The announcement of Halo: Reach’s launch date has immediately been felt in my diary. The day is booked off work, any thoughts of a proposed holiday to New York have been pushed back a week, and a trip down to see my brother has already been arranged. If there’s one thing I will move heaven and earth to attend, it’s a Halo midnight launch with my sibling.
Our last one was for ODST’s release, where we merrily trotted into the centre of Cheltenham to join the rest of the “crowd” which we found assembled outside GAME. There were students, hardcore fans, people of a similar ilk and age to us, and an amusing smattering of parents with small children in tow, not only flouting the 18 certificate but apparently under the control of their offspring so much that they were shopping at this ungodly hour. It was a strange experience in itself as everyone was obviously there for the same reason; you felt you could talk to anyone as you were all linked by a common bond. After picking up the coveted discs we skipped home, chugged energy drinks and powered through the campaign in gleeful co-op until the sun rose and reminded us that we probably should get some sleep before doing it all again on Legendary.
In fact, my last one was my only one. Despite all my years of playing video games I have – barring Halo – never felt the urge to put the poor souls who man the shop through the obvious pain of being forced to stop up well past their bed time. With ODST, we may have been in and buying at midnight, but the speed at which the staff rattled us through the tills and the shop was shut up and dark, as if nothing had taken place, by 00:05. I bet they hate big releases.
What did raise my eyebrow in surprise was that their ODST launch must have been such a success that I saw them advertising quite a steady stream of midnight launches from then until Christmas. FIFA, Uncharted, Batman; it seemed that as soon as there was a game worth shouting about plans were being laid for a late-night opening. Impressive, considering a 24 hour ASDA is just round the corner doing the same service for no extra bother.
So what do you think is worth heading into town at midnight to pick up? Is there anything that could pull you away from your bed or are you quite happy to wait for the postman the next morning?
I remember working midnight launches. As annoying as they could be, there was something magical about having the real hardcore fans of a game/console in at those wee hours. It’s looked at as one of the geekiest things we do, but hey- outsiders are just jealous!
I’ve never felt the need to do it. I much prefer to pre-order online and have the game waiting for me the day before release. Done it with all big releases meaning i could normally finish the campaign during the day while people are still waiting to que up outside shops.
That’s my usual system, too. Over the years I’ve found Amazon and GAME online quite good at shipping on the Thursday rather than the day of release. Having said that, Halo is something I willing to queue for just for the novelty and experience.
I used to enjoy working them as well, just for the novelty more than anything. And as Pogo mentioned, you only had a crowd there that actually wanted to be there for a specific positive purpose, rather than the usual throng of idiots and complaining parents during the day.
I think midnight launches for the likes of FIFA is stretching it though. Stuff like Halo, Final Fantasy, Gears, Metal Gear, that works, but everything else should be a regular time.
Agreed. You don’t want to overkill it.
For me a midnight launch is all part of the excitement, but only for the biggest games and consoles. There always seem to be some people out on a drunken bender that pass by and shout out insults, but also as Pogo said, they are just jealous!
I enjoyed working them also. My most memorable though was when I was a punter, not an employee and hadn’t even planned to attend the opening. It was the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube and I’d been sat in the pub from about 6pm earlier that evening. Midnight struck and I soon found myself in GAME, drunk as a skunk purchasing a Gameube with a selection of accessories and games. The funniest bit? Staff, (maybe even some of you guys?), trying desperately to keep me away from the press who were in the store at the time.
The next day I was in the local rag stating how I played video games ‘up to 50 hours a week’.