Amazon allows Wii pre-orders... (now sold out)

[Winstonp]

http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Wii/dp/B0009VXBAQ/sr=8-1/qid=1158322778/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-5038032-1899926?ie=UTF8&s=videogames


just ordered mine

[Winstonp]

the pre-order option is gone...

[w00tmaster]

They will ship to APO, which is a big deal since it is a pain in the rear end to try to get stuff to me in Germany if they don't(usually involves shipping to my mom first and then having her ship to me)

Now if only Apple would start shipping stuff APO...

[Malus]

wait, I got two...

but now the pre-order option is gone...
Way to hog them all...:(

[baleensavage]

I was just looking at the box pics on here and started thinking about how amazing it is that Apple sets the mark for how all consumer electronics look. First with the clear plastic craze that followed the original iMac and now with the black and white phase of their computers. It's neat to see that even console gaming systems are following Apple's design leads.

In reference to the topic, some webmaster at Amazon is probably getting fired right now for putting that one up. I bet they got slammed with preorders...

[jeremy.king]

I still can't decide what color I want.

[mechamac]

You're in luck! It'll be in white only at launch, no?

[Winstonp]

I was just looking at the box pics on here and started thinking about how amazing it is that Apple sets the mark for how all consumer electronics look. First with the clear plastic craze that followed the original iMac and now with the black and white phase of their computers. It's neat to see that even console gaming systems are following Apple's design leads.

In reference to the topic, some webmaster at Amazon is probably getting fired right now for putting that one up. I bet they got slammed with preorders...

maybe not.

Unlike retail stores, Amazon doesnt have to map out retail Wii distribution. As soon as amazon knows how many they are receiving, they can pretty much immediatly put them up for pre-order.

I'm sure this was done on purpose.

[Winstonp]

Way to hog them all...:(

I am keeping one. I may supply the other to a relative, or sell...whichever seems to be the best decision when the time comes.

[aidanpendragon]

What Winstonp said. Somebody at Gamespot (boards) speculates reasonably that Amazon was allocated a given launch quantity and took preorders until they ran out.

...glad I got mine in...

If anyone who ordered notices the wonky shipping dates ("arrive by Oct.," etc.), this is not unheard of. I've been told, for other items that aren't regularly on-hand, to disregard what the site says for ship-arrive dates. Specifically, the Wii had said "ships in 1-3 weeks" when up for pre-orders, which is what that calculation's based on.

[bobber205]

I signed up for the email alert!

I can't wait to preorder!

[aidanpendragon]

I had been (presumably still am) signed up for the alert. Didn't get anything, despite there being a brief window.

Also called the local EB; not taking preorders until they hear the release date...from corporate.

[Sky Blue]

I'll be buying mine in store, I need it on launch day!

[bobber205]

Can't you preorder the machine at ebgames.com or something and pick it up at the local branch?

[solidgoldmini]

Thank goodness I got an order in! Amazon was giving me errors-one second there was no pre-order button, and the next page load there was. I guess I got lucky. I'm sure you all probably know already, but I found www.wiishlist.com which has a list of pre-order availability. I was signed up with Amazon and got nothing for a heads-up, but I checked that website and saw that it was available.

[bobber205]

Does anybody else think it's weird that it's being released on a sunday?

[srobert]

Does anybody else think it's weird that it's being released on a sunday?

Kind of. Has it been done before?

Funny. Amazon seem to have lifted an image from a Japanese game site.

[mulletman13]

Most of Nintendos consoles have been launched on Sundays. From what I can remember.... the DS Lite, and the N64 were released on Sundays... the GameCube was Nov 17th 2001, which might have been a Sunday... (or it was the 20th... dont recall)

[strubwii]

Sundays are popular launch days for Nintendo, and yes, the Gamecube was released on a Sunday.

[Krevnik]

Kind of. Has it been done before?

Funny. Amazon seem to have lifted an image from a Japanese game site.

That image is from the Nintendo press kit for the Wii... anyone with press access with Nintendo (not that hard since the username/password was guessed the day of the announcement... I even have a copy of the press kit) will have that exact image.

[bobber205]

Wow. My feelings about sunday being weird were way off. :D

[aidanpendragon]

These are pulled directly from the discussion on Amazon's Wii non-pre-order page, and come from an Amazon employee. Essential points are:

- Everyone who got a pre-order in during that brief window will have it honored.
- Unclear as to when even that first batch of pre-orders will be delivered (launch or afterwards), or if the first batch exceeds the initial allotment from Nintendo (sounds like they don't know).
- Unclear if/when they'll resume taking pre-orders, hinging on the second part of the previous point.

Sounds like Amazon got caught with their pants down on this.

Also, a separate poster claimed that his order for multiple consoles had been reduced to just one, apparently to better spread the supply around. Can anyone confirm?

_____________________

Hi! My name is Jon, and I'm an editor working on the Amazon.com Video Games team. We know that everyone is excited to get their Wii pre-ordered... heck, we're anxious, too. Unfortunately, we don't yet have our launch allocation numbers from Nintendo, so we don't have any hard and fast data for you.

For a brief period on Friday, we did offer pre-orders for the Wii, however, the rate at which pre-orders came in dramatically outpaced what we had anticipated, so we suspended pre-orders until we are able to get a firmer commitment from Nintendo regarding how many units we'll have for sale.

Because the pre-order window was so brief, the e-mail many of you signed up for notifying you that pre-orders were available was never triggered to send out. We apologize and have fixed the system to ensure pre-order e-mail notifications are sent in advance.

In the meantime, there are several ways you can stay up to date on the latest Wii information:

Visit our Nintendo Wii page and sign up for e-mail updates
Visit our Video Games store: http://www.amazon.com/games
Visit our Video Games blog: http://www.amazon.com/vg-blog

We apologize for any confusion regarding the status of Wii pre-orders, but hope this clears some things up. If you have any questions or issues, Amazon.com Customer Service is always ready to assist you, and I'll do my best to answer questions in this forum. Thanks!

- Jon G.
Editor, Video Games
Amazon.com

________________________

I can confirm that we will be honoring the pre-orders already taken.

- Jon

________________________

If you're asking if your Wii will arrive on the day of release, the simplest answer is that the 19th of November is a Sunday, and UPS doesn't deliver on Sunday. As to the exact date of delivery, we can't provide any specific information at this point because it has to do with how we receive the Wii shipments from Nintendo, which is something that's not yet completely worked out. However, we'll be working to make sure that the delivery date listed both here and on the order in your account gets updated accurately as soon as we are able to. Amazon customers get an email automatically anytime there's a change in the status of their shipment, so watch for that.

As far as how we'll be taking orders once the initial allotment is gone, nothing has been officially decided yet. I can tell you, though, that when the Xbox 360 launched we opted to put up the incremental batches we received for sale only as we received them, to reduce any customer confusion. Hope that helps.

- Jon

[Dagless]

I don't understand why these companies overshoot figures. "here preorder a squillion Wii's!" and days later "...we don't have that many..."

A better system would be to pre-order a 1000 of them, then increase that when Nintendo say they can deliver more.

[aidanpendragon]

Highlights:

- Everyone who already pre-ordered will likely get one from launch batch (or is "extremely unlikely not to"...double neg, geh...). Time frame for that still unclear.

- Will not have a wait list. Instead will take orders in dribs and drabs, as supply is obtained, hopefully with advance email notice of those windows.

- Doesn't seem like they have instituted a 1 per customer limit yet, but maybe in the future.

__________________________

Hello again,

We're getting enough posts in here now that it would be more confusing for me to address them all individually, so I'll just try to answer as many questions as I can in single posts going forward.

Unfortunately, we will not be offering a waiting list for the Wii. At this point, we intend to open up ordering for individual batches as we get them in until supply and demand catch up with each other a bit more. If you want to know when ordering will be open, your best bet is still to sign up for email notification on the detail page, as we intend to send out notices in advance of future order availability.

I don't know what time of day we'll be making the next round of orders available. Again, signing up for email notification is your best bet, as we'll be announcing the order availability in advance. I'll also do my best to make another post here in this forum, so keep checking back.

I can't say for certain at this point if we'll be limiting orders to one per customer, but I would say it's entirely possible.

Once more, I can't provide any concrete information about when the Wii will arrive until we have some more information from Nintendo, but if you already got a pre-order in then I would consider it extremely unlikely that you would not be getting a unit from the launch batch. So yes, Justin, your kids are set for a pretty exciting Christmas.

Thanks again to everyone for their patience and understanding.

- Jon

[BurtonCCC]

Can't you preorder the machine at ebgames.com or something and pick it up at the local branch?
Nope, if you want to pick it up from a store, you have to order it at that store. EBGames.com orders will be shipped just like any other order.

Daniel.

[BurtonCCC]

You're in luck! It'll be in white only at launch, no?
Yes, white only at launch.

Daniel.

[aidanpendragon]

More from Amazon:

- Will be more preorders, with email ahead of time (this time)
- EVERYONE who gets in prior to 11/19 will get a Wii out of the launch allocation (guess they haven't surpassed that yet, and won't in the future).

________________________________

Several of you asked for a ballpark estimate as to when pre-orders would be up again, but unfortunately I don't have any information on that right now. As I've mentioned previously, we are still working with Nintendo on the details of our launch allotment, and I can't speculate as to when everything will be in place. Once again, your best bet is to sign up for email notification on the Wii detail page if you don't want to re-check our site every day.

Speaking of the email notification, there was a request for clarification on the timing of that email. We plan to send out an email to everyone on that list prior to the next pre-order window with all the relevant details on that window. This will hopefully give just about everyone an equal and fair chance at knowing when to come online and pre-order.

Regarding the launch day allotment, anyone who pre-orders a Wii prior to the November 19 launch can expect to get theirs as part of that first shipment. Past November 19, we will be opening up sales for further batches as we get them, which we hope will help minimize confusion. We know that customers who were able to get in on the last pre-order currently have a ship date of October listed on their order, which is obviously incorrect, but this will be updated when we have an actual delivery estimate, and those customers will receive an email regarding that change.

I still don't have any information on bundles or controller availability, which one of you asked for. However, I can tell you that in previous console launches, controller availability was not typically an issue.

Thanks again for your continued understanding, patience, and feedback.

- Jon G.
Amazon.com Video Games Editor