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Wii

The Wii Hits the UK 116

Posted by Zonk from the with-a-wiimote-to-the-face dept.
Gamespot is reporting on the Wii's launch in Britain. As with the U.S. launch, things seem to have gone quite smoothly. Celebrities and very long lines of gamers marked the occasion, with one store giving out pizza, merchandise, and champaign to their customers. From the article: "At Nintendo's official event in HMV on Oxford Street, celebrities Ian Wright, Nell McAndrew, Pat Cash, and Ricky Hatton turned up to play Wii Sports. Cash and McAndrew played Wii Tennis, with Cash winning two games to zero. Wright and Hatton sparred at Wii Boxing, with the ex-footballer winning the virtual game against the boxer. Heba Elgamal, who had been camping outside the store in an alley for two days, was first in line for a console at the HMV store, and it was presented to him by Ian Wright. Elgamal bought The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess with his purchase, and Wright asked him if Zelda was a fighting game--which didn't go down well with the crowd. " Errr ... who is Ian Wright? And how has he never heard of Zelda?
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The Wii Hits the UK More

The Wii Hits the UK

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  • lol spelling (Score:1, Informative)

    by bassgoonist ( 876907 )
    giving out champaign

  • Wrighty (Score:5, Informative)

    by mike260 ( 224212 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @02:40AM (#17159372)
    Errr ... who is Ian Wright? And how has he never heard of Zelda?

    He's an ex-footballer. He's never heard of Zelda in the same way the poster's never heard of Ian Wright.

    • Re:Wrighty (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Peter Cooper ( 660482 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @04:11AM (#17159816) Homepage Journal
      Not only that, but an ex international football player. He is probably better known across the world than any American football player (I must admit, I can't name a single one).

      • Re:Wrighty (Score:4, Funny)

        by servognome ( 738846 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @12:30PM (#17164074)
        He is probably better known across the world than any American football player

        Better known than Michael Jordan?!!

        •         He is probably better known across the world than any American football player

          Better known than Michael Jordan?!!

          Seriously dude, watch SportsCenter just once a year.

          PS - Ditto for the guy who modded him up.
          • Seriously dude, watch SportsCenter just once a year.

            Sorry, My sarcasm tags weren't working... I did find it funny that I got modded up though.
      • He is probably better known across the world than any American football player (I must admit, I can't name a single one).

        Given a few minutes to rack my brain, I could probably come up with a few. They had a fairly decent run in the World Cup in the summer, after all, so I'd have heard quite a few names of American footballers over the course of the tournament...

      • Come on, "the fridge" was on a television program (they think it's all over) as the "guess the sportsman" entry once.

        And did John Madden ever play american football? His name has been in every video game shop for years and years, due to EA sports. So thats at least two american football players that foreigners might have heard of.

        Of course Ian Wright is hardly in the same fame league as David Beckham or Gary Lineker.

    • Re:Wrighty (Score:5, Funny)

      by Mika_Lindman ( 571372 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @04:43AM (#17159948)
      He's an ex-footballer. He's never heard of Zelda in the same way the poster's never heard of Ian Wright.

      Football? What's that? But nevermind that, I still can't believe someone doesn't know Zelda! Don't they teach you anything at school these days?

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by JohnSearle ( 923936 )
        Don't they teach you anything at school these days?
        My illiteracy strikes again! I don't know what you've said. I've never been taught how to read!

        - John

        [Dictated by JohnSearle]
    • heh, didnt know you brits played football. always took you for rugby people.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by malsdavis ( 542216 ) *
        "heh, didnt know you brits played football. always took you for rugby people."

        Uh, yea we do. Not only did we invent the game but the FA premier league is the most watched and most lucrative sporting league in the world (according to numerous sources including http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FA_Premier_League [wikipedia.org]).

        So we do all waste a hell of a lot of our time and cash playing and watching it. ...doesn't seem to stop the national team from being crap though :(

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by minus_273 ( 174041 )
          ah, over here people tend to waste most of their time on the national football league. Not too many games in a season though, roughly once a week. College is really big too.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by empaler ( 130732 )

      Errr ... who is Ian Wright? And how has he never heard of Zelda?

