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Wii line report - Columbus, Ohio

by: Chuck -
More On: Wii
I managed to get up early this morning and make the 20 minute trek to my local Best Buy (Dublin, OH).  By the time I got there (around 7:00) the line was already pretty long and I was actually a little nervous that I might not get a unit.  Luckily I managed to snag ticket #75 (of 87) so I was in luck.  Best Buy actually did a pretty good job of managing the line and handed out their tickets right at 8:00.  They also let everybody know that they would only take the tickets in the order they were given out so with that everybody headed for their cars for food and some warmth. The only people who were really swamped by the line today were the staff at the Dublin McDonald's which got slammed after tickets were handed out.  Got back to the line around 8:45 (McDonald's Hot Chocolate FTW) and then got organized. 

At 9:00 sharp the folks at Best Buy let people into the store and started processing people.  As I was at the back of the line I had a bit of a wait ahead of me but it really only took about 45 minutes to get my hands on my Wii.  BB had a nice setup where you could stop by and pickup accessories as well as picking up which launch games you wanted.  The only downer of the day was that they were out of nunchuks by the time I got to the front of the line.  They did mention that they will be getting new component cables and S-Video cables in December but nothing until then. 

All said it was a pretty pleasant event and there really didn't seem to be anybody there who was going to sell their unit on eBay.  Hell, I had a 10 minute discussion about Freespace 2 with the guy behind me which was pretty damn cool.  I've got my unit hooked up and I'll have some more observations  and comments as I play through the game a bit more.  Click on the link for a few pictures I took this morning.
Pre-ticket hand out, a few people did camp out the night before.  Seems like more to be the first with the system rather than the first to hawk their unit on eBay.



Another pre-ticket handout shot, from the back of the line


A picture of my Wii ticket....there were only 12 people behind me


Post ticket re-lineup