Have you ever bought a system on launch day?

[Rhindle The Red]

Now that the latest wave of video game consoles is underway, let's see who's got the moxie to be the earliest of early adopters.

 

I, myself, have never bought a system at launch, although I did buy a Japanese Dreamcast two weeks before the system was released in the US. (It's the closest I've ever come.)

 

How's about you?

[+remowilliams]

Yes, many times. Actually the only modern exception is probably the current 'next gen' systems. I really didn't care enough to get up early or wait to pre-order the Wii or the PS3. The 360 I got through contacts, and same with the Wii (although a couple days after launch). I got the PSP, GBA and DS units ahead of time with the help of relatives in Japan..

 

In 'recent' times, I did get the Xbox, PS2, Dreamcast, PS, and Saturn at their launches. But those were all devoid of the insanity of that's going on now.

 

Actually I remember walking into a mall and being totally surprised by the Saturn at the time. Picked it up that day, and loved it

Edited November 22, 2006 by remowilliams

[Lemmi]

No. I'm the patient (or uninterested) sort.

 

i wanted a TG16 on launch day but i was a broke kid and i used my money to keep gas in my car and my girlfriend quiet by doing things with her

 

after that i waited for the things to drop in price before buying because i had a buddy who always seemed to get the systems first so i didnt really need to have one myself

[Atari-Jess]

I found a DS on launch day by chance, and Camped for the Wii.

[spacecadet]

I bought all of the previous gen systems right at either the US or Japanese launch or both.

 

I preordered a Japanese Dreamcast and got it at launch, then I did the same for the US model.

 

I bought a Japanese PS2 as soon as they were available in NYC. I then waited in line for a US model but didn't get one (I was #11 in line at a store that got 10). I had also preordered at GameStop, though, and my preorder came through a week later. (This was back in the days when they wouldn't just stop taking preorders when they ran out of launch systems, so I didn't know when my preorder was coming.)

 

I bought a Japanese GameCube as soon as it was available in NYC and modded it to play US games once the US model was out.

 

I bought a US Xbox on launch day - didn't even have to wait in line.

 

This time around, I half-heartedly tried to buy a PS3 on launch day but didn't put a whole lot of effort into it. I did go to about 7 stores at my local mall, and would have bought one if I found one. But I didn't expect to, and I didn't.

 

I visited Nintendo World this week to see the Wii but didn't buy one.

 

I'm currently not interested in the Xbox 360.

 

Before the last generation, I don't think there was a lot of stock put in "launch day", so I never bothered trying to get a system at launch previously.

[bretthorror]

Camped for the Wii, only launch system I've ever bought.

[Red 5]

Got a Saturn at launch, but only because I was the manager of an EB at the time and they were given to us.

(Still Electronics Boutique back then. And it wasn't really a 'launch' back then.)

 

Bought these at launch:

Dreamcast

N64

Xbox

Xbox 360

Wii

PS3 (sold it though)

[PressureCooker2600]

i stood in line with my brother and my friend so they could get a PS2 on launch....i just did it for the hell of it and to watch people make fools of themselves.....plus i kept taking a leak behind best buy since they didnt have porto johns and wouldnt let you in.......so i pee on the building.....take that corporate america

[Shawn]

Yes I have. I got the NES at launch, the SNES at launch and just the other day I got the Wii at launch.

[Dragnerok X]

I'm different. I wait and buy a system the last few years of it's life so I can score on cheap, yet awesome, games!

 

[BydoEmpire]

I bought my n64, Cube and Wii on launch day. I picked up a DC within launch week. But usually I either wait a year (ps1/ps2/xbox/ds) or get it at the end of the system's life when games are cheap and plentiful (saturn/tg-16).

[AussieAtari]

I voted "Yes, several times" on the strength of micro purchases back in the mid-eighties and that was only because I was selling them.

 

Like Rindle, I did buy a DS Lite in Hong Kong a month before they were released in Oz.

[geosteve]

I've never bought a system on launch day, but there were a couple I got within it's first month. I bought the TG16 system about three weeks after it came out and I got the Atari Lynx at about 4 or 5 weeks out. I don't recall any others being that early out.

[bigdcaldavis2k]

Now that the latest wave of video game consoles is underway, let's see who's got the moxie to be the earliest of early adopters.

 

I, myself, have never bought a system at launch, although I did buy a Japanese Dreamcast two weeks before the system was released in the US. (It's the closest I've ever come.)

 

How's about you?