      He's an ex-footballer. He's never heard of Zelda in the same way the poster's never heard of Ian Wright.
      The difference being that Zonk isn't paid to have anything to do with soccer players (as far as I know), but Ian Wright was paid to be at the friggin' launch of the friggin' N-consoles with friggin' laser beams attached to the friggin' players.

      • The difference being that Zonk isn't paid to have anything to do with soccer players (as far as I know)

        No, but he *is* paid to read (and therefore edit) his own summaries.
        From the summary - (with the important text highlighted for the benefit of those who cant make it through an entire paragraph)

        Gamespot is reporting on the Wii's launch in Britain [CC]. As with the U.S. launch, things seem to have gone quite smoothly. Celebrities and very long lines of gamers marked the occasion, with one store giving

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by gzunk ( 242371 )
          Ah but it didn't actually name who won, If you didn't know either, then you might have thought that Ricky Hatton was the footballer and Ian Wright was the boxer.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by BiggyP ( 466507 )
      *psst*, you can't say that, it's "Soccer player", otherwise you'll only confuse the Americans further.
    • >He's an ex-footballer

      By that, people of America, to clear up any confusion, we mean soccer.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jZnat ( 793348 ) *
        Since I've never heard of an NFL player (or any other minor leagues) being referred to as a "footballer", I assumed he was referring to soccer/football.
  • Is a ex-footballer, now minor sleb. Probably never heard of Zelda as he's not a gamer.
  • "It's also great to see so many girl gamers in the queue. I think one in 10 was a girl gamer."
  • Delivered by courier only 20mins ago, if only I didn't have to work! Still at least I didn't have to camp out in the bitter cold for well, days ;)

    Unfortunately, my experience of getting additional controllers has been rather less easy. Preordered from play.com just after they put them up for preorder and have been told they don't have enough nunchucks, classic controllers, component cables, wii motes or copies of wii play to fill even one out of my order of 3 nunchucks, 2 classic, 1 component, 2 wii motes,
    • I preordered my Wii from PC World a month before release, and so far, no Wii. I was operating under the assumption that they might be one of the less well-frequented retails, and was encouraged to see them closing off preorders after I ordered, expecting that this was a sign of honest pre-allocation rules. To be fair, Nintendo have been shipping short orders to the UK.

      They are now listing the expected release date on my order as 31st January.... I really, really hope they are just being pessimistic to cover
      • Sorry to hear you had so much bad luck. This is how it worked for me in Cologne, Germany: I walked into "Saturn", a big electronics store that opens at 10 o'clock like all of them, by 10:15 (I overslept). A couple of guys in the Wii section, six consoles left on a pallet. I picked one. No sweat, no queue, when I headed to the checkout, there where four left and noone rushing to grab them.

        I was quite surprised and very lucky, I guess. It is the head store of the chain, so they obviously got a few more system

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
          Interesting, I'd have expected Saturn to give them all to preorderers (on the XBox 360 launch I saw Media Markt tell preorderers that they didn't have enough units while the Karstadt a block away had six boxes with noone near them). Even the Karstadt in my town was preordered out. Didn't bother to check in the nearest city since by then I had ruled out Zelda as a Wii purchase (I'll ge the GC version) which left me with no desire for a Wii. Checking eBay tells me they're going at retail price there so even i

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by xtracto ( 837672 )
        I preordered my Wii from PC World a month before release, and so far, no Wii. I was operating under the assumption that they might be one of the less well-frequented retails, and was encouraged to see them closing off preorders after I ordered, expecting that this was a sign of honest pre-allocation rules. To be fair, Nintendo have been shipping short orders to the UK.

