Topic: E3 Best Buy Demo Locations Revealed

[Steel Diver]

Update 2: Best Buy website has restored many of the previous locations.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/34370

UPDATE 2: The locations for the demo stations have been revised again, restoring many of the locations that were previously removed. Updates are in the following list (in bold). It's worth noting again that you should confirm your closest store Tuesday morning.

UPDATE: The locations for the demo stations listed on the Best Buy website have changed with many places changed or removed. Each store will have a single Wii U demo station for playing the four unreleased titles that will be announced on Tuesday morning. The site also notes that you should confirm your closest store then. Nintendo will provide activities for those waiting in line and Luigi loot while supplies last.

New list of locations:

Alabama - Birmingham, Hoover, Huntsville
Arizona - Tempe Marketplace, Phoenix
Arkansas - Fort Smith, North Little Rock
California - Bakersfield, Culver City, Elk Grove, Emeryville, San Jose, Tracy, Visalia
Colorado - Denver
Connecticut - Manchester
Delaware - Concord Pike, Wilmington
Florida - Brandon, Fort Myers, Gainesville, Kissimmee, Miami, Pensacola
Georgia - Augusta, Duluth, Mall of Georgia, Savannah, Smyrna
Illinois - Bloomington, Schaumburg
Indiana - Greenwood
Iowa - Cedar Rapids, Jordan Creek, West Des Moines
Kansas - Overland Park, Wichita
Kentucky - Florence, Lexington, Louisville, Outer Loop
Louisiana - Harvey, Westbank
Maryland - Frederick, Glen Burnie, Wheaton
Massachusetts - Cambridge, Dedham, Worcester
Michigan - Ann Arbor, Flint, Grand Rapids, Rochester Hills
Minnesota - Eden Prairie
Missouri - South County, St. Louis
New Jersey - Deptford, Iselin, West Paterson, Woodbridge, Woodbury
New York - Albany Amherst, Long Island City, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse, Valley Stream, West Nyack
North Carolina - Carolina Mall, Cary, Fayetteville, Pineville,  Winston Salem
Ohio - Fairborn, North Olmsted, Reynoldsburg, Toledo
Oklahoma - Oklahoma City, Quail Springs
Oregon - Portland
Pennsylvania - Erie, King of Prussia, Pittsburgh, Reading, Whitehall
South Carolina - Greenville, North Charleston
Tennessee - Brentwood, Knoxville, Johnson City, Memphis, Rivergate
Texas - Arlington, Austin, Galleria, Houston, McAllen, South Austin, The Woodlands, Tyler, West McAllen
Utah - Sandy
Vermont - Williston
Virginia - Charlottesville, Glen Allen, Virginia Beach, Newport News
Washington - Lynnwood
Wisconsin - Greenfield

Original story:
It's like E3 in your home. If your home was a Best Buy.

Best Buy and Nintendo have announced where you will be able to find E3 demos.

These E3 demos will be hitting 110 Best Buy stores; 89 in the United States, and 21 in Canada. The select games will be playable on June 12 from  4-8 pm local time, and June 15 from 1-5 pm local time. So far only the United States stores have been listed.

