Waiting In Line From The Comfort Of Home
October 28, 2006
Even though I'm a professional video game journalist, I'm still not necessarily guaranteed a Wii from either Nintendo or AMN at launch. I'm not willing to risk being left out in the Wii-less cold next month, so I'm hedging my bets by preordering a Wii and the three launch games I want from Amazon.com. The catch is that even Amazon has a waiting list or sorts. The company has been offering preorders for the console and certain games as they learn they'll be receiving fresh stock, so the exact moment that games are open for ordering fluctuates over time. Amazon could open up orders at, say, 7:31 A.M and then close them when they sell out at 7:42 A.M., only to briefly reopen later in the day when more inventory is acquired. Even though I'm not waiting on the cold pavement outside of a retail outlet, I'm still waiting in line in a sense.
So far I've been able to preorder two things from my Wii shopping list: the actual Wii itself and Red Steel (which I'm mainly buying because I played it at E3 and was intrigued). I'm still waiting for my chance to snag The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck, and the classic controller. I've found that as launch day nears I grow more bristled about getting the games ordered, meaning that when I'm working at the computer I keep an Amazon web browser window open that I refresh from time to time. I vowed not to stand in line for a Wii and yet here I am doing so anyway. At least I'm waiting in the comfort of my own home.