        Ha! I preordered mine at COMET, yesterday the motherfuckers called me to tell me that Nintendo had moved the release date to the 11th. Inside

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Xest ( 935314 ) *
        Don't know if you'll see this in time but I just got the following e-mail from Amazon.co.uk:

        Dear Nintendo fan,

        Great news! We've managed to get our hands on some more Wii consoles and will be putting them on sale between 3pm and 4pm today (Friday, December 8). Last time we sold out in 7 minutes and we expect this batch to go even more quickly.

        So if you read it in time you've got 45mins to get to Amazon.co.uk and start site camping ;)
    • I got my Wii from Play.com as well and had it delivered TO work. We're pretty much writing this afternoon off. No extra controllers OR Zelda off Play though - all back-ordered. Amazon.co.uk still had Zelda so I've ordered from there.

      That Wii boxing has to be the best stress reliever since internet porn.

    • Still plenty in au, not flying of the shelves

      Prices $388 to $395, lots of stock.

      Not even one person watching the store demo either, but a few kids playing 360s in stores.

  • Supplies (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pryonic ( 938155 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @03:59AM (#17159760)
    There's been a lot of talk on the net and on TV about supplies not being sufficient to even fulfil preorders let alone allow non-preorders to buy. I enquired at a few of the big name stores (HMV, Virgin and Game) and was told no chance.

    By chance on my way home (Newcastle upon Tyne) I walked passed a local games store, not owned by a big chain. I asked and they said they'll have 5 available and to try back in the morning. I arrived an hour before they opened, queued and got my hands on the 2nd Wii.

    Moral of the story: its worth trying local and less well known places, they're often a safer bet!
    • I work in toon, which shop was this?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pryonic ( 938155 )
        Grainger Games on Nunn Street. They sold out as soon as they opened though. I didnt think I'd get one only getting there 30 mins before they opened. Guess I was just lucky.

        • Slashdotted ! (Score:3, Funny)

          by alexhs ( 877055 )

          Grainger Games on Nunn Street.
          Noooo ! You criminal ! You just slashdotted the shop and the whole town at the same time ! :)
    • I ordered at Woolworths where the site said they guaranteed delivery in the week of release. When I enquired about this they said I'd definitely receive it by the 9th. Received an email on the 6th saying they haven't received the amount of stock they were expecting, and it seems I'll be lucky if I get one before Christmas. Hopefully they'll honour their guarantee in some way. It seems it's quite a few stores that are affected. My friend is in charge of the Wii launch at the local Currys (big electrical ret

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by duguk ( 589689 )
        I ordered mine from Woolworths as well, same problem here. They've sent out the Wii Play pack (which I'm off to go pick up now and install the Wii Bluetooth Windows Mouse driver deeley), but I'm still hoping for delivery from Woolworths before Chrimbo, as they've said it SHOULD arrive before then.

        Luckily it isn't a present for anyone except myself but I'm still going to whinge! I ordered it on the 22nd so probably a bit later on in the list than you. I'm still hopeful though. Apparently my Monkey Ball is s

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by lukas84 ( 912874 )
      I live in Switzerland, were the Wii launched at December the 7th (as today is a holiday).

      I preordered about a Month ago, and got my Wii delivered at December the 7th, 08:37. I paid the regular price.

      Now i'm done checking my email, and back to zelda.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tom ( 822 )
      Problem with the small places is that they get only a small number. One local store here had all of 3 units. The store across the street from where I queued had taken pre-orders - and their initial shipment didn't suffice to cover _those_, word was that half of the _next_ shipment would also still go to cover the pre-orders.
    • There's been a lot of talk on the net and on TV about supplies not being sufficient to even fulfil preorders let alone allow non-preorders to buy. I enquired at a few of the big name stores (HMV, Virgin and Game) and was told no chance.

      The only question I would have is was this a problem caused by Nintendo (shipping less units than they planned on) or caused by the Stores (by taking pre-orders without knowing they would be getting a system). From my very limited understanding, most problems caused by people
  • Have fun guys. Good luck getting a console at launch and spending some time with it. Myself, my brother, and friends agree this is the most fun we've had with a console since the SNES. Don't forget to order some component cables though, it makes a pretty big difference if you're running an HDTV.