Alabama - Birmingham, Huntsville

Arkansas - Fort Smith, North Little Rock

Arizona - Phoenix

California - Culver City, Elk Grove, Emeryville, San Jose,Tracy, Visalia

Colorado - Denver

Connecticut - Manchester

Delaware - Wilmington

Florida - Brandon, Fort Myers, Gainesville, Kissimmee, Miami, Pensacola

Georgia - Augusta, Duluth, Savannah, Smyrna

Iowa - Cedar Rapids,  West Des Moines

Illinois - Bloomington, Schaumburg

Indiana - Greenwood

Kansas - Overland Park, Wichita

Kentucky - Florence, Lexington, Louisville

Louisiana - Harvey

Massachusetts - Cambridge, Dedham, Worcester

Maryland - Frederick, Glen Burnie, Wheaton

Michigan - Ann Arbor, Flint, Grand Rapids, Rochester Hills

Minnesota - Eden Prairie

Missouri - St. Louis

North Carolina - Cary, Fayetteville, Pineville, Winston-Salem

New Jersey - Iselin, West Paterson, Woodbury

New York - Albany Amherst, Long Island City, Syracuse, Valley Stream, West Nyack

Ohio - Fairborn, North Olmsted, Reynoldsburg, Toledo

Oklahoma - Oklahoma City

Oregon - Portland

Pennsylvania - Erie, King of Prussia, Pittsburgh, Reading, Whitehall

South Carolina - Greenville, North Charleston

Tennessee - Brentwood, Knoxville, Memphis

Texas - Arlington, Austin, Houston, McAllen, The Woodlands, Tyler

Utah - Sandy

Virginia - Charlottesville, Glen Allen, Virginia Beach

Vermont - Williston

Washington - Lynnwood

Wisconsin - Greenfield

E3 is coming soon, Nintendo World Report will be giving you full coverage.

[TheXenocide]

Really? Not in Nashville? That's the cultural hub of Tennessee.

[TrueNerd]

I am literally five minutes away from the only Best Buy in Minnesota to be doing this. Awesome.

[StrikerObi]

Pathetic initiative. Couldn't even get demos into 10% of Best Buy's 1,100 stores in North America.

[TheBigK]

Hopefully they'll update the participating Canadian stores soon. Although, I suppose it wouldn't much matter for me. Atlantic Canada always gets the shaft with these kinds of things. Plus I live about 150km from the nearest Best Buy.

[Fatty The Hutt]

They only let you try them on two separate days? And only for a few hours? I find this surprising and a bit of a turn-off. It'll likely just be demos of games coming real soon anyway.
I smell false hype being worked here.

[Ceric]

Really? Not in Nashville? That's the cultural hub of Tennessee.

Brentwood is a Suburb of Nashville plus the most active Best Buy in this area.  Also I wouldn't say that Nashville is the Cultural hub of Tennesse as much as A cultural hub of Tennessee.  Its pretty well divided into 3 parts.  East, West, and Middle TN.  You could even argue it could be split more.  I grew up in East Tennessee and now live in Midde Tennessee and the difference between the two areas is pretty night and day.

[Caterkiller]

On nice Culver City. When I went to the website no city close to me showed. Guess its not updated.

Either way if I'm actually in E3 again this year then this matters not. Hopefully I get my last minute tickets 2 days before like the last couple years.

[lolmonade]

I'm lucky I moved recently to somewhere that actually had a chance of getting one of these.  I still think it would have been nice for Nintendo to offer E3 demo downloads to existing owners of the 3DS/Wii U, but this is better than nothing.

[Adrock]

I've moved further away from the one in the town I grew up in. It's about a 25 minute drive now. Not bad.

[Ian Sane]

The timeframe is really limiting and odds are the BC location will be in Vancouver which is a little out of the way for me to make a special trip.  If it was the Abbotsford Best Buy that would be perfect as that is like two minutes from my house.

A downloadable demo would be way better though if they feel the need to limit the timeframe of availability the download option would probably run into problems with too many people trying to download it at once.  But why even limit the demo?  So people can play the demo months before the game comes out.  So what?  Games like FFVII and MGS2 had demos shipped in earlier games months before release and those had no negative affect on the sales.  If anything they just built up MORE hype.  With the Wii U having jack **** to play right now, these demos would attract a lot of attention from the existing userbase.  Out of necessity they would play the crap out of them and, if they liked the game, would be chomping at the bit when the full game came out later.  But Nintendo probably thinks that people will get BORED of the demo and thus lose interest in the game, and they are the only company in the entire world that thinks that.  The demo model has worked wonders for decades.

[Ceric]

They want Handlers to be their.  That is the only reason to put the time limit on them.

[AV]

Awesome I'm close to one .

[ejamer]

...  But why even limit the demo?  ...

My guess is that Nintendo is paying to have someone guiding/controlling the demos and making sure that some kid doesn't sit there for hours if other people are waiting to try.


But I agree: this is still a great idea poorly implemented.  The limitations are just too restrictive considering how important (I assume) Wii U marketing is right now for Nintendo's bottom line. But hey, not my company. They can do what they want.

