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