PS3/Wii Reservation Wrap-up

Written by Dan Zuccarelli

Friday, 13 October 2006 06:06

So it's over with. For at least the next few years I won't have to camp out overnight to get a videogame system. I managed to snag reservations for 1st shipments of the PS3 and the Wii. How did each one go?

The Gamestop I chose was inside a larger shopping mall (Moorestown, NJ), which I thought might give me an edge since people wouldn't think they could get to the store until the mall itself opened. If anyone reads that was there, drop a comment!

PS3 reserve:

Turns out for the PS3 I really didn't need to bother getting there that early. I showed up at 9am with the store opening at 10. I was 1st in line. The second guy didn't show up until close to 9:30, and by the time the doors opened at 10am, there were 3 of us in line. The initially had 6 open reservations (with 2 held for employees), but since none of the employees wanted them, they gave them out as reservations. A few more people walked in as I was finishing up my reserve to fill up the queue. I talked with everyone reserving and only 2 of them were really excited and were definitley keeping the system, the rest were either on the fence or buying it to sell it later.

Not as hard as I imagined, though the amount of people reserving to sell didn't suprise me in the least.

Wii reserve:

Showed up a little earlier (8am), since the news had been out there for a few days, I thought it might be a little busier. 3 guys got there at 6am to snag the 1st 3 spots, which left me in 4th. I see a few of the same faces from the PS3 line show up, right around the 8:30 mark. By 9am there are 16 of us, at which point the Gamestop employees start turning people away. I'd say by rough estimate another 10 people came and went. I talked to most people in line and all of them were buying the system to keep it, with one grandfather waiting in line for his grandkid, who was in school. Kick ass move Grandpa, you rock.

In the end

So that's it. Bigger turnout for the Wii, with everyone keeping it for themselves. PS3 filled reserves as well, but most people seemed to be eager to sell off their systems. Ebay should be an interesting place come November. All in all I can't complain. I didn't have to wait long, and from talking to friends at other stores we got off pretty easy traffic wise where I was. Which suprises me, it's a pretty high volume store. I guess being stuck in the mall people didn't consider it right away.

I imagine in a few hours the story will break that all the reservations are done, and people will start planning on camping out for one or both.

If you went to reserve either system, how did it go? Leave a comment and tell us how it worked out for you.

Comments (9) Add Comment

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written by el moco, October 13, 2006

yeah, i got mine after standing in line for 3 hrs in the freaking cold. my gamestop only had 5 units, but thankfully i was 1st in line....

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written by Kazriko, October 13, 2006

I had a different experience on the PS3. There were 2 people there to sell, but of the first 5 in line, 3 of us wanted to keep it for ourselves. The guy behind me in line (#6) also was buying it to keep it. I didn't really talk to the remaining 6 people behind him. Annoyingly, the first two people in line were the ones who were going to sell it, had camped out there since the prior day. The rest of us got there between 4am and 9:30.

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written by danzuke (NetPhantom), October 13, 2006

el moco: that's the other reason I picked the indoor store to wait in line at

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written by dws02432, October 13, 2006

I arrived at the Alabaster, AL GameStop at about 8:00am this morning. I wasn't sure what kind of line would have formed by then. There were 4 people there ahead of me. The temperature was in the 50's so it was kind of chilly. The manager of the GameStop was great. He allowed everyone to come in early- to get out of the cold. He asked everyone to sign in in the order they had arrived. As I mentioned, I was number 5 on the list. He said he only had 8 systems for the pre-order. The Tuscaloosa, AL (home of the University of Alabama) had the largest allotment in the state- around 30, I believe he said.

The demographics of those waiting- 2 stereotypical (early 20's, not comfortable around people, one actually reading comic books while waiting outside- he brought 6), one college kid, one mom getting a system of her 9 year old, and me, buying a system for my kids (and myself).

There were a few phone calls to the store asking about the pre-order- the manager advised them to get to the store fast if they wanted one. By 9:30am, all of the pre-orders had been spoken for. The manager then begin taking pre-orders (I believe) for any possible second shipment before Christmas.

It was a great experience- kudos to the manager for making it a really positive experience. I wound up also pre-ordering another controller, and two games- Zelda and Rayman and the Rabbid Rabbits.

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written by Go Nintendo » Blog Archi, October 13, 2006

[...] No pics, but an awesome story. Thanks Dan! [...]

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written by Metro Mapper, October 13, 2006

I waited in line with my brother for a Wii. We live in Louisville, KY, and the one at Jefferson Mall had 9 available for pre-order, and we were #2 and #3. We got there at 9am, so no problems, although at around 9:30 people left because the attendant said they only had 9 available. And we both got the fever, reserving 2 games (Red Steel, Madden, Zelda, and Marvel), a Wiimote, nunchuck, retro controller, and 1GB memory card, clocking in at around $500 each. Yipee.

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written by A.J., October 13, 2006

My experience getting the preorder

http://unofficiallwii.com/wordpress/?p=34

Hopefully I don't get the guy fired...

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written by Greshkov, October 14, 2006

for the ps3 i waited twenty minutes for the store to open (plymouth meeting mall, pa). i was number five (B's dad was three... big ups Bishop) and three guys showed up right as the store was opening. everyone there was buying for someone else except for me and the guy behind me. two dads, a grandpa and a girlfriend were ahead of me. things went really smoothly, it's all paid off and i'm stoked to play mine the day it comes out. i even took the day off from work.

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written by Lucas, October 20, 2006

I got lucky. Wasn't even planning on preordering the Wii, but the kid I tutor got a call from his friend right at the end of one of our sessions. His friend had called to say that there was a store with two reservation slots left, so I ended up going to the store with him and preordered it. Don't know how I'm going to pay for it when the time comes, but that's not important.