Nintendo Wii Pre-Orders selling out at GameStop & EB Games

Some people started lining up as early as 9PM last night. Accord to reports, the Nintendo Wii per-order turnout has been bigger than that of the Sony PS3. People are reporting crowds of as many as 40-50 people lining up and waiting for GameStop and EB Games to open their doors and announce how many systems they have available for pre-order. Some stores had as little as 8, while others up to 36.

Read more on NeoGAF

Nintendo World Store NYC taking Wii Pre-Orders

Last week we were able to head out to NYC and place a pre-order for a couple of Wii consoles at the Nintendo World store in NYC.

It looks like they are still taking pre-orders as of today, so if you are in the NY area head to Rockefeller Plaza to place your guaranteed launch day Wii. The Nintendo store is also offering pre-orders on Zelda and Excite Truck.

The minimum required deposit is $50 for the Wii and $10 for each game. There is a maximum of 2 console pre-orders per household.

As of right now, the Nintendo store does not know if they will be doing a midnight launch.

No PS3 or Wii Pre-Orders from Best Buy

It has been confirmed that Best Buy will not be offering pre-orders for the Sony PS3 or the Nintendo Wii.

Best Buy confirmed this week that they will not be taking pre-orders for the PlayStation 3 or the Wii. A company spokesman told me earlier this week that Best Buy has decided they would rather just sell both consoles on launch day because it’s more exciting that way. The Best Buy spokesman added he could not tell me how many of either console they would be receiving for launch day.

Source: Kotaku

With this news and GameStop/EB selling out of PS3 pre-orders nation wide in just hours, it looks like there will be high demand for camping gear this November.

Nintendo Fusion Tour and Nintendo Wii impressions

On Friday night we went to the Nintendo Fusion Tour at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville NJ.

We got there about 5:40PM and the event was starting at 6:30. It was cold out. One of the staff members walking around had a DS download station attached to her. We were able to download a few demos and play them while we waited. They offered a demo level of the upcoming Elite Beat Agents, some dart game, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis.

March of the Minis was the most complete demo with quite a few levels open to play. Elite Beat Agents was a tease at best – a single part of one level! The dart game, well… you throw a dart, then the computer does. Then you throw a dart, then the computer does. You get the idea.

Once we made our way inside It became obvious very quickly that the venue was way too small to hold the Fusion Tour. The stage for the bands was straight ahead, and the Wii and DS stations were setup in the fairly small corner to the left.

We were one of the first people to get to the Wii demo stations. Unfortunately the very firs thing I noticed was that they only had room to setup 5 units. The games were Wii Play, WarioWare, Excite Truck, Wii Bowling and Wii Tennis. No Metroid. I was pissed. The place was too small to setup a Metroid station which would draw in the largest crowd.

First game was Excite Truck. I only had to wait about 15 minutes before getting my turn to play. The guy manning that particular station placed the strap around my hand, handed me the Wii-Remote and explained the controls.

Let me just say that holding the Wii-Remote(or WiiMote if you will), it just feels like it’s made by Nintendo. It’s solid, lightweight, compact, and very comfortable. You just know that it’s something that come out of Nintendo’s camp.

Excite Truck
This game was my very first impression of the Wii. Controls are basic. To steer left or right you simply turn the Wii-Remote at the direction which you want to turn, tilt back or forward to land your jumps, A for gas, and the D-Pad for turbo. People say that the turning controls are too sensitive. I didn’t find that to be the case. While you only had to turn the Wii-Remote a few degrees in either direction to steer, it definitely was not as sensitive as the impression that I’ve gotten from other people’s reviews. It probably took about 40 seconds to get the turning controls down. Once you understand how much to turn, it’s cake. I finished first in my race, and it ended up being a great first experience. Graphics wise it was at least on par with Game Cube games, if not a little better.

