The store where I make somewhat of a living at recently had it's Wii and PS3 reserves on sale which because of the lack of available units( 15 for Wii and a paltry 6 for PS3), lasted all of 5mins... if that. That I pretty much expected. What I wasn't expecting was the line that began forming outside our doors 26 hours before said reserves became available!

Don't get me wrong, i'm as much of a dedicated gamer as the next guy or gal. And I intend on being a gamer until the day they have to tpy the controller out of my cold lifeless hands. But there is NO WAY i'm gonna wait in line for 26 hours for anything... much less a game system regardless of how hot and "must own now" it may be. Eh....i'd stand in line for a free million bucks but I doubt we'll see anyone offering that deal anytime soon ( If you hear of such...email me!!).

In a way it's kinda sad what you have to go through to be an early adopter nowadays. You're either camping out in a part of town you clearly don't want to be in at 2a.m., or you're selling your soul to Satan on Ebay. He lives in Cleveland and is more than willing to sell you his reserved unit for around half the money your parents shelled out on your tuition last year.

When you compare what I feel was the last "fun" console launch, that of the Dreamcast (where we received 80 units) to the PS3/Wii numbers, you can see why those of us who will be behind the counters come this Nov. 17-19, are looking forward to these dates with an impending sense of doom. There will be nothing fun about it at all. However yelling, fighting, cussing will be in abundance for nearly everyone on both sides of the counter.

The industry really needs to challenge itself to do better by us by having more systems available at launch. This barely any systems at all mentality only promotes ill will. I doubt things will change in the end though..it's hard to teach an old dog better marketing practices. And one day 5 yrs. from now, there will be a line outside waiting for the chance to reserve the 1 PS4 we are being shipped for launch...Insane.