PS3 Launch Plans: HMV, Virgin, Gamestation, GAME
Where you need to be at midnight this Thursday
SPOnG’s been speaking to HMV, Virgin, Gamestation and GAME this morning to get a handle on what the UK’s four major high street and specialist videogame retailers have planned for the PlayStation 3 launch this coming Friday.
Firstly, the ‘official’ launch is taking place at Virgin’s flagship Oxford Street (London, of course) shop at midnight as Thursday night slides into Friday morning. The festivities kick off around 10pm. SPOnG will see many of you there.
Sony is being coy with details as to exactly what it has planned, wanting to keep everything under wraps to keep an element of surprise. So, head to the Forum (at the bottom of this story) and tell us which Sony Music ‘celeb you think will be ‘up’ at midnight looking confusedly at MotorStorm.
“PS3 'areas' have now been put into place in both Virgin and HMV and they look fantastic. It's not the usual pod that everybody goes with so it makes the rest of the machines look rather redundant,” a SCEE spokesperson told SPOnG earlier today.
Similar PS3 concept areas have also been installed at a number of Gamestation stores – as you can see from these pics right here from its Birmingham store.
GAME is planning on opening 300 stores for all those early adopting customers desperate to part with £425 to be among the first in the UK to play Ridge Racer 7, Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm or Formula One Championship Edition.
Further down the road on Oxford Street at GAME and HMV, it seems they have given up on the idea of organising competing ‘unofficial’ midnight launches (as happened with the Wii launch last year), with both stores opening early on Friday morning to sell their initial PS3 stock to eager commuters making an early detour into the stores on their Friday trip into work.
Spokespersons for HMV and GAME both told SPOnG the same story this morning – both citing concerns from the local council and police regarding further midnight launches on Oxford Street.
However, if you like free food and stuff and happen to be in Oxford Street very early on Friday morning then you may be in luck, as GAME opens early at 7am and is planning a, “Breakfast launch with bacon butties and free pastries and goody bags and whatnot”. HMV opens up half an hour later with a “7.30am launch with giveaways , free games and so on.”
Marylebone Police has revealed that they are also not so pumped about the midnight PS3 launch on Oxford Street, telling GamesIndustry.biz last week that, "We do not support these midnight launches, that is the bottom line. There are inherent problems we can't deal with easily...If the launches do go ahead, we have to negate the issues as far as we can, but we can't remove the risk factors for people coming to or going away from the store."
In addition to Birmingham, you'll also be able to find GameStation's PS3 ‘concept bays' in their stores in:
Washington
Sunderland
Metro Centre
Liverpool Lord Street
Telford
Ilkeston
Burton on Trent
Merry Hill
Gloucester
Milton Keynes
Norwich
Firstly, the ‘official’ launch is taking place at Virgin’s flagship Oxford Street (London, of course) shop at midnight as Thursday night slides into Friday morning. The festivities kick off around 10pm. SPOnG will see many of you there.
Sony is being coy with details as to exactly what it has planned, wanting to keep everything under wraps to keep an element of surprise. So, head to the Forum (at the bottom of this story) and tell us which Sony Music ‘celeb you think will be ‘up’ at midnight looking confusedly at MotorStorm.
“PS3 'areas' have now been put into place in both Virgin and HMV and they look fantastic. It's not the usual pod that everybody goes with so it makes the rest of the machines look rather redundant,” a SCEE spokesperson told SPOnG earlier today.
Similar PS3 concept areas have also been installed at a number of Gamestation stores – as you can see from these pics right here from its Birmingham store.
GAME is planning on opening 300 stores for all those early adopting customers desperate to part with £425 to be among the first in the UK to play Ridge Racer 7, Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm or Formula One Championship Edition.
Further down the road on Oxford Street at GAME and HMV, it seems they have given up on the idea of organising competing ‘unofficial’ midnight launches (as happened with the Wii launch last year), with both stores opening early on Friday morning to sell their initial PS3 stock to eager commuters making an early detour into the stores on their Friday trip into work.
Spokespersons for HMV and GAME both told SPOnG the same story this morning – both citing concerns from the local council and police regarding further midnight launches on Oxford Street.
However, if you like free food and stuff and happen to be in Oxford Street very early on Friday morning then you may be in luck, as GAME opens early at 7am and is planning a, “Breakfast launch with bacon butties and free pastries and goody bags and whatnot”. HMV opens up half an hour later with a “7.30am launch with giveaways , free games and so on.”
Marylebone Police has revealed that they are also not so pumped about the midnight PS3 launch on Oxford Street, telling GamesIndustry.biz last week that, "We do not support these midnight launches, that is the bottom line. There are inherent problems we can't deal with easily...If the launches do go ahead, we have to negate the issues as far as we can, but we can't remove the risk factors for people coming to or going away from the store."
In addition to Birmingham, you'll also be able to find GameStation's PS3 ‘concept bays' in their stores in:
Washington
Sunderland
Metro Centre
Liverpool Lord Street
Telford
Ilkeston
Burton on Trent
Merry Hill
Gloucester
Milton Keynes
Norwich
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Comments
Joji 19 Mar 2007 14:25
1/3
Yeah, nice but me not care.
hollywooda 19 Mar 2007 16:35
2/3
zzzz ahhhh,.....ohh i most of dosed off there.....
The Convertor 12 May 2012 14:02
3/3
Hi I am opening a Cash Converter store in Sunderland, in the old Gamestation shop. I want to employ ex-Game/Gamestation staff who worked in Sunderland, all is not lost - email, sunderland@cashconverters.net and get working again.