Wii Bowling
Immediately after Excite Truck I get on the Wii Bowling line. Wait time was around 10 minutes or so, and I met a few cool people while waiting on line. One of them had attended E3 and was telling me about the completely insane 5 hour line to get to play the Wii at E3. The controls for bowling are fairly simple as well. Hit A, and you can set where to place your character. Hit A again and you set in which direction to send the ball. Now you are ready. You hold the B button (the trigger), and make a bowling-like-motion, and release the trigger to let go of the ball. The faster you snap your wrist at the end, the more power the ball will have. You can also add a spin to the ball by twisting your wrist at the end right before you release. If you happen to release the trigger too early before your swing, you drop and send the ball rolling backwards. Each person got to play 5 frames. I got 2 strikes – Yeah, that’s right!

Wii Tennis
This game had the longest line at the event. If Metroid was there I am sure that it would had been at least 4-5 times as long. Wait time was about 25-30 minutes. The controls once again are super simple. Use the Wii-Remote like a tennis racquet. There are no buttons to press, just swing at the ball. Easy to play, lots of fun. I got to play against someone else, which made it more fun.

Wii-Remote
The Wii-Remote was spot on for the most part with all the games. Some of the tennis swings didn’t translate exactly. For example if you tried to lob the ball, it might do a normal swing. Other than that, it was perfect, sensitive to movements, and comfortable to hold. Unfortunately, the nunchuk was MIA as none of the games used it.

Unfortunately that is all that we got to play. By the time we got to the Wii Tennis line the bands started to play. This would have been fine if the place was bigger – and the music didn’t suck. It was extremely crowded, and way too loud, for such a small place, which made it very uncomfortable. Some people were walking around with ear plugs, which seemed like an excellent idea.

While a lot of the younger crowd was there for the bands, the crowd for the Wii demos was more mixed. I would say ages ranged from 15 to 45, easily. One surprising thing was the amount of girls waiting to play, which I would estimate 20-25%.

As far as the whole event, I’d have to say it was just “OK”, at best. A larger venue would have made to so much better. They definitely needed more room for additional Wii stations, and Metroid.

If the Nintendo Fusion Tour is coming around you, make sure it’s in a place which can accommodate large crowds and enough room to have more than 4-5 Wii stations setup. The price of admission was worth being able to try out the Wii.

Lastly, we were told that recording equipment and digital cameras were not allowed. A few people brought them in, and I could have used my cell phone, but I figured there’s no point in crappy pictures, especially since theres tons of great images everywhere. There was nothing new to take a picture of.

If you’ve had hands-on time with the Wii, feel free to tell us about it.

No Nintendo Wii or Sony PS3 Pre-Orders from GameStop?

If you want to get your hands on a Nintendo Wii or a Sony PS3 you might have to start thinking about camping out overnight at your local electronics and gaming hardware retailer. It seems that GameStop which owns EB Games and Babbages, is considering not offering pre-sales for the PS3 and the Wii, after what happened with shipping shortages with last years release of the XBOX 360.

While some sources have said that pre-orders are going to start on October 10th, others have said that it will be up to each individual GameStop retailer whether to take pre-orders or not.

The PS3 hits store shelves on Nov. 17, and Sony has promised between 1 million and 1.2 million PS3s in the U.S. by the end of the year.

The Nintendo Wii follows two days later and is expected to be in greater supply than the PS3.

But sellouts of both consoles this year are virtually guaranteed.

As a result, GameStop has not yet decided when, or even if, it will offer pre-orders for the new systems.

Source

Get your camping gear ready!

RedSteel Box Art revealed

IGN has posted what appears to be the official box art of the RedSteel game. The box art for the game looks great, and we hope that the game will be good as well.

We have gotten mixed responses from different sources. Most complaints has been about the controller sensitivity and problems. However, UBISOFT has confirmed that the final version will have controller sensitivity settings.

1 Million Nintendo Wii consoles for North America at launch [UPDATE]

Update: We have recently received following statement to help debunk some misinformation and rumors. Please read the update here:

“A number of outlets have reported a misstatement about the number of Wii consoles that will be available in the Americas during the launch rollout. In fact, the truth is even better. After the Americas lead the worldwide launch on Nov. 19, Nintendo expects to sell 4 million Wii consoles globally by the end of 2006, with the largest allotment available in the Americas. Although we expect a huge demand for the consoles, we are working to ensure a plentiful supply and a consistent flow.”

