Looking good for friday. An EB manager at 1up.com who was previously right about the PS3 date has posted in the thread there confirming that Friday is indeed the data.

He has essentially kept quiet until someone else leaks the news, and then confirms it. He was right on the PS3, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on the Wii date as well.

Good, I want to get pre-ordered and over with, so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

I've already told my family not to expect me to be to be too involved with Thanksgiving festivities due to the release

Pick up three extra wiimotes and they might not be too interested in Thanksgiving either.

I guess I can try to squeeze out of work an hour this Friday. Part of me was irritated that it's on a work/school day, but then I realized that that'll keep general traffic down and I'd be able to get out there anyway. I'll probably just make it easy and pay for the Wii and Zelda in full.. I'm still a little unsure about the other launch title I want.

I'd say play it safe and just buy zelda on launch day and wait to read impressions on the other games or to get a chance to play them yourself.

Zelda and Wiisports should keep you busy for at least a couple of weeks.

I'm always cautious with launch games as I don't like paying $50 for games period, especially launch games which tend to be mediocre as many of them are rushed to make launch.

Haha, I'll have 2, not sure if I'll be able to afford 4 at launch though.

It'll be interesting to see how many Wii's (or is the plural just Wii?) each Gamestop will have, if in fact the preorder is this friday.

I may try to go to the same Gamestop that I preordered my PS3 from, to see if we can get a comparison of launch numbers.

My Gamestop had 6 PS3's to preorder... so if the estimates are true of 400k PS3s and 1Mill Wii's... my Gamestop should have about 15 Wiis?

That will truly suck, but I guess that is possible

You know Gamestop is getting more than 6 per store, they've probably got another 10-20 lined up per store for the inevitable Playstation 3 Uranium and Playstation 3 Erection bundles. So those of you who missed out may still be able to jump in as long as you don't mind buying a few extra controllers, every launch game, some road maps and gold star stickers with it.

Gamestop/EB have never done forced bundles in store, just on there website, IIRC.

Just got back from trading in a bunch more crap at EB (GC, XBOX and 4 games).

They said they anticipate Wii preorders by the end of the week, and were told they'd find out the details with in the next 72 hours.

I've $264 in credit now, so enough to pay it in full, and already paid in full for zelda with money from selling a couple games in the trade forum here, so I'm pretty pleased as I'm now getting the Wii and Zelda with no cost out of pocket. I do need an S-video cable, so it might end up being $5-10 out of pocket assuming that runs $20.

I was forced to buy a bundle on my launch PS2 by EB. May have just been a store manager decision, but there you go. Granted this was a long time ago. BTW, I was also forced to buy a warranty and then they lived to regret it because they replaced my PS2 twice in the same year.

Anyway, I have a few more trades so I will probably take those in on Friday and get up to the $250 level as well. I'm not 100% sold on the Wii launch software, but if I can get the console without feeling like I'm spending real money I will do it. I should have some fun with Wii Sports and who knows I may decide to try and switch my prepaid Cube Zelda to the Wii version.

At least this way I don't have to sell my GameCube and component cable. I may still do it though, but I want to make sure all the old Cube games play perfectly on the Wii first.

Forgot to mention that it looks like the Gamestop and EB computers systems are finally merged as Gamestop now puts the credit on an Edge card that has both GS and EB logo's on it, and the credit is now interchangeable between stores.

From what I've heard, that was just manager decisions last go round (PS2, Xbox etc.) and was against policy and some got fired/reprimanded over it.

In the e-mail to the stores about the PS3 launch that was leaked online the other day it had a blurb about no forced bundles being permitted.

The manager I mentioned above that posts on 1up (who was right with early PS3 details the other day) has posted again saying it is Friday, and they are getting 38 units for the 19th and will get weekly shipments of Wiis starting the week of the 26th.

Sounds like these should be easy to find as expected.

I asked this in the other thread, but I guess I should ask here.

Is the Wii/extra controller/ Excite Truck and Rayman bundle an official Nintendo bundle? Two stores here (Zellers and Rogers Video, I think) are pre-ordering for that bundle. I have a pre-order in at Toys 'R Us, and I'm hoping the games are the person's choice, or are at least different than that.

Got the same story today as well. Now I have to figure out a way to get there on Friday morning to preorder. I'm up to $240 in credit so I'm ready to preorder.

It is official. It is friday. Go nintendo has a scan of a print out of the Gamestop e-mail to their stores.

http://gonintendo.com/wp-content/pho...an0s001_01.jpg

Eh. I'll walk in at Best Buy for this one.

Yeah, should be easy to get. I'm just going to preorder mainly because I have more than enough GS credit now to pay for it, and I do like the extra piece of mind of just being able to stroll in Sunday and pick it up for sure where without a preorder I'd probably at least want to hit a big box store an hour before opening.

Just saw a post by the aforementioned manager saying all EB-Gamestops can expect between 30-40 Wiis for launch, with those inside malls getting more (guess those are the higher volume stores usually).

Well, I'm in.. I'm coming in to work an hour early tomorrow so I can sneak out for an hour during the day. The Gamestop near my place is practically hidden, so I don't think I'll really need to go camp out, but I'm going to go by at about 9 AM anyway; I can grab breakfast or just play my DS until they open. My battle plan right now is to pay for the Wii and Zelda in full.. and when I pick it up next month I can drop for an extra controller set and maybe a second launch title.

Hmmm, if EB/Gamestop is geting 30-40 for launch, wonder how many every Best Buy will get, considering they are a much, much bigger store....

Well, we are the 'biggest' in terms of market share now that we have EB, but yes, Best Buy is a larger sized store

Since theres a lot less Best Buy's I'd guess 50-60, but why camp out for nothing, just reserve one and pick it up whenever.