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Midnight launch event: your launches edition
Several of you sent in your midnight launch photos, and we managed to get a tiny cross-section of this event from around the world (any players from Europe or Asia care to send your photos? we'll add them in!) -- the US, Canada, and Australia. Click on for some photos from your launch events.[Above photo courtesy of Alec Paden]
Midnight launch event: Burning Crusade, Southern style
(Picture left on a table at the mall by an unknown, presumably disgruntled Alliance rogue at the North Raleigh BC midnight sale event.) At about 11:30 p.m., I headed out to EB Games at my local mall in Raleigh, North Carolina, with an understanding and tolerant warlock friend, to pick up my Burning Crusade preorder. It was 75 degrees out today, so I took a quiet moment to gloat over people like Mike and Barb who had to brave the ice and snow to get their copies. Since I live in a fairly suburban part of town, we figured that there wouldn't be a lot of geeky folk out getting their preorders in the middle of the night. How wrong we were.
Midnight launch event: Chicago Edition
While Barb was freezing at the Pyramid Mall in upstate NY, I was freezing at the Fullerton Gamestop in Chicago. My copy of the Burning Crusade is currently winging its way to me via the fine folks at Fedex, but for you, dear readers, I went out in the snow and cold to see what there was to see at the Midwest launch of the Burning Crusade.This... is my story.
Midnight launch event: The Freezing Crusade
We braved the elements here in Ithaca, NY to join with our WoW-besotted brethren and sistren (sistren? it's a word now.) for our local launch event, and while the expansion is installing (disc 3 of 4!) we're updating you on our launch experience. Check after the break for what went down.
Gamestop holding WoW: BC midnight launch
For those who just can't wait to get their hands on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion, Gamestop will be holding at many locations a midnight launch on Jan. 16 at 12:01AM.Certain stores are planning midnight events that will include "costume contests, card game tournaments, screen-shot character judging, and more! Events will vary by location, check with your local store for more information." Yes, please check before you show up all dressed up -- unless you're into that sort of thing.[Thanks Joe]
Midnight Launch Event with Blizzard Staff
Evan writes in to tell us:"Fry's Electronics in Anaheim will be hosting a Burning Crusade midnight launch event with the Blizzard team. We will open the doors at 12:01am and will have the Team from Blizzard signing autographs. This is the same type of launch in Fountain Valley Fry's a few years back, but will be held at the Anaheim one this year."NOTE: While I haven't yet seen confirmation of this event from Blizzard, this does seem typical of the team, having also done a Warcraft III launch at Fry's in years past.If you recall the midnight launch for the original WoW release, back in November of 2004, it was quite a doozy.Are there any big midnight events in your locale? If so, share them here, so others in your area can come on out and join in the fun. Me, I'm not holding out hope for any Walmart of EB Games midnight madness here. There wasn't anything the last time, so why this time?[If you have confirmation of this midnight launch event, let us know.]
Xbox 360 launches in South Africa
If you're a gamer living in South Africa, chances are that your visual periphery was dominated this past weekend by Microsoft's Xbox 360 launch and its accompanying marketing campaign. Nearly a year after the system's first-worldwide launch, the Xbox 360 became officially available to eager shoppers at the stroke of midnight on Friday, 29 September. Playable in-store kiosks, radio advertisements, campus tournaments and vaguely sinister cardboard stands announced not only the arrival of "the next generation of gaming," but the expansion of choice.Unless you wanted to import the original Xbox or stick your hand into the awkward and tangled mess of Gamecube distribution lines, the PlayStation 2 was the only console the average gamer could reliably and affordably find in game stores. The merits of Sony's system have long since been established and it's easy to argue that South Africa got the best console out of the bunch, though "best" loses much of its meaning when it becomes interchangeable with "only." Consider for a moment how your gaming habits might be affected if two out of three consoles weren't readily available to you. For comparison's sake (and because we didn't have much else to do) we attended one of the midnight launches at BT Games (Northgate) in Johannesburg, taking care to snap pictures and generally harass people who simply wanted to pick up their pre-orders in peace. Several midnight events took place all over the country, coinciding with the beginning of rAge -- a gaming expo we'll tell you about later.
