SPOnG-News has just returned from a jaunt 'up West' where we bore witness to the spectacle of not one, but two major midnight Wii launch events kicking off Wii-E day in London today (see our regional launch coverage here).
Nintendo's official launch event took place at HMV's flagship store on Oxford Street, with the requisite amount of C-list celebs in attendance (Pat Cash, Nell McAndrew, Ian Wright and pro-boxer Ricky Hatton who, to be fair, might have made the B-list of late... SPOnG doesn't keep up with Heat magazine, so we are unclear on this).
What was most remarkable about the event, other than the good view we were offered of Nell's pert rear, was the sheer number of journalists, TV crews and snappers in attendance. Nintendo's well-oiled PR machine was most definitely fired up and in full effect at HMV today, with many passing shoppers and tourists looking bemused and stopping to ask what the fuss was about.
"It's the launch of a new videogame console," SPOnG informed one inquisitive old lady.
"Oh, but who is it that they are all waiting to see?" she asked, pointing at the amassed horde of (mainly) teenagers and early twenty-somethings.
"Err, they're not really waiting to see anyone. They're here because they want to be amongst the first to play the Wii," we replied, at which point she merely walked away shaking her head.
It has to be said that the level of organisation in HMV's queuing and ticket-allocation system left a lot to be desired, with numerous people in the queue not possessing the wristbands that assured them they would get their hands on one of the first batch of consoles. Others who had been assigned wristbands were being told by security to go to the back of the queue.
One guy we spoke to had arrived to pick up a Wii he had pre-ordered, although he was being told by security that without a wrist-band he would not be guaranteed to get his machine. He simply said he wished he'd waited and gone to Asda "where they are bound to have loads in tomorrow." He also said a lot more, with many choice words, but unfortunately he shouted too loudly into our voice recorder, so it's all just an angry noise.
Confusion reigned. The focus was clearly on the PR spectacle, at the expense of the consumers, some of whom had been queuing since Tuesday! Luckily, for Nintendo, the first person in the queue today, 17-year old Marwam El Gamal, was also very good looking and fashionable. If we were more cynical we might even insinuate that he could have been a plant.
SPOnG: "So you're the first? Can we ask you some questions? We're from SPOnG... "
Marwam: "Yeah, I know you guys"
SPOnG: "Good. So how long have you been here?"
Marwam: "Since Tuesday, 5pm."
SPOnG: "Jesus! So you've been camping out?"
Marwam: "Yeah!"
SPOnG: "So did the police move you on this morning?"
Marwam: "This morning they did, yeah because they needed the space because a load of people started coming and they needed to take them to one side to give them wristbands to make sure they got their consoles when they came back later in the day..."
SPOnG: "You managed to get yourself a Wii though. First in the country to do so to, eh?"
Marwam: "Been here for over 50 hours though!"
SPOnG: "You ready for a good night's sleep then?"
Marwam: "No way man! Get straight into Zelda!"
SPOnG: "What are you buying other than Zelda?"
Marwam: "Red Steel, Super Monkey Ball and Wii Play..."
SPOnG: "So, are you going to be buying a PS3 next year?"
Marwam: "Nah, nah! Maybe if I make enough money sometime soon, I dunno."
Up the road at Game's Oxford Street branch the mood was lighter and far more jubilant. This could have been because half of the queue seemed to be, well, half-cut on strong continental lager! Whatever it was, there was much more of a party atmosphere at this 'unofficial' launch. Game had cleverly thought up a nifty promotional ploy to keep the queuing hordes happy - it unveiled a Wii Tennis demonstration area in the main window, with two lovely young ladies employed to play Wii Tennis, much to the delight of the blokes in the queue (of which we estimated was about 90% male-to-10% female).
The guy with the biggest grin on his face was Vic Ainsworth, a 22-year old from Wimbledon, who stood firmly at the front of the queue. SPOnG grabbed a few quick words with Vic.
SPOnG: "Hi, how long have you been here?"
Big Vic: "Since 4pm, so around 5 hours now. Not too bad. It's very cold though."
SPOnG: "Have you had any hassle since you've been here?"
Vic: "We've had people walk by saying 'you're wasting your time, don't you have lives?' but we don't really care. It's all good fun. We're having a really nice time. Had a bit of multiplayer Mario Kart action on the DSs earlier.”
SPOnG: "So what are you going to be buying then?"
Vic: "Wii Play, just 'cos it's a fiver with the controller... Zelda, obviously... possibly Monkey Ball or maybe Raving Rabbids... I'm still deciding between the two. I need something for me and the girlfriend to play together, want to get her involved as well."
SPOnG: "Does she normally play games?"
Vic: "Yeah, she likes the DS and she has a Game Boy Micro and stuff. But she's really excited about Wii. She's actually buying this for me (indirectly) as my Christmas present.”
SPOnG: "Awww."
Vic: "Yeah, though I have to come and queue out here for eight hours first, but then she is pregnant!"