That is the official statement and launch numbers straight from Nintendo. Anything beyond that is to be regarded and misinformation and just rumors.

[Original Article]
We know that Nintendo plans to ship out 4 million consoles by years end, globally. We also know that they planned to ship about 2 million in the Americas, by year end. We now have confirmation via an interview that North America will get 1 Million Wii consoles at launch.

“We’re looking at a million (units) for North America at launch,” said Bertram. “When Sony came out (with their PS3 announcement), they said 300,000.

“If we get what we’re supposed to get, this will be our most plentiful launch in the 15 years I’ve been at Nintendo. All signs are actually extremely positive.”

Source

After the XBox 360 mess, everyone seem a bit antsy to get their pre-orders in. This information should put some people at ease. With 1 million consoles at launch time, it should be easier to get a console without a pre-order. All US retailer seem to be holding off on pre-orders, until they can get firm numbers from Nintendo on their launch day allocation numbers.

Nintendo also promises that there will be 30 Nintendo Wii games available by December 31st.

Zelda Twilight Princess box art

Here is what GoNintendo claims to be the box art for the upcoming Zelta: Twilight Pricess

Just now I have received an email from an inside source that wishes to remain anonymous. This source is to be 100% trusted

(Source: GoNintendo)

Rumor: Nintendo Wii Beta Testing from Sept. 18th – Oct. 23rd

According to a forum post over at macrumors.com, a user writes that the Nintendo Wii beta testing for Wii Connect 24, the Virtual Console and “other” online features begins next Monday, September 18th, and runs through October 23rd.

Beta testing for the Wii starts Sept 18th – Oct. 23rd so don’t expect the system to release prior to that. The beta test covers Wii Connect 24, the Virtual Console and “other” online features.. When I beta tested the DS wifi we did that for almost three months until Nintendo Wi Fi was launched but that covered three different games. I guess the system could launch but then the above features won’t be up and running if it did. So hope that helps in narrowing down the date.

DEXTERITY from macrumors.com

I would assume that beta testing for the WiiConnect24 and the Virtual Console would be long underway by now, and I also agree with destructoid.com which says that considering the fact that 3rd party games won’t include online play until ‘07, this would not be an issue with a possible early launch.

Take this information as you will.

Look for concrete information coming your way on Thursday & Friday of this week, when the Nintendo Wii price and release date are finally revealed.

Joystiq fires Robert Summa over post, Summa responds and joins Destructoid

Robert Summa responds to being fired by Joystiq.

Anyway, Joystiq knew the news (I told them) and they knew I was posting a note to let readers know to come back later. If they, at any point, thought I was sensationalizing things or was not in line with their “mission,� then they had an entire day to edit or take down the note. But, of course, they left it up. Why?

Destructoid was smart enough to bring is Robert Summa as soon as he was let go.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, Robert Summa ran a post on Joystiq entitled “Major next-gen console news coming tonight“. The post said that at 12:01am Joystiq would run a feature with next-gen console news which they couldn’t reveal until then. This particular post got a lot of attention and was hyped all over the net. It ended up with slightly over 1000 comments.

At 12:01 Robert Summa posted the promised news, which basically was that IBM has been shipping their Broadway chip for Nintendo’s Wii console since July. He also speculated that while this was great news, the release date of the Wii might be much sooner than originally though.

As it turns out a lot of readers were disappointed with the news, as they were expecting much much more. If you want to read through some of the comments you can see that some people were expecting ridiculous news, such as the Nintendo Wii being available for sale the next day, or the PS3 canceled. Numerous times throughout the night Robert Summa posted hints and debunked crazy ideas.

Soon after the feature started to receive negative attention, the feature was updated with “toned down language throughout”, which basically means they took any fun and interesting speculation out of it. Eventually, Joystiq ended up issuing a public apology, and firing Robert.

In their apology, Joystiq throws Robert Summa under the bus, basically saying that they agree with the readers.

We believe that Joystiq overreacted, and didn’t know how to deal with the negative attention. They should have not fired Robert and they did just to save face, as they were well aware of the contents of the upcoming feature, and still allowed the whole event to take place.

If you enjoy reading Robert Summa’s posts, you can now read them over at his new home destructoid.com