Launch Day Stories

King of Posters
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Since it’s Switch 2 launch day, I figured I’d ask:

Anyone have any memorable launch day stories? Whether you were lining up at midnight, refreshing online carts in a panic, working retail, or just watching from the side, let’s hear them.

I’ve got two that stand out:

  • For the Dreamcast launch, I skipped my first day of school and had a friend drive me to the mall to pick mine up. That was the most money I had ever spent on something. Zero regrets.

  • For the PlayStation 2 launch, I was working at the same mall, at the same Software Etc., and it was complete chaos, lines out the door, people yelling about accessories, the whole deal. And since I was a dedicated SEGA fanboy, I spent most of that morning trying to convince people to buy a Dreamcast instead. That didn’t go over too well with my boss.

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I was visiting my friends in the city for the Resident Evil 5 launch event. They’d taken over Union Square with spotlights and a huge black tent for the event. I had to wait outside while my friends, who had the pre-orders, picked up their games from the tent. We left as the event was winding down, and some girls doing publicity for redbull, wheeling a iced barrel of redbulls, walked past us on the way back to the redbullmobile. “Take as many as you like, we’re not supposed to bring any back.”

(not my video)

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The only examples I can think of are when I went to the store to get Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy 8 on their respective release days. But there was nothing notable about those transactions.

That said, this is my favorite example of a release day event.

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my brother and i were at blockbuster at midnight in 2004 for halo 2, that’s the only time i think i’ve been present for any kind of launch

it was alright. i did and do like halo 2! hey that rhymes

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when the wii was coming out me and cossix spent the night outside a best buy playing Mario kart ds battle mode with a shit ton of people in line, and that was the only time I played Mario kart ds. it was so fucking cold and I didn’t bring a blanket so I just did dxm to stay warm

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I went to the mall on 9/9/99 (probably to get some clothes?) and remember seeing people playing the Dreamcast at EB Games and Gamefellas (a long-gone local retailer).

Me, being dumb and 12, excitedly asked a guy in line if he was buying Sonic Adventure and MK4 Gold. “No, I’m returning them, third time today, this shit doesn’t work.”

Fun way to find out about those bad pressings.

Anyway I remember seeing people playing NFL 2K and nodding solemnly and thinking to myself, “This is it, this is as good as games will ever look.”

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a console at launch though, now that I’m thinking about it. I guess I got a PS4 Pro but I just…picked that up after work at Best Buy, to replace my PS4. That’s…boring.

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I’ve never bought any thing immediately upon its release in my entire life but the only launch story I remember is Tim’s (apocryphal?) story of the nerd at the head of the FF13 (12?) release line at the launch event in Tokyo being asked how he felt being first and him immediately muttering into the microphone “please release final fantasy 7 for the playstation 3” and shuffling away.

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Every console launch there would be someone who would buy a console then unbox it in front of people waiting only to destroy it on film and then try to go viral. I always thought these were really mean spirited and stupid.

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I had a co-worker who was either a gamer but not a Gamer, or a Gamer but not a gamer. I’ve never decided on which. He’d like like 4 games a year, NBA, NFL, and then a shooter. One time he was recounting to me how incredible Ghost Recon Wildlands is because you can select eat food from a menu, and your guy eats food.

He had been telling me how he always used to go to the midnight release for NBA and always hated it. The mall was closed, so security would have to escort people to the gamestop. You’d be waiting in a line for an hour, sometimes there would be fights, and then you have to take a cab back home in the middle of the night. But he figured out a trick: turns out if you go on the store on your console you can buy the game digitally, have it download to your console automatically, and then just start playing it without ever having to deal with the line. He was thrilled.

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9/9/99 I went to the mall at 5AM to pick up my preordered Dreamcast and a copy of Powerstone.

I was stoked at how big the crowd was but a lot of them were there to pick up FF8.

I skipped work and class that day to play.

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My friend Zach and I went around on Wii launch day morning in Chicago after what I have to assume had been an extended night of heavy drinking. We saw many big lines outside the expected places and felt a bit pessimistic on whether we would get our new toys that day. It was then that I remembered where I, as a guy of odd size, would buy my pants. The Sears in Portage Park, nobody will think to go there.

Hyper local newspaper man Brian Nadig has claimed 99,000 people showed up to that same store on its opening day 68 years prior to our arrival, and we were first to arrive less than an hour before opening that morning. Maybe a dozen other people showed up. We shared some satisfying laughter as to our luck and ingenuity. They had all come to the same conclusion and we were all geniuses.

That store closed in 2018. It has been since torn down and was rebuilt into what appears to be empty condos.

