Sonic the Hedgehog hands out Japan's first Wii

[Archaic]

If you'd told me something like this would happen back in the days of the Super Nintendo, I would've never believed you.

Crowds line up at stores as Wii console goes on sale in Japan

Crowds flocked to electronics stores in Japan on Saturday as Nintendo's new Wii game console went on sale, with some retailers announcing that they had sold out of the consoles before they had even opened their doors.

Sales of the consoles in Japan officially started at 7 a.m. on Saturday, and a launch ceremony was held at the Bic Camera store in the Yurakucho district of Tokyo's Chiyoda-ku.

The Wii sports a unique wireless controller, and nostalgic gamers can hook up their consoles to the Internet to download Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) games for a fee. They can also access news and weather information.

At the time of the launch, Nintendo planned to have 400,000 consoles ready for sale. The company plans to ship out a total of about 1 million consoles by the end of the year.

Customers eager to buy the consoles started lining up outside the Yurakucho Bic Camera store from about 9 a.m. on Friday, the day before the launch. By 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, some 2,000 customers had lined up outside the store, prompting store workers to hold up signs saying that its consoles were sold out.

Sega's popular character Sonic the Hedgehog appeared for the opening ceremony, which started at 6:50 a.m. After a countdown, a banner was dropped and Sonic handed over a console to the first buyer, 28-year-old Kotaro Watanabe from Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture.

"I'm thinking of buying 'Legend of Zelda' and 'Wii Sports'. I'm so happy that I was able to buy the console. I want to play it as soon as I can," Watanabe said.

About 400 people lined up outside the Yodobashi Camera store near Shinjuku Station's west exit early on Saturday, and when the store opened at 7 a.m. customers snapped up the consoles. Numbered tickets were handed out to 1,000 customers the previous evening, and sales proceeded without any major disturbances. (Mainichi)

 

[Rayne]

I remember when the DS went on sale, it came out a week before Japan's
release so this is nothing new, but somehow, I keep forgetting that the US got
their Wii's first. It's almost unnatural considering Japan almost always gets
everything first and then some.

 

[XD375]

*Is laughing at the 16-bit era.*
*Is feeling notaligic.*
*Wants Donkey Kong Country 2 for GBA.*

 

[TTEchidna]

Well, there's one good thing that came from that decade-long war. And that is that Sega wasn't bitter about going out, and conceded defeat to Nintendo.

I still feel kinda weird to be one of the first people (well, at least timezone-wide, darn you Atlantic Coast Canadians and EST people!) to get Wii.

Hey, only six more days until the whole world has it. Soon we'll all be able to send each other Wiimails. Takes a bit long for them to arrive, though, when I send one from my computer to the Wii to remind myself of something.



...why Sonic, though? Why not Mario? Is Nintendo trying to get crazy speculation going about Sonic in SSBB like they are of a GSC remake?

 

[Doctor Oak]

...why Sonic, though? Why not Mario? Is Nintendo trying to get crazy speculation going about Sonic in SSBB like they are of a GSC remake?

Doesn't really require speculation, it's pretty much a dead cert that both are happening.

Also, Sega didn't so much concede defeat as find themselves on the verge of bankruptcy. They were pretty lucky though, since the Gamecube is pretty much what saved them. The ports of the Dreamcast Sonic games (which sold better on the Cube) and original titles like Billy Hatcher helped Sega regain enough capital to be able to afford to continue at least just making games and recoup their debts.

They only started making profits again for the first time in nearly ten years a few years ago.

 

[XD375]

At least it isn't like the way Sony distributes the Mario and Zelda DVDs. I know it isn't SCEA, but it's still kinda weird.