  • Enough already! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by gbridge ( 746125 )

    very long lines of gamers
    We call them queues over here. Quit the American lingo, dude!

  • Swiss launch (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SpaghettiPattern ( 609814 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @04:52AM (#17159984)
    Yesterday was Swiss Wii launch too. Very orederly. Very planned. Very Swiss. Very boring.

    I preordered my Wii and had to wait a full 10 seconds before being served. Couldn't get a second Wii Remote though which is a must.

    Judging from the configuration screens the Wii seems to have an optional LAN adpater which I would favour over WiFi.

  • Come bust a move where the games are played... (Score:4, Funny)

    by monktus ( 742861 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @05:45AM (#17160182)
    "Nintendo UK's product manager for home consoles, Rob Lowe..."


    Working with Noah's Arcade all those years ago has finally paid off.

  • I picked mine up this morning. I had a preorder, and got mine without trouble. There were none for sale not preordered.

    I'm pleased with it so far, though there has been a massive shortage of accessories as seems usual for Nintendo on launch.

    GAME (the store where I got mine) had no separate Wiimotes at all, and only a very limited number of the ones packed in with Wii Play. They were also very limited in extra nunchuks and classic controllers.

    They also didn't have any additional cables at all, so I'm stuck w
    • I walked to Game in Leeds at 6:30am for a 7am opening.. was 7th in the queue and seemingly the first person without a pre-order. Walked up, asked for a Wii, considered laughing, didn't, paid and walked to work. Now I have 3 hours to wait till I go home.
    • It's odd in the US as well. I've had my system for several weeks now and still can't find controllers, cables etc. I do however see plenty of all of the above for the PS3 at all the same stores. Perhaps it's because Sony didn't produce enough systems to swallow up all the after-market stuff or what - but it's getting annoying.
      • I preordered an additional Wiimote, but it took three weeks before I could find anything else. I still haven't gotten my classic that I preordered.
  • A Tesco Extra store in Swansea had 27 people queue inside the store in the Non-food department, they were given chairs while they waited until it was 12am. One person had been there since 5pm in order to be first.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by teslar ( 706653 )
      they were given chairs while they waited until it was 12am
      Well, as they say - every little helps :)

  • Germany Launch (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tom ( 822 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @06:39AM (#17160396) Homepage Journal
    Not only the UK, all of Europe had the launch today.

    I was at the local Saturn (large electronics chain in Germany) at about 8:50 - they open at 9:30. This specific shop is the largest electronics shop in Germany (or Europe? I forgot - anyway, it's huge). So I was confident that they would get enough units.

    So were many others. At 8:50 I was about 100th in line. At about 9:15 the line had grown to maybe twice that. Someone near to me had a friend who knew one of the employees and had just called him on his cell phone, he said they had about 200 units, so at that point I was fairly confident I'd get one.
    Lots of pedestrians asked us in the line what this was about, if there was anything for free. :-)

    Shortly after, employees from the shop moved along the line and told the crowd that the entire console section had been chained off, and to remain calm and organised and - what I especially welcomed - that anyone pushing or making trouble would be expelled immediately.

    At 9:30 exactly they opened the door, the line moved in. Some pushing and running, but mostly a very well-behaved crowd - most live music gigs don't go as smoothly. Another half hour wait because they only let us into the chained off console section one-by-one. Was ok, we had some fun in the line cracking jokes, etc.

    I got mine, back at the checkout I see a large crowd with sad faces leaving the store, figure that was when they had sold out. But no trouble, no aggressiveness.

    Interesting fact: More women in the line then I had expected. Quite a few older people, though probably a good part of them were buying for their kids. Very friendly staff, friendly non-hostile people in the crowd.

    This was the first game console I've ever bought, and the first time ever that I've waited in line for some consumer gimmick at launch day. But it was a thrilling experience.

    Downside: At least in my store they didn't have the extra remotes, the only way to get one was to buy the Wiimote+Wii-Play bundle. And they didn't have Rampage! Damn.