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in 1995 I saved up money all summer from mowing lawns to buy a PS1 on launch day. I was gonna buy a saturn, but then they surprise launched it at E3 when I had no money, and all my favorite video game magazines said the launch games sucked. the ps1 didn’t launch with much either, but the ‘launch window’ had twisted metal and colony wars and wipeout and those all looked great! I should’ve bought jumping flash! instead I bought mortal kombat 3, I was and remain a fighting game guy and I loved MK in those years. I eventually bought twisted metal over wipeout. I don’t remember the PS1 launch itself at all! oh well

on 9/9/99 I waited in line at gamestop with my preorder ticket to buy the dreamcast, and I felt cool because the dreamcast was cool. I bought soul calibur over sonic adventure, because I was and remain a fighting game guy. DC soul calibur remains in my eyes the best console version of an arcade game ever released, maybe the best console launch game ever, and one of my favorite fighting games. prior to launch, hollywood video had a dreamcast rental program. my friend and I rented that with sonic adventure, but you didn’t get a VMU so you couldn’t save the game. we just kept the dreamcast on for two days to try to beat the game. we didn’t, but we came pretty close.

final fantasy 8 was also released on 9/9/99 and I can’t actually remember if I bought it that day with my dreamcast or not. I do remember prioritizing the dreamcast because it was cool and deep in my heart I was a sega man

in 2000 PS2 fever was in the air. there were news stories about upcoming stock shortages. I wasn’t gonna buy one because it was killing the dreamcast already and I was a sega man at heart, but I got swept up in the fervor. I think I struck some kind of deal with my dad to try to nab one, I don’t remember how that worked, but we went to a local target to try to get in line. the line eventually overflowed and filled the entire parking lot. the employees came outside with a big ladder and a megaphone to try to shout out raffle ticket numbers. I felt like this was kind of gross, what were we all doing, what had the millennium done to my fried little consumer brain? we lost the raffle I guess, cause I didn’t get a PS2. I did have one by the time FFX came out, though, what a shit game.

in 2001 I sat in line with my friend at a different target to buy a gamecube. I wasn’t even buying one! I hung out in line anyway for some reason. this was a much more chill line, it was mostly only full with The Gamers. I remember golden sun being involved here, maybe my friend was playing it in line, or some other guy was, or some other guy was waiting in line to buy that instead. I don’t remember, but I do remember we talked about golden sun and rpgs with that other guy. I got a gamecube later for smash melee, because I was and remain a fighting game guy. I played melee a lot a lot with my friends, but I didn’t own the game and they did, so I was falling behind. I needed to Grind.

the last time I ever stood in line at a store for a release of a video game or an anything was world of warcraft wrath of the lich king. I was deep in it at that point. I waited in the midnight line at a gamestop with my friend who got me into wow. he had quit by that point, but he was coming back for wotlk because he thought arthas was very cool. there were a lot of people like that, it’s why everyone remembers wrath. I could not play with my friend because at that point I had transferred servers to play in a high end guild. we were gonna push that week for as close to world first as we could get. I knew I was a nerd and an idiot and an addict, but in that line I felt cool, because these were all wow junkies and you could bet your ass none of them were in a guild like that. we ended up somewhere between world 15 and 20

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I just realized the Switch 2 is the first console I’ve purchased on launch day. Aside from handhelds, the PS5 and the Switch 2 are the only consoles I’ve ever bought new instead of used or refurbished. (And I hadn’t bought a new handheld since DS Lite.)

Anyway, so my launch day story is that I was cackling about Elon Musk calling Donald Trump a pedophile and then UPS knocked on my door and my Switch 2 was sitting outside but then I had to go back inside and finish my work day. I set up my Switch 2 and tested Tears of the Kingdom on it and then went back to my PS5 and played Nightreign.

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I’m excited to get back into Tears of the Kingdom. I beat the main game but I have a lot to cover in the Depths still.

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I don’t have any interesting launch day stories really from the brief PS2-Gamecube-XBox era where I cared enough to grab a game that early but I did drive from Baltimore to Philly with my younger brother and three friends to a ‘Nintendo Cube Club’ in October 2001 (wouldn’t have been able to remember exactly when but according to this IGN article from September of that year)

Nintendo Cube Clubs Rock the Nation

Experience GameCube in the ultimate “hip” setting with Nintendo Cube clubs across the nation.

Have you ever been raving and getting your groove on in a hip club and wondered, “I sure could go for a game of Super Smash Bros. right now to break this monotony”? In lieu of such notions Nintendo has decided to promote the launch of Nintendo GameCube with what it is calling “interactive clubs.” The Nintendo Cube Clubs will offer consumers the chance to go hands on with titles like Luigi’s Mansion, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Pikmin, Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2, and Super Smash Bros. Melee and others.

All across the nation Nintendo Cube Clubs will transform quiet warehouse lofts and vacant retail space into groove central. With 32" Panasonic HDTVs (featuring progressive scan for a crystal clear picture), surround sound audio systems, intense club lighting, VIP “cube” rooms, and a dance floor with DJs spinning the Cube Clubs will be the place to be when it hits a major city near you. Once inside the club, you will have a chance to win a “cubistically correct” Nintendo gaming environment with a total redesign of your living room. Cube Club ravers can enter the “Play It on Panasonic” sweepstakes for a chance to win a Panasonic Tau PureFlat HDTV Monitor home theatre sound system creating the perfect setting to play GameCube.