 

Yep. Quite a few. I bought a Jaguar as soon as they were released nationwide (bought mine at Electronics Boutique in Greensboro, North Carolina, for $250 plus tax...once I got Alien vs Predator, I was in 7th heaven), a Game Boy Color on launch day (for $80), and an import GBA (Malaysia/Singapore-region) within a week of its release for $100.

[+HatNJ]

Nah I wait a while price drops, Bugs to be fixed etc.

 

Games are just as good later as they are on launch and the systems and games prices drop as time goes on I wont EVER spend 60 bucks on a New modern game thats been done to death years earlier

[goodwill_gamer]

9/9/99

bought a dreamcast from sears.

great system.

[shadow460]

I got the Dreamcast on launch day. I waited maybe half an hour in line. The cool part was that I took off work to go get it, then I sat at home and played Hydro Thunder the rest of the day!

 

After hunting for weeks for games/accessories, and also after seeing the meager N64 lineup in 1997, I decided that I would not buy another system the day it launched. I think we should all wait 29 years after launch day to buy a game system. (hint...VCS...hint)

[+FujiSkunk]

Never have, and if all future launches turn into the circuses that the XBox 360 and PS3 launches were, I never will.

 

The closest I've come is the Dreamcast, which I bought within a month of its launch.

[Atari-Jess]

I'm different. I wait and buy a system the last few years of it's life so I can score on cheap, yet awesome, games!

 

 

I did that for the SNES, N64, and Gamecube (well, I'm buying the cheap games for it)

[Lauren Tyler]

The only system I ever got on launch day was the Dreamcast, which turned out to be the last system Sega ever put out. Some kind of strange coincidence, I wonder?

[Jamcat]

Nope, I never buy a system at launch. I think people who camp out and pay full price for systems are total idiots.

 

I usually wait til at least the first price drop for a system. And by then, any system bugs or glitches that usually show up in the first production runs will have been fixed.

 

And the best part of waiting is to see how the system does. If it's a success or if it fails. I mean really, why buy a Wii if it's going to end up like the GameCube, which I'm sure it will. I still laugh at the suckers who bought a Dreamcast at launch. Two years later they are left with a dead system. Ha!

 

As I see it, I think Microsoft will take the next generation with the Xbox 360. The PS3 is just too expensive, and the Wii is just too gimmicky.

[Lemmi]

I usually wait til at least the first price drop for a system. And by then, any system bugs or glitches that usually show up in the first production runs will have been fixed.

 

As I see it, I think Microsoft will take the next generation with the Xbox 360. The PS3 is just too expensive, and the Wii is just too gimmicky.

 

heh the Wii might be gimmicky but i think they are gonna get the market they were looking for after reading some stories so far, the people who normally dont play videogames, partly because you dont have to memorize a million buttons on a controller to play a game

 

 

i think the glitches and bugs are more prevalent in modern systems then in the classics, because you are buying a gaming computer instead of a gaming console, and if i did buy systems when they first came out, i would wait until stuff was fixed first also

 

how many serious problems happened before the Dreamcast? did the Dreamcast have any problems other then the piracy thing? i got mine when they dropped to $50

i could be talking out of my ass here but these things just popped into my head as i was replying to this

[sidcrowe]

Never had the money.

 

Closest I came was getting the Genesis a few months after it was released with a Sears credit card, which I never paid off. I got a few games at launch, though. Most notably, FF 7,8, and 9.

 

Fuck these launches. Always the same story. "So and so is betting the farm on this one, taking a loss, and hoping to make money with software sales–"

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah...heard it all before. The PS3 is over $700 in Canada. What more can they say?

 

"Enhanced graphics and sound..."

 

WHATEVER.

[Shannon]

I know for sure I got the DS, Gamecube, and N64 on gamelaunch. In the case of the N64, nothing like getting a new system and then having a draught of games for at least 3 months or more. I finished Mario 64 in like 3 weeks.

 

The dreamcast and the PSP I got pretty close to launch but I don't think I got them on launch day.

[CGQuarterly]

Yes, I bought the Playstation 2 on launch day.

 

I don't know exactly what the definition of "camping" is, but I arrived at Best Buy in the wee hours of the morning on launch day (maybe 4 or 5 in the morning) and waited in line. I don't think that is camping, but it is the closest I have ever come. The PS3 launch makes the PS2 launch look sissy. No one camped out for days aheads of time where we were. In fact, we showed up at Best Buy around 11 or midnight and were chased off by security guards who said that waiting in line would be "loitering". So that's why we came back around 4 or 5. And the line never really got that long, which was good because BB didn't have that many systems. We got ours, though.

 

Chris