Hopefully they'll update the participating Canadian stores soon. Although, I suppose it wouldn't much matter for me. Atlantic Canada always gets the shaft with these kinds of things. Plus I live about 150km from the nearest Best Buy.

Woot woot!  Atlantic Canada shout-out!

[Jet Pilot]

So less than 10% of stores get these demos for a whopping 8 hours? What a waste...why even bother?

[TJ Spyke]

**** that, the closest one to be is an hour away (Syracuse), I was looking forward to this.

[Ceric]

So less than 10% of stores get these demos for a whopping 8 hours? What a waste...why even bother?

We're Talking about it.

[pokepal148]

I am literally five minutes away from the only Best Buy in Minnesota to be doing this. Awesome.

WHY EDEN PRAIRE!!!??!!??!

[SonofMrPeanut]

Okay, found one close to my sister's place (I'm visiting for the week).  I'll remain sane.

[Fatty The Hutt]

Hopefully they'll update the participating Canadian stores soon. Although, I suppose it wouldn't much matter for me. Atlantic Canada always gets the shaft with these kinds of things. Plus I live about 150km from the nearest Best Buy.

Woot woot!  Atlantic Canada shout-out!

Shout out from oil country Alberta! Woot Woot

[shingi_70]

None near me and the closet one is an hour out.
 

[Mop it up]

Just as I suspected, there are none near here...

[paleselan]

An hour away; BULLSHIT!

[Ceric]

lol,
For everyone complaining about the hour thats what I drive to work a day so...

An Hour Away from my home thats bull.  Even though its about 5 minutes away from work.

[pokepal148]

The timeframe is really limiting and odds are the BC location will be in Vancouver which is a little out of the way for me to make a special trip.  If it was the Abbotsford Best Buy that would be perfect as that is like two minutes from my house.

A downloadable demo would be way better though if they feel the need to limit the timeframe of availability the download option would probably run into problems with too many people trying to download it at once.  But why even limit the demo?  So people can play the demo months before the game comes out.  So what?  Games like FFVII and MGS2 had demos shipped in earlier games months before release and those had no negative affect on the sales.  If anything they just built up MORE hype.  With the Wii U having jack **** to play right now, these demos would attract a lot of attention from the existing userbase.  Out of necessity they would play the crap out of them and, if they liked the game, would be chomping at the bit when the full game came out later.  But Nintendo probably thinks that people will get BORED of the demo and thus lose interest in the game, and they are the only company in the entire world that thinks that.  The demo model has worked wonders for decades.

because E3 demos don't show the game in any semblance of a completed state

[Ian Sane]

The timeframe is really limiting and odds are the BC location will be in Vancouver which is a little out of the way for me to make a special trip.  If it was the Abbotsford Best Buy that would be perfect as that is like two minutes from my house.

A downloadable demo would be way better though if they feel the need to limit the timeframe of availability the download option would probably run into problems with too many people trying to download it at once.  But why even limit the demo?  So people can play the demo months before the game comes out.  So what?  Games like FFVII and MGS2 had demos shipped in earlier games months before release and those had no negative affect on the sales.  If anything they just built up MORE hype.  With the Wii U having jack **** to play right now, these demos would attract a lot of attention from the existing userbase.  Out of necessity they would play the crap out of them and, if they liked the game, would be chomping at the bit when the full game came out later.  But Nintendo probably thinks that people will get BORED of the demo and thus lose interest in the game, and they are the only company in the entire world that thinks that.  The demo model has worked wonders for decades.

because E3 demos don't show the game in any semblance of a completed state

Most demos of any sort are released before the game is finished so typically it wouldn't matter.  But then there have been E3 demos where if you fall into a pit the game has to be reset because they have not put in the way to get out yet.  These Best Buy demos are going to be supervised by Nintendo staff that can help out if some demo breaking bug gets found.  That's a good point.  A publicly released demo needs a certain amount of QA that a supervised demo does not and Nintendo might not consider that worth the cost.  At an E3 demo you can just tell the players "don't go in that room or the game will crash".

[Vrgin X]

Lynnwood,huh? Considering that the majority of the Best Buys in my state are on the West side of the Cascade Curtain (Yakima and Kennawick only locations on my side), seems Eastern Washington gamers (like everything else) get the shaft once again.

