News Blog

Nintendo fans queued at retail for midnight launches and morning events to nab the new Wii video game system.

Fans lined up in front of stores like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Target to score a Wii at midnight or at early morning launch events.

The Wal-Mart in Pomona, CA had 27 Wii units in stock and more than 30 consumers in line for a midnight launch. The first several customers in line had been queued since Fri. morning. The Wal-Mart in Chino Hills, CA had a queue of more than 40 for another midnight event.

The Best Buy in Chino Hills, CA had more than 25 consumers in tents and camping chairs by Sat. noon.

Many in line included parents, teens, adults, and die-hard Nintendo fans ready to experience the company’s new innovative hardware. Fans passed the time by playing multiplayer matches on their Nintendo DS, while others discussed the new game titles for the platform.

Launch events were calm in contrast to the mob mentality experienced nationwide at the launch of Sony Corp.’s Playstation 3. Incidents of shootings, theft, fights, and robbery were reported over the weekend in select U.S. cities in an effort to purchase the $499 and $599 SKUs.

Anger among PS3 buyers may have been the result of its high resale price on auction site Ebay, where launch day sales went for around $3,000 to $4,000 for the 60GB model.

Retailers held sufficient stock of Wii, with key retail stores securing over 100 units.

Nintendo expects to ship 4 million Wii units to worldwide retail by year-end. The machine will launch in Japan on Dec. 2.