    Now I'm here at work, and have to wait another 4-5 hours before I can get home. Damn. :-)
    • You were at Saturn Hansaring in Cologne? Because that was where I got at 10:15. Six Wiis left on the pallet, no line, no land-rush in sight, must have cleared off fast enough. When I left a couple minutes later, there were still four left.
  • We've been trying to hunt down a Wii since 7 this morning. They're all gone - I passed a half dozen stores, each of which had a very harrased looking person explaining that they'd run out and try back next friday.

    As ever, Nintendo launch a new console in the EU to the sound of "Oh for fucksakes! FUCKING NINTENDO EUROPE!!!".

    • As ever, Nintendo launch a new console in the EU to the sound of "Oh for fucksakes! FUCKING NINTENDO EUROPE!!!".

      Well at least we have consoles in the first place (*glances in the general Sony direction).

      And we have them barely 6 days after Japan, which means that for the first time ever Europe can experience out-of-stock-the-day-of-launch launches.

      Not to mention that they should restock every 3 days or so (i was told that -- in some french outlets at least -- there would be restocks on the 12th, 15th a

    • ...supplies are in limited quantity in the States too. I waited in a long line the night before release and got one of the few that were around. I imagine they'll be enough by January though.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Thraxen ( 455388 )
      It's the same here in the US. Even a couple weeks after launch you still can't find any Wii's on store shelves. All the controllers are also hard to find, though I did happen to walk into EB Games yesterday (to buy Portrait of Ruin for DS) just as they were unpacking new shipments of all of them. I have a Wii, but didn't buy any of the controllers. So far I just have Zelda and Wii sports. Zelda only needs one controller and the only game my wife and I reguarly play on Wii sports is Bowling... and it ca
  • I'm still waiting for parcel force to deliver my wii, I have been waiting to try out the controller on the pc but all I have is the nunchuk controller they delivered.

    Nice of them to deliver the part of the Wii I can not use.

  • Also in the news (Score:3, Funny)

    by mmalove ( 919245 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @10:48AM (#17162698)
    Television sales skyrocket as the new "Oopswii phenomenon" strikes the UK...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by BenjyD ( 316700 )
      It looks like most Wii remotes in Europe shipped with the new thicker strap string. Unfortunately only one of my two remotes has the new strap.

  • No Way! (Score:3, Funny)

    by mqduck ( 232646 ) <{mqduck} {at} {mqduck.net}> on Friday December 08, 2006 @10:53AM (#17162742)
    Wright and Hatton sparred at Wii Boxing, with the ex-footballer winning the virtual game against the boxer.


    They have football in England now?!
    • They have football in England now?!

      Of course we do, we invented the game. We even have American Football [bafl.org.uk]. It's not very popular though; few Britons can manage to eat non-stop for three hours.

  • I pre-ordered at Gamestation, walked in at 9:30 bought the Wii, found out they had no extra Wiimotes, so I walked to Game and bought Wii Play with the extra Wiimote, and another Nunchuck. No problem at all. Nobody apart from pre-orders were getting Wii's though.
  • The Wii Hits the UK
    ..Due to Broken Wrist Strap
  • But Nintendo Europes internal launch seemed to be kind of chaotic (nothing more to expect from a company whose website only lists 7 european countries as countries where they accept registrations for for the consoles)

    The funy thing is. I walked into the store at opening time, it was a rather huge electronics market, and they had about 20-30 consoles, 3 minutes after opening half of them have been gobbled up by students. No significant waiting line upfront however. Zelda instantly was sold out while most
    • I almost forgot, reports from germany and also from the local store I went in seemed to indicate that the stores only were getting a fraction of the intended number of consoles.

      No component cables were sold, and the wiimote only was buyable in combination with wii games (which is nice but not really worth the price)

      Another sidenote, I just wonder how Nintendo europe wants to handle the whole wiipoints thing. As for now and this has been a nuisance for years now, Nintendo europe only accepts user regis

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