SPOnG left Vic, not quite knowing if we should be appalled or mildly in awe of his ability to persuade the mother of his child-to-be to shell out for his new Nintendo. We then spot three youths on the corner all deeply engrossed in their shiny Sony PSPs, so head over to find out what the score is there. Lewis, Christopher and Jason (all from London) had been in the queue for just over an hour, but were already looking rather bored of the whole affair.
SPOnG: "I see you're all playing PSP! Are you not really fans of DS?"
Christopher: "Nah man! I've got one, but I'm not really keen on it at all?"
SPOnG: "So what makes you want to get a Wii?"
Jason: "It's different. Nice. The wireless controller. Just everything really. This is just something totally new, like, it's not just about better graphics and that."
SPOnG: "Have you owned Nintendo consoles before then?"
Christopher: "Oh god yeah! Since I was little. There was NES then Super Nintendo, then 64... that's about it."
Jason: "Cube as well man!"
Christopher: "Oh yeah, that too."
SPOnG: "So what games you buying tonight then?"
All three in chorus: "Zelda!"
Christopher: "And Wii Play, innit?"
Back at HMV, as the midnight hour approached an open-topped white Wii Routemaster bus arrived, dispatching the celebs right in front of the baying media scrum who followed them inside, jostling for the best picture of Nell McAndrew's bum. Ian Wright took on Ricky Hatton at Wii Sports Boxing and lost. Then made a bit of a tit of himself (as usual) by claiming he thought Zelda "was like a fighting game or something!?"
As you can see from our pics of the launch event right below, the place was heaving and the security was tighter than Heathrow on full terror alert.
Welcome to the new generation.
Nintendo's official launch event took place at HMV's flagship store on Oxford Street, with the requisite amount of C-list celebs in attendance (Pat Cash, Nell McAndrew, Ian Wright and pro-boxer Ricky Hatton who, to be fair, might have made the B-list of late... SPOnG doesn't keep up with Heat magazine, so we are unclear on this).
What was most remarkable about the event, other than the good view we were offered of Nell's pert rear, was the sheer number of journalists, TV crews and snappers in attendance. Nintendo's well-oiled PR machine was most definitely fired up and in full effect at HMV today, with many passing shoppers and tourists looking bemused and stopping to ask what the fuss was about.
"It's the launch of a new videogame console," SPOnG informed one inquisitive old lady.
"Oh, but who is it that they are all waiting to see?" she asked, pointing at the amassed horde of (mainly) teenagers and early twenty-somethings.
"Err, they're not really waiting to see anyone. They're here because they want to be amongst the first to play the Wii," we replied, at which point she merely walked away shaking her head.
It has to be said that the level of organisation in HMV's queuing and ticket-allocation system left a lot to be desired, with numerous people in the queue not possessing the wristbands that assured them they would get their hands on one of the first batch of consoles. Others who had been assigned wristbands were being told by security to go to the back of the queue.
One guy we spoke to had arrived to pick up a Wii he had pre-ordered, although he was being told by security that without a wrist-band he would not be guaranteed to get his machine. He simply said he wished he'd waited and gone to Asda "where they are bound to have loads in tomorrow." He also said a lot more, with many choice words, but unfortunately he shouted too loudly into our voice recorder, so it's all just an angry noise.
Confusion reigned. The focus was clearly on the PR spectacle, at the expense of the consumers, some of whom had been queuing since Tuesday! Luckily, for Nintendo, the first person in the queue today, 17-year old Marwam El Gamal, was also very good looking and fashionable. If we were more cynical we might even insinuate that he could have been a plant.
SPOnG: "So you're the first? Can we ask you some questions? We're from SPOnG... "
Marwam: "Yeah, I know you guys"
SPOnG: "Good. So how long have you been here?"
Marwam: "Since Tuesday, 5pm."
SPOnG: "Jesus! So you've been camping out?"
Marwam: "Yeah!"
SPOnG: "So did the police move you on this morning?"
Marwam: "This morning they did, yeah because they needed the space because a load of people started coming and they needed to take them to one side to give them wristbands to make sure they got their consoles when they came back later in the day..."
SPOnG: "You managed to get yourself a Wii though. First in the country to do so to, eh?"
Marwam: "Been here for over 50 hours though!"
SPOnG: "You ready for a good night's sleep then?"
Marwam: "No way man! Get straight into Zelda!"
SPOnG: "What are you buying other than Zelda?"
Marwam: "Red Steel, Super Monkey Ball and Wii Play..."
SPOnG: "So, are you going to be buying a PS3 next year?"
Marwam: "Nah, nah! Maybe if I make enough money sometime soon, I dunno."
Up the road at Game's Oxford Street branch the mood was lighter and far more jubilant. This could have been because half of the queue seemed to be, well, half-cut on strong continental lager! Whatever it was, there was much more of a party atmosphere at this 'unofficial' launch. Game had cleverly thought up a nifty promotional ploy to keep the queuing hordes happy - it unveiled a Wii Tennis demonstration area in the main window, with two lovely young ladies employed to play Wii Tennis, much to the delight of the blokes in the queue (of which we estimated was about 90% male-to-10% female).
