Very drastic experience from both launch events.
Wii: I was working at the Nintendo store in NYC during the holiday season but before I started there I hadn't pre-ordered a Wii. When it was first announced I figured it would get hated on by the mainstream gaming community so I wouldn't have to pre-order, I thought I'd just waltz in to any store and pick one up. Wrong. As soon as I started at the Nintendo store and saw the lines of people waiting to just come in and play with the damn thing (they had like 12 demo units up with almost every launch game playable before the release) I knew things were going to get hectic, but being a month before the launch day, I couldn't pre-order anywhere and even as an employee of the store, wasn't guaranteed to get one.
The night before launch I was working and actually saw the first few people camping out. In fact, I think a small handful (10 people?) may have started the line 2 days before and received several complaints that they were blocking the doors lol. So yeah, the morning of launch I had to come in extra early. For anyone familiar with NYC, I took the downtown 1 train to 50th, walked down to 46th and headed towards Rockefeller Plaza.. and from a block away I could see a massive group of people at the corner of 46th and 5th, the opposite side of the block where NWS was. You should of seen the looks some people gave me as they thought I was cutting them in line when in reality I was trying to get in to the damn store (as a seasonal employee we didn't have access to the employee entrance and they were so busy inside when I called that no one came to that door for me).
**** was nuts, that's the best way I can describe it. From both inside and outside, **** was nuts. We're all scrambling trying to get as many systems out to the main floor from the basement storage as possible, then we're out making sure the crowd didn't get too crazy and also trying to count how many people were on-line so we can gauge where the cut off would be. Pure insanity. At the end of the shift the managers pulled us aside and said if any employee wants to pick up a game or accessories, to the back of the line (which they'd already cut off) so I got some games an extra controllers, but couldn't get a system. Thankfully I had called a ton of people that I knew would be out and about that day and I was able to get not one but TWO wii's due to miss communication. Yeah I could of sold the 2nd one for crazy amounts of profit, but seeing how some people from the first nights line decided to came put into the NEXT day, and hearing about madhouses elsewhere, even up in my more suburban part of NY, I felt kinda bad and decided NOT to rip anyone off. My mom had a friend who was looking for one but she was older and really couldn't deal with those crazy crowds, so we sold it to her at the regular value. Hooray for kindness.
Obviously after how hectic it was back in '06, I decided to save myself the headache and pre-ordered mine the second I could. I did it all on-line, and picked the store-pick up option so I wouldn't have to wait until monday for the delivery. What struck me as odd was my local Best Buy didn't have the option for in-store pick-up but another one did, a little further but not necessarily out of the way; I'm in the area on a normal basis.
So the day comes, I went to Best Buy and was only a few minutes early and saw no-line. I thought "well.. this is the smaller one on the outskirts of 2 cities, 1 with a bigger BB and at least 5 gamestops, and another with a walmart, target and at least 3 gamestops" so I park and run in to the CVS nearby for a drink. Crossing the parking lot I see these 20-something year olds, look like they could be gamers, just kinda sitting and waiting; I figured they were there to pick up a pre-order too and since there was no line, they were more casual about the wait. As soon as I come out of CVS its still only about 10:56 and the store would be open at 11. I figure screw it, I'll go be the weirdo standing by the door until they open. But as I walk closer, I see people coming in and out of the store, the ones exiting with bags in hand. When I'm close enough the sign indicates they were actually open since 10 (damn you website!!!) so I walk in and there's NO line at the pick-up area. In fact, the girl there wasn't even quiet sure what it was I had come to pick up even though there were at least 5 boxes piled up behind her. Instead of giving me one of those, they had mine in a large locker and there was a bit of a wait for whomever had the key for it, I used that time to seek out a game or two..
I walk across the store looking for the Wii U section and they have a small table set up with all the launch titles stacked up and several employees, but the 3 of them were just casually chit-chatting until I realized they were blocking the games. It was a fairly large stack in each pile but of course it looks like a lot more because you're not used to seeing stacks of games at store like this, ya know? I ask for ZombieU and they walk it over to the pick up area where I still have to wait a few minutes for them to get the damn locker open , but at least they rang me up for the game in the mean-time. As I waited off to the side to be handed my system, a small line started forming at customer pick-up but I couldn't tell what they were there for. Since I didn't have the biggest look around, I couldn't tell if they had any other Wii U systems in the games section or if the 5 or so stacked at customer service/pick-up was all they had. All in all the store was fairly quiet, what you would expect a store like that to be on an early Sunday morning.
They employees didn't seem frazzled as if they just dealt with a madhouse, the store didn't look like a disorganized mess and I honestly didn't care enough to ask if they did have people waiting outside or not, the few other times I've been to this particular BB, the customer service isn't great so I doubt they'd care to answer me even if I asked.
All I know is it was a very different feel from last time, and at least for me, I know it's because I pre-ordered mine. I could of walked in 5 minutes to closing and picked up my system if I had to. That wasn't the case as I was so excited to just go home and play - which is another thing that differs from last year. I wasn't home as early because of work and a long commute, I had to stop by my mothers to pick up the system before going home, and I worked my 2nd job early the next day, So the most I did was set it up to the TV but didn't turn it on until at east the next day at some point, if not maybe 2 days later? The important part is, I have one and I'm content with it.