Wii fans in Washington state queued up for the Wii at 10pm last night, only to be told they weren’t going on sale until eight this morning. A dispatch from the front lines:
nintendo
Wii Breaks More TVs than Elvis
By 11.30.06
Carbon nanotubes have one of the highest tensile strengths of any material known to man, which is how we know that the Wii wrist strap is not made of them. The Wii strap has been breaking at inopportune times all over the country since the Wii’s release in mid-November—and the results have been disastrous enough to warrant a few news stories and at least one blog dedicated to documenting the destruction. Because after you’ve bounced a video game controller off your laptop and into your brand new plasma tv—you’re going to take a picture. And we’re going to laugh. In all seriousness, Nintendo might have a little problem on its hands if these “accidents” are caused by a faulty wrist strap. May we suggest Kevlar next time?—MEGHANN MARCO
Wii Inventory Tracker
By 11.27.06
Sick of looking for a Wii to buy your ingrate kids? Here’s a tracker that automatically checks websites for Wii availability. Best Buy is noticeably absent, but otherwise it seems comprehensive. —MEGHANN MARCO
Best Buy Is Hiding The Wii
By 11.25.06
According to the Globe and Mail, Canadian Best Buys are holding back part of their shipment of Nintendo Wiis. Why are they doing this?
Best Buy: “Oh Yeah, Tetris Breaks All The Time.”
By 7.6.06
Here at Gawker Tower (actually, a giant disused school bus turned vertically that was used by local teens for sex parties until the smell got too bad), we really love the circle jerk. So it was nice when our geeky, mouth-breathing colleagues over at Kotaku took time out of their busy schedule of writing about video games and wondering what it might be like to touch the soft mound of a woman’s breast while she was conscious to pass on a reader email, indicating a new protection plan scam from our buddies at Best Buy.
Nintendo DS Lite’s Japanese Debut
By 3.3.06
Everyone who got burned on the original Nintendo Gameboy Advance debacle felt the existential yawning of deja vu when Nintendo recently announced that, less than a year after launch, they were shrinking down the size of their Nintendo DS handheld and making the screen better. This was after previously ensuring all of us that the device was Panglossian in its perfection and could not be foreseeably improved. What a perfect way to burn the customers who made Nintendo’s experimental console a success — try to sell them the same product again a year later with the form factor that the product could have been in the first place!
Morning Deals Round Up
By 1.26.06
• Amazon is taking pre-orders for the iRobot Scooba, the floor-washing counterpart to the Roomba, for $400. We are unduly excited about this product, but we really recommend waiting until some reviews come out before dropping four bills. There is also some question as to whether or not a Scooba owner will be tied to purchasing only the Clorox-branded cleaning solution, or if something can be whipped up at home. But still, new robot! Coupon code JANCLEAR takes off $25.
Morning Deals Round-Up
By 12.9.05
• Woot‘s pushing their own wine again. As homebrewers, we have nothing but empathy for their project. As drunks, we find the price of $55 for three bottles buzz prohibitive.