[broodwars]

Well, look at that: Nintendo's not bringing the E3 demos to the Orlando area. Really, why would you want to bring your demos for your failing console to one of the biggest tourist destination areas in the world?     Granted, it's Best Buy, but it's not like we're a small town here.

In any case, this looks like yet another empty gesture from Nintendo. Outside a handful of folks on the internet, people are NOT going to be driving for hours to another city it not another STATE to play E3 demos for games that were supposed to be out by now, and that's assuming they even know this is happening. And if people can't play your demos and your demos are barely even available at the few locations that will have them, what's the ****ing point of making a big deal about this?

Just another Wii U failure to add to the list. I think I have my card almost filled out here, & then I get a free small ice cream cone w/ the purchase of a New Super Mario Bros. expansion pack!  : :

[ShyGuy]

They want Handlers to be their.  That is the only reason to put the time limit on them.

There are only 110 Nintendo Ninjas in the clan serving Lord Yamauchi

[Hail23]

I rather them be time limited than not having them at, as well as having them in a limited amount of stores than not at all. This is still good for the people that can't make it to the E3 event, but can make it to at least one of the BestBuys hosting these games. Another good thing to note for the people that can't make it to these BestBuys, chances are you know someone who can that are into the same things as you to go and try these games out and tell you about it. If not then, oh well.

[jvgsjeff]

Unfortunately, my Best Buy isn't among those listed. I thought it was going to be at all Best Buys, but oh well. I don't care about the demos that much anyway, I don't mind waiting for the real games.

[EasyCure]

Nice, West Nyack is just a few minutes from my job. I might stop by during lunch

[nickmitch]

I live near one of those! Huzzah!

[ejamer]

For people saying "oh, I'll stop by during lunch", good luck with getting to the demos before your lunch break is over.  There probably won't be a line or anything since the demos are available from so many locations.


(Just bitter because there probably won't be a store with demos within 5+ hours drive, one way, of my home.)

[pokepal148]

first world problems,

[Plugabugz]

All Best Buy UK stores closed in 2012. This is of no use to me at all.

[TJ Spyke]

All Best Buy UK stores closed in 2012. This is of no use to me at all.

Considering Nintendo had already announced it would only be US and Canada stores (meaning none of the Mexico stores get it), I would hope you didn't expect it anyways. LOL

[Shecky]

Sounds like a Nintendo rep will be monitoring this whole event and is likely the reason for the limited locations and hours.

[Plugabugz]

All Best Buy UK stores closed in 2012. This is of no use to me at all.

Considering Nintendo had already announced it would only be US and Canada stores (meaning none of the Mexico stores get it), I would hope you didn't expect it anyways. LOL

Listening to Nintendo say things is not always a good idea given they've outright u-turned sometimes. Not having a Best Buy in the entire country is a good way to make sure.

[Retro Deckades]

Canadian locations can be found here:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/nintendo-e3-demo.aspx

I suppose that as it is only a two minute drive from my house, I really ought to check out these demos -- if they announce any that I feel compelled to try (read: an X or a Smash Bros., though I'm not holding my breath).

Perhaps I'll run into Ian at the Langley location.

[TJ Spyke]

They have apparently reduced the number of locations in the US down to like 53. The closest one to me is a 3 1/2 hour freaking drive.

[broodwars]

Sure, remove 4 stores out of 6 from the state of Florida. It makes sense. I mean, we're only one of the largest, most populated states in the United States. It makes perfect sense why you'd cut back on your Wii U demo kiosks here when your coverage was already pretty pathetic. Man, what a waste of a potentially cool idea.

[LudicrousDa3ve]

Damnit. I'm two minutes away from the St. Louis location I was hoping it would be... now it's more like 30-45 mins.

[ejamer]

This just keeps getting better and better.  Nice work, Nintendo!

[Vrgin X]

Lynwood Best Buy's the one in the Northwest Region doing the promotion now... damn.

[jglonek]

Not only did they drastically cut back on how many stores are doing this but they are only going to have ONE demo station? This is embarrassing at this point. And still no word on being able to download demos to play at home for people who have Wii U's?