If you’re interested in getting a home theatre experience as good as Nintendo has set up in the clubs, “Cubistic Counselors” from Panasonic will be on-site with additional information on Panasonic products that will enhance your GameCube experience. If you see them, give them a shout and find out how you can be “cubistically correct.”

Peter Main, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Nintendo, clarifies why Nintendo chose a club setting saying, “A traditional truck tour is too pedestrian for the unparalleled entertainment of Nintendo GameCube and for the players who want to play it, Our clubs will immerse people in a multi-sensory experience, with sights and music pumping out of high-end digital audio and video equipment and, of course, the best games on the planet available only for Nintendo.”

The Cube Clubs will be unfolding in 12 major cities over the course of a seven-week period, starting at the end of this September and running into the middle of November when GameCube launches. To accommodate as many cities as possible Nintendo will run three tours concurrently and will be in “each market” for 10 days. Presumably “each market” indicates the region of the United States.

The Nintendo Cube Club tour will set up camp in the following cities:

  • September 28 to October 6 – Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles
  • October 11 to October 20 – Philadelphia, Detroit, Phoenix
  • October 25 to November 3 – Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco
  • November 8 to November 17 – New York, Dallas, Seattle

Worried about the music? MTV will be the exclusive sponsor of the Nintendo Cube Club launch preview party in Los Angeles and the Launch Countdown party in New York City. Panasonic will be the exclusive electronics partner to best demonstrate GameCube’s graphical power. The tour will further be co-sponsored by Stuff magazine, Yahoo! and DC Comics, among others.

Specific dates, times, and locations will be available online at NintendoGameCube.com, Nintendo’s forthcoming GCN website. Once on the site, internet goers can sign up for Nintendo Cube Club tickets. We recommend you pick one up as soon as they are available.

Cube on the Go
If you can’t make it to the clubs, fear not. Nintendo will be dispatching “human interactives” similar to when it launched GBA. Mobile GameCube humanoids (well, that’s what we’re calling them) will have portable flat-screen monitors attached to the front of their bodies, as well as a GameCube, giving consumers the chance to play the console right then and there. So when a sweaty, purple mass comes wobbling up to you as you walk out of the music store don’t be alarmed. It could be your first chance to play GameCube, and you’ll be able to have that experience directly above a stranger’s crotch or buttocks (err…depending on where that flat screen is attached). The humanoids will be visiting local malls, movie theatres, and other popular hangouts. While there the GamCube humanoids will distribute tickets to the nearest nightly Cube Club.

Finally gamers will have the chance to win other exciting prizes and items at NintendoGameCube.com where you’ll be challenged to answer the question, “What would you do for a Nintendo GameCube?” [On a side note, we sympathize with Klondike Bars for having their catch phrase butchered.] These contests and more will be running throughout September and October where Nintendo promises that anything could happen.

So there you have it Cube Fans. This is the “Nintendo Difference,” and the first sign of the company’s attempt to hype its next-generation console. Even if Nintendo isn’t serving alcohol at the Cube Clubs it’s still above and beyond the “kiddy” scene, which so many adult GameCube fanatics were worried Nintendo would only cater to.

Expect IGNcube to report from several Cube Club locations. We’ll just have to cover as many of the club scenes as possible. Anything else would be uncivilized. [IGNcube also apologizes to Right Guard for butchering its tagline.]

it was OK and kinda underwhelming. no Mario or Zelda. Star Fox Adventures had impressive graphics (the grass shader, I can still picture the first time I laid eyes on that grass shader) it was Rareware, and all that Dinosaur Planet development had me interested but not a terribly exciting play sesh. Rogue Squadron was strikingly pretty too, maybe the most fun to play…I don’t remember Pikmin or Smash Bros. and I liked the N64 one a bit but something about the 'cube one even though I did play it plenty weirded me out…the look and feel of it…

anyway, I never saw one of the “Mobile GameCube humanoids” in the wild, that woulda been weird!

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the only memorable launch day that seems worth mentioning to me was when i got a Wii. i hadn’t preordered one, i wasn’t sure if i wanted one, but at the last minute a freelance games journalist friend of mine invited me and another friend to go “cover the launch” at the NYC Nintendo Store with him.

and so since i was technically press that night, we all skipped the line and went in to buy our Wiis. i remember a bunch of old NYC game “scene” people were there waiting in line, like this guy who legally changed his middle name to “Triforce” - although i think he’s canceled now for being a creep or something. my memory of him was he was kind of obnoxious. idk, i don’t feel like i see guys like this around anymore.

pretty much every other launch day i’ve been a part of was uneventful or just like, i went into the store to pick up my copy and then walked out.

i do remember the day Mortal Kombat 2 came out, though. i went to the mall and was basically just loitering outside of the Electronics Boutique for a couple hours until they decided to start letting people pick up their preorders. those were the early days of preodering, so i guess it was a bit more up to the store as to how they handled that stuff.

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