm rarely disappointed - a game has to be REALLY bad for it to not even be worth the rental price.  And I finish the majority of games that I rent in a short enough time that I rarely extend it or rerent it.  (What's the point of renting a game if you don't devote the weekend to playing it?)

The majority of the games that I DO buy are Nintendo's own first- or second-party games, and the majority of THOSE games I haven't even rented or played beforehand since I likely read about them to death on the Internet already.  And I'm more likely to replay a Nintendo game so it matters less if it could've been finishable even on a rental.

As you can see, I have faith in Nintendo.  Maybe too much.  But I think Pokémon Snap was really the only game in recent times where I questioned the purchase.

[jasonditz]

Quote
Originally posted by: RiskyChris

Quote
Originally posted by: jasonditz
You can find pre-orders in the US if you want, I'm sure... but there are sites (Gamestop) that still aren't taking pre-orders... unless the largest game retailer in the country is getting absolutely no launch Wiis, there are still some pre-orders to be had.

I'm pretty sure the largest game retailer in the country is Wal-Mart.

You're right, I meant game-specific retailer