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GDC09: If the BART's a rockin' ...
After departing the rather subdued first day of GDC 2009, we were reminded that gaming is everywhere -- even your friendly neighborhood BART station agent booth. Either the employee who was so proudly displaying their purchase in the middle of San Francisco's Powell Street station absolutely, positively had to pick up Rock Band 2 while on the clock, or they couldn't pass up the 50% off, going-out-of-business sale at the Virgin Megastore across the street.If it wasn't for our sheer exhaustion -- we said it was subdued, we didn't say it wasn't exhausting -- we would have gone bargain shopping ourselves at the store. Who knows, maybe we could have scored a few copies of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand for ... wait for it ... 50-percent off. Witness the sad sign of our crumbling economy after the break.
Yeah, we met Kojima in Times Square
Hideo Kojima stopped by New York City's Virgin Megastore in TImes Square to meet and greet fans at the Metal Gear Solid 4 launch. We got a number of signed copies ... maybe one will go to a lucky reader (if we feel generous enough!). Check out our gallery below, or some highlights, after the cut. Gallery: Metal Gear Solid 4 launch in Times Square
PS3 Fanboy is live at the MGS4 Times Square launch event
If you can't make it to the big Metal Gear Solid 4 event in Times Square (or any of Gamestop's midnight launches, for that matter), our fine friends at PS3 Fanboy are live at the event right now, uploading pictures to share the experience with you. Go check it out.
Phil Harrison did his part to hype up the Euro launch
Making an appearance at the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street, Phil Harrison gave a speechy-speech about the importance of the European market and how he gets all warm and fuzzy inside to see people waiting to get their greasy claws on the see-every-piece-of-dust-and-fingerpint PlayStation 3. We'll just list his quotes that were worthwhile. Why? ...Because. Every speech has highs and lows, you know? "The fact that we've got the launch here with more consoles shipped on day one that we've ever had in our history is a compliment to the importance of the European market." Well, the extra months to stockpile the Emotionless PS3's probably helped! "I've seen PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 launched on Oxford Street but this is the most meaningful for me personally, because I think it's so important not just for our industry but for UK consumers - the fact that they're going to get the best machine with the best software support, the most Network service and the firmware update." Eh, give or take on the software support and network service. But yeah, the PS3 definitely has the firmware update! "They had to wait, and I feel really bad about that. But I'm hoping we can make it up to them with the quality of software that we've got coming out." He refers to HOME and LittleBigPlanet, insisting their announcement was coincidental and not meant to build up some European launch steam. "The fact that people are prepared to invest their time, their money and their passion in queueing up to be part of a launch is great - and it kind of makes all the hard work worthwhile. It's not just for people in the UK, it's for the guys in Japan who make the hardware, it's for the people who make the software, and the thousands of people who are part of the PlayStation story." Aww, that's a nice note to end on. We're part of a story! That's about all he said that we're going to mention. Actually, we didn't leave all that much out. Did anyone go to the Oxford Street launch? Was he there in person or was it a video or something? Not sure how that works since Georgia isn't the biggest attraction for important corporation personalities.
Police concerned about impending UK PS3 launch
The PS3 is launching on Friday, March 23rd in Europe, and Virgin Megastore's flagship Oxford Street store will be home to a midnight launch--something that has the police worried. A spokesperson for Marylebone Police has told GamesIndustry.biz that there are "genuine concerns" about the safety of shoppers attending the launch.The American launch of the PS3 was wrought with violence, including shootings, and various robberies. The Virgin Megastore launch will pose a few unique problems for police, as it is situated on a narrow stretch of pavement nearby busy tube and bus stops. Because crowd barricades will not be possible, the police are advising shoppers to take extra caution: "We don't want people walking around London with expensive pieces of equipment late at night. We want Oxford Street to be vibrant and successful, but we don't want victims of crime."Eurogamer is offering a few (obvious) tidbits for those willing to camp out for the midnight launch: don't bring cash, have a cell phone, bring a friend, and take a cab back home. Good luck to all of you that are going to attempt a midnight launch.
NYC Virgin Megastore dominated by 360
360 Fanboy reader, Nick, sent us some pictures he took of the New York City Virgin Megastore's revamped videogame section (and a few shots of the HD DVD drive at Circuit City). Looking at the pictures, it seems like the 360 practically is the videogame section. Our tipster points out that there are six(!) demo kiosks and that the 360 has most of the prime shelf space -- note the 360 themed pillars in the above image. We'd like to see some shots of the competition for comparison, but either way, this is a mighty impressive showing for Microsoft's white box. To be fair, this doesn't mean that Virgin prefers the 360. More likely, the company knows that 360s will actually be in stock this holiday and hopes to sell as many as possible. It's a subject that's been beaten to death, but the sell out nature of the PS3 and Wii means that plenty of 360 purchases will be made by desperate gift givers.Has anyone else been to this store? Send us some pictures of the Sony and Nintendo sections, and we'll post 'em.[Thanks, Nick]
"Just press the green button", I said
"Just press the green button" Oh, those fateful little words. How naive I was to think that they wouldn't affect the ability that my sister was soon to display in a casual game of Rockstar's Table Tennis.
