Wii is here!

It looks like it's going to be a Wii Christmas after all. I've been combing the net looking for the next shipment date and found out that BestBuy was going to perform a second (and final) launch this morning.

Their ad (which was leaked on the internet beforehand) stated they would have no fewer than 12 units at each store so I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and made the trek to the Thousand Oaks store. Not to my surprise I saw a line already formed with about 20 people in it. I spoke with the guy in front of me and he said it was confirmed that this particular store had 60 in stock. Determined not to pull another Target (and leave the line early) I sat down and waited it out for 5 hours. The store didn't open until 10:00 a.m. but they started passing out tickets at 9:00 in the morning. I ended up being number 24, so I was guaranteed a unit. The line behind me snaked around the building and onto the parking lot, but actually most of them got a ticket as well. I only saw about 10 people leave disappointed. One determined mom was offering $100 for our ticket and eventually she found 2 buyers.

The actual purchase was rather uneventful, we were directed to a special booth that had a few Wii accessories (memory cards, cases) but nothing was offered that I wanted to buy. It turns out that the extra Wii controllers are in extreme short supply and Nintendo has them all backordered. I did overhear someone in line comment that the controllers are harder to get then the actual console. They also offered some game titles that I declined since I want to read up on the reviews before I buy any, plus I can get them on Amazon with no sales tax and free shipping. I just ended up buying the standalone unit and a 2 year warranty for $39.99.

The attached picture is my actual console, still in the box and waiting to be gift wrapped for Christmas morning. Hopefully I would have found an extra controller by then so we can play Wii Sports together.