Xbox 360 Launch Event at Inner Harbor Best Buy

Mario Armstrong — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 04:29:07 +0000

Arrived at Best Buy at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore at about 9:35pm with tech writer, Sun contributing writer and friend Rasheim Freeman we ended up being numbers 14 & 15. Yes, 9:30pm the day before the new XBOX 360 goes on sale and we were still numbered in the teens. The person in the front of the line had been there since 5:30pm. He basically walked over as soon as he got off from his job at 5p. I kow this sounds crazy that your boy Mario would hang out overnight in front of Best Buy til the next morning at 9am when the store would open but I wasn't the only one crazy enough to do it. I had people calling my cell phone giving me reports for the numbers of folks in lines around the city. At 10pm I heard the Towson store had well over 80 ppl, White Marsh had 70+, Security had over 100. Each store only carried a certain amount of units (about 30 units each store). So if you didnt get in line early you were out of luck. Believe it or not this is serious stuff. All over the internet it was said that only a certain amount of systems would be available for the opening across the US. You see, this launch of the 2nd generation Xbox is a big deal for a number of reasons. Its the first system to support HDTV which gives the games superior resolution. It also has a brand new look and design and is much, much faster. More importantly Microsoft is beating Sony and Nintendo to the cash register. You see Microsoft has only been in the video game business a few years (this is only their 2nd system ever to make). Whereas, Sony and Nintendo have been in the video game biz for over 15 years. Sony has dominated for years and consumers, analysts and the industry want to see if their is room for competition. If the new Xbox 360 is a major success and if Microsoft gets a major surge in buyers this may be a strong indicator that the Sony dominance is being succesfully challenged. This will mean more competition in the marketplace which means more innovation, better consoles, better games and hopefully some price discounting.

SO BACK TO MY Best Buy ALL NITER. You might wonder what the heck did we do to past the time? I got to meet some new friends with a common passion for video games. We talked alot about our favorite games where the industry is heading and why we were are all crazy enough to be in line for 12 hours. We cracked some jokes on ourselves, slept off and on but mostly stayed awake anticipating the arrival.

You also never felt that you could full dose off because you wanted to make that the 'NEWBIES' that were showing up at 2 and 3am were well aware that they had to be at the back of the line. After awhile we actually took it upon ourselves to organize. When we reached about 20 people it was beginning to be difficult to remember who was who. So we started an unofficial list in numerical order of who showed up when. So thats how I became number 14.

I had my digital camera and camcorder and so I took a photo of the list and off the 1st 20 people in line. This way if any "CRAZOS" tried to show up at 7am talking about "I'm glad I made it , can't wait to leave with my new Xbox" - we could be like "WHAT get the heck outta here" heres the sign in sheet and here's the photo. It was that serious - see their were only 30 available systems and the 1st 2o were the top notch one's called the 360 premium - the premium has all the good stuff with it, the store also had ONLY 10 of whats called the Core system (like a basic version of the premium). So there were only 30 systems total and 10 were the basic model so, most folks that were crazy to be outside all nite really wanted the premium which meant if you werent part of the 1st 20 people in line - forget it - you were going home with the Core system.

However, as much I enjoy playing video games, I don't play as much as many 'true' gamers. But on this occassion I realized how 'true' a gamer I was. For example while others were in line having fun debates and discussions about their favorite games and all the intricasies of the games. I was steadily outside scouting for an outdoor power outlet!

WHAT? an outdoor power outlet? Yes, an outdoor power outlet. WHY?

Because, I came prepared! I brought my xbox, joysticks, games and my 12inch flat screen monitor. You see, while I was at home putting on layers of clothes packing snacks and water I figured - 'wait i'm going to wait in line with fellow gamers why not pack my xbox and screen with speakers so we can play some games, have true gaming comradre and past the time much faster.

Well, it turns out I was the only one who thought of that &/or more importantly, was the only one that was used to taking their Xbox on the road with a mobile flat screen etc... The folks in the line couldn't believe that I had an xbox and that we could actually play it outside if we could find nearby power. After about 20 mins of searching we found power and were playing Halo, Burnout, even Ms. pac-Man and Galaga (old school classics). So turns out I'm a pretty hard core gamer - I guess!

Mario outside of BestBuy 2am - playing the original Xbox while waiting for store to open to buy the new Xbox 360

You may wonder why I went thru all of this for a new video game system. Well rest assured, I'm not on drugs or divorced, my kid does knwo who his Daddy is and I still have my job - so NO I'm not a game addict! I'm a geeked out techie - who reports on how technology impacts our lives and society and I felt it was important for me to hear others stories and report any insights to you (okay, okay so thats the excuse I told my wife, before I left the house, she was like - 'let me get this straight you're going outside to wait in line with complete strangers to wait for the store to open in the morning so