The guy with the biggest grin on his face was Vic Ainsworth, a 22-year old from Wimbledon, who stood firmly at the front of the queue. SPOnG grabbed a few quick words with Vic.
SPOnG: "Hi, how long have you been here?"
Big Vic: "Since 4pm, so around 5 hours now. Not too bad. It's very cold though."
SPOnG: "Have you had any hassle since you've been here?"
Vic: "We've had people walk by saying 'you're wasting your time, don't you have lives?' but we don't really care. It's all good fun. We're having a really nice time. Had a bit of multiplayer Mario Kart action on the DSs earlier.”
SPOnG: "So what are you going to be buying then?"
Vic: "Wii Play, just 'cos it's a fiver with the controller... Zelda, obviously... possibly Monkey Ball or maybe Raving Rabbids... I'm still deciding between the two. I need something for me and the girlfriend to play together, want to get her involved as well."
SPOnG: "Does she normally play games?"
Vic: "Yeah, she likes the DS and she has a Game Boy Micro and stuff. But she's really excited about Wii. She's actually buying this for me (indirectly) as my Christmas present.”
SPOnG: "Awww."
Vic: "Yeah, though I have to come and queue out here for eight hours first, but then she is pregnant!"
SPOnG left Vic, not quite knowing if we should be appalled or mildly in awe of his ability to persuade the mother of his child-to-be to shell out for his new Nintendo. We then spot three youths on the corner all deeply engrossed in their shiny Sony PSPs, so head over to find out what the score is there. Lewis, Christopher and Jason (all from London) had been in the queue for just over an hour, but were already looking rather bored of the whole affair.
SPOnG: "I see you're all playing PSP! Are you not really fans of DS?"
Christopher: "Nah man! I've got one, but I'm not really keen on it at all?"
SPOnG: "So what makes you want to get a Wii?"
Jason: "It's different. Nice. The wireless controller. Just everything really. This is just something totally new, like, it's not just about better graphics and that."
SPOnG: "Have you owned Nintendo consoles before then?"
Christopher: "Oh god yeah! Since I was little. There was NES then Super Nintendo, then 64... that's about it."
Jason: "Cube as well man!"
Christopher: "Oh yeah, that too."
SPOnG: "So what games you buying tonight then?"
All three in chorus: "Zelda!"
Christopher: "And Wii Play, innit?"
Back at HMV, as the midnight hour approached an open-topped white Wii Routemaster bus arrived, dispatching the celebs right in front of the baying media scrum who followed them inside, jostling for the best picture of Nell McAndrew's bum. Ian Wright took on Ricky Hatton at Wii Sports Boxing and lost. Then made a bit of a tit of himself (as usual) by claiming he thought Zelda "was like a fighting game or something!?"
As you can see from our pics of the launch event right below, the place was heaving and the security was tighter than Heathrow on full terror alert.
Welcome to the new generation.
Companies:
Nintendo
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Comments
Smelly 8 Dec 2006 05:34
1/4
I've completed zelda (possibly one of first in world outside nintendo to do so).
Do you think the guy who queued for 50 hrs to get a wii to play zelda would be pissed if i posted here telling him that [SNIP].
And at the very end [SNIP]?
Or should I just keep that information to myself?
[8 Dec 2006, 09:39: Message edited by 'tyrion']
The official answer is that you should keep that sort of information to yourself. Consider yourself warned, nasty behaviour like this won't be tolerated.
Do you think the guy who queued for 50 hrs to get a wii to play zelda would be pissed if i posted here telling him that [SNIP].
And at the very end [SNIP]?
Or should I just keep that information to myself?
[8 Dec 2006, 09:39: Message edited by 'tyrion']
The official answer is that you should keep that sort of information to yourself. Consider yourself warned, nasty behaviour like this won't be tolerated.
RiseFromYourGrave 8 Dec 2006 06:56
2/4
i think saying things like that would make you a piece of s**t
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mrAnthony 8 Dec 2006 10:49
3/4
heh!
i was at the game launch. it was pretty alright. my first console launch. i was there from about 9, and didnt get out of the store til 2 in the morning. lonnggg. but its all worth it. me and my gf went home and played on wii sports til about 4.30. i dont think any other console would have had us doign that really.
the hmv may have had celebs. but we had a giant sonic and AiAi. that quite frankly scared the bejesus out of me.
i was at the game launch. it was pretty alright. my first console launch. i was there from about 9, and didnt get out of the store til 2 in the morning. lonnggg. but its all worth it. me and my gf went home and played on wii sports til about 4.30. i dont think any other console would have had us doign that really.
the hmv may have had celebs. but we had a giant sonic and AiAi. that quite frankly scared the bejesus out of me.
Smelly 8 Dec 2006 20:26
4/4
Sorry.. i was a bit "merry" when i posted that..