[Vahne]

Well the Galleria is in Houston, so I guess they're trying to limit locations to one per city, even in major cities.

[UncleBob]

Wow.  This sucks.

Hm.  Something to note - the Missouri one IS still in St. Louis.  Just at the "South County" location.

Same address as originally listed.

[Hbomb]

Sure, remove 4 stores out of 6 from the state of Florida. It makes sense. I mean, we're only one of the largest, most populated states in the United States. It makes perfect sense why you'd cut back on your Wii U demo kiosks here when your coverage was already pretty pathetic. Man, what a waste of a potentially cool idea.

Yeah. I'm just outside of Fort Myers. Not only is that off the list, so is everything within a three-hour drive (not that I would, but I guess I don't even have that option any more). This stinks. And no explanation, either. No apology. Thanks a lot Nintendo and Best Buy.

[nickmitch]

I wonder if Nintendo was having a staffing problem or if it's something worse, like the demos are few in number and low in quality.

[LudicrousDa3ve]

Wow.  This sucks.

Hm.  Something to note - the Missouri one IS still in St. Louis.  Just at the "South County" location.

Same address as originally listed.

   I never noticed where they listed addresses. Whoops! I was really hoping for the Maplewood/Richmond Heights one, since it may be the closest one to downtown STL. Man, St. Louis is weird.
   Very much looking forward to hearing impressions, still!

[night814]

Good to see Erie, pa still there

[Oblivion]

My nearest one went from 70 miles away to like 125 miles away. No thanks.

[UncleBob]

My nearest is 135 miles away.  And I'm going without a second thought.  If I wasn't working the first day, I'd probably try to go to both.

[Shaymin]

Mine hasn't changed. Still going there, still finishing puzzles, probably playing 3 of the 4 demos because I have enough Luigi platforming on my plate thankyouverymuch.

[Ceric]

I just got a Euphonium and I have recording that night.  So I'm probably not driving to Gallatin.  It's an hour away at 60 miles. (Irony the other location was 45 minutes away at 26 miles...) though its through Nashville so that will probably balloon and getting lost.

[StrikerObi]

So now not even FIVE PERCENT of Best Buy's will have this promotion going on. And I thought it was pathetic before...


Also, from what the rumor mill says, the demos will be for games that are almost finished and will be out this summer (Super Luigi U, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Wind Waker HD). If that's the case, it eliminates the argument that the demos must be tightly controlled because the games are in an early, unstable state. All four of those will be out within months, which means most of them should be quite polished at this point.

[UncleBob]

St. Louis location has officially been changed to the Brentwood, MO store.

[Ian Sane]

Langley location works okay for me as I have friends in Langley and often hang out with them on Saturdays.  Though I have been very busy the last few weeks and if the work doesn't let up I won't be able to do anything social.

If it's stuff that's due in the next months, eh, if there is a lineup, what's the point?  I'm sure Pikmin 3 demos will show in stores pretty soon anyway (and if Nintendo followed industry conventions the downloadable demos for these games would be showing up soon as well).  When they first announced this the hope was that Game X would be revealed for the first time at E3, be playable at E3 AND be playable at Best Buy.  That would be awesome!

Nintendo was on to a cool concept here but the execution just hasn't been there.  And if the demos do not need to be tightly controlled then restricting this to Best Buy is 2003-thinking (as is having a narrow time limit and having only a fraction of the Best Buys be included; if they're stable releases just send them all on discs in the mail).

[DannyRaisin4]

that is BS they removed the best buy form virginia beach and placed it in newport news
ARGHH

[Mop it up]

There weren't any around here anyway, and now there really aren't.

[yoshi1001]

I may still go to the one in Schaumburg (only half an hour further from Madison than Greenfield, oddly enough). We'll see. There is something to be said for the social aspect of it, as well.


Actually, I went to the link again and it looks like Southridge (Greendale, WI) is back on the list. I'd say if your store was ever on the list, call around and ask.


Snapshot (as of 7:20 pm CDT Monday-crossed off means I didn't find them at this time):


Alabama - Birmingham, Hoover, Huntsville[size=0pt][/color]
 Arizona – [/size](Not Listed)
 Arkansas - Fort Smith, Little Rock, North Little Rock
 California - Bakersfield, Blossom Hill, Culver City, Elk Grove, Emeryville, San Jose, Tracy, Visalia
 Colorado - Denver
 Connecticut - Manchester
 Delaware - Concord Pike, Wilmington
 Florida - Brandon, Doral, Fort Myers, Gainesville, Kissimmee, Miami, Pensacola
 Georgia - Augusta, Cumberland, Duluth, Mall of Georgia, Savannah, Smyrna
 Illinois - Bloomington, Schaumburg
 Indiana - Greenwood
 Iowa - Cedar Rapids, Jordan Creek, West Des Moines
 Kansas - Overland Park, Wichita
 Kentucky - Florence, Lexington, Louisville, Outer Loop
 Louisiana - Harvey, Westbank
 Maryland - Frederick, Glen Burnie, Wheaton
 Massachusetts - Cambridge, Dedham, Worcester
 Michigan - Ann Arbor, Flint, Grand Rapids, Rochester Hills
 Minnesota - Eden Prairie
 Missouri - South County, St. Louis
 New Jersey - Deptford, Iselin, West Paterson, Woodbridge, Woodbury
 New York - Albany Amherst, Long Island City, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse, Valley Stream, West Nyack
 North Carolina - Carolina Mall, Cary, Fayetteville,Garner NC, Pineville, Winston Salem
 Ohio – Beaver Creek, Fairborn, North Olmsted, Reynoldsburg, Toledo 1
 Oklahoma - Oklahoma City, Quail Springs
 Oregon - Portland
 Pennsylvania – Century 3,  Erie, King of Prussia, Pittsburgh, Reading, Whitehall, Wyomiss/Reading
 South Carolina - Greenville, North Charleston
 Tennessee - Brentwood, Knoxville, Johnson City, Memphis, Rivergate
 Texas - Arlington, Austin, Galleria, Houston, McAllen, South Austin, The Woodlands, Tyler, West McAllen
 Utah - Sandy
 Vermont - Williston
 Virginia - Charlottesville, Glen Allen, Virginia Beach, Newport News, W. Broad
 Washington - Lynnwood
 Wisconsin – Greenfield (Southfield)
 Wyoming (State listed, no stores)
[size=0pt][/color]Let me know if any of those are duplicates. As I said, best to call your store and confirm.[/size]

[jarodea]

Seriously, down from 4 to a whopping 0 in Ohio.  From 6 to 2 in PA, 4 to 1 in MI, almost none in California?  Are you kidding me.  Well Texas and New York look ok as do some smaller states but yikes, it would almost take effort to handle this worse.

[jarodea]

Georgia and Tennessee are really rocking it though. Well no, no they're not either.
Edit: kind of new to posting, if that's a new list in the most above mine then nevermind for the most part.

[pokepal148]

if it was this and then some travelling E3 demo van type deal i would be fine but this is getting stupid...

[TJ Spyke]

Seriously, down from 4 to a whopping 0 in Ohio.  From 6 to 2 in PA, 4 to 1 in MI, almost none in California?  Are you kidding me.  Well Texas and New York look ok as do some smaller states but yikes, it would almost take effort to handle this worse.

The listings keep changing. The current listing has 4 in Ohio, 5 in Pennsylvania, 4 in Michigan, 6 in California.

[UncleBob]

Glad I put all that effort into creating the Facebook event pages.

I wonder how much of this is Nintendo and how much is BBY.

[Crimm]

Hey guys, the list got updated. Staff just reposted the article with the new list.

[Trogdor915]

Yes! Sandy is back. Looks like I'm going after all.

[Disco Stu]

What. A. Mess.  Either way, if the demo list doesn't include the new 3D Mario I'm not sure if it's worth me driving an hour.

[Adrock]

New Jersey - Deptford, Iselin, West Paterson, Woodbridge, Woodbury

To clarify, Woodbury and Deptford share a zip code so that's the same store. The post office and Best Buy (which coincidentaly are like two minutes away from each other) are both located in Deptford, but for some reason, the city often gets listed as Woodbury. I never understood that growing up. I grew up in Deptford, about 10 minutes away from Woodbury.