Halo 2 released today.
We had customers at midnight. We had customers at two o’clock this morning. We had customers all the live long day.
Oh, what a day!
I’m tired.
Oh, What a Day!
Published by Allyn
A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004. View more posts
So, do you get to repeat this next week with HL2, or does EB still have a modicum of sense left?
I had a student tell me he was going to be at least three hours late for school as his PARENTS were taking him to get the game when the store opened. I can’t wait to speak with these two when they ask me why junior is failing.
Andrew: As far as Half-Life 2 is concerned, I’m not participating in a Midnight Madness sale, and I’m aware of no plans to do so.
We could. It’s certainly possible. We will have the product in the store in advance of the street date.
Will the demand be there, though? A few hundred pre-orders for Halo 2 justifies a midnight opening because you know that the hardest of the hardcore will have to be the first on their block to have the game and there’s strength in the numbers to justify the expense in mounting the midnight opening.
Half-Life 2 doesn’t have the pre-orders. I have some, but not many. I’d say they’re soft.
We can ask why. I can think of several reasons. The massive delays on the game, certainly. There’s still a lot of people who don’t believe the game is coming out next week.
And then there’s Steam. If you can buy it direct from Valve and have it downloaded onto your computer, why go to the store? I think that’s a factor, too.
Add all that up, and I think a midnight opening might draw a dozen people, tops. We would draw the same dozen Tuesday morning. Where’s the benefit? I don’t see it.
John: I hear you. There were kids in the midnight line, some as young as ten. I knew teenagers who planned upon skipping school on Tuesday to play Halo 2, adults who planned on skipping work.
It’s a frelling game, people.
Speaking of parents the question I’ve run into several times the past few days is this: Is Halo 2 appropriate for my little Johnny? It’s a Mature-rated game (that’s 17 and over, folks), you blow a lot of things up real good, there’s a fair amount of blue-hued gore.
My parents would have been fine with me playing Halo 2 at age 12. I can’t say that Halo 2 is right for every 12 year-old. Different kids mature at different rates. Different kids have differing holds on reality. Parents, if you don’t mind little Johnny dual-wielding plasma rifles and blowing the living crap out of alien thugs then have at it.
Grand Theft Auto, on the other hand….
Sigh.
See, at that age, my parents wouldn’t let me play the game. Then again, I couldn’t watch Saturday Night Live, Three’s Company or Soap. That’s just the way my parents raised me. Will I let my son when he turns 12? It all depends on how I view his grip of reality. Right now, he’s three-and-a-half and he watches Teen Titans and Gargoyles with me – note, he watches it with me. We actually have the parental block on a number of television stations now (including TBS, TNT and MTV) so that when he wakes up ahead of us, he can still choose from a small selection of stations and let us sleep a little while longer. I’m fine with my student wanting the game, if he’s up for it. I have a problem with the parents who indulge him to the exclusion of those things that are more important – like school. That’s when I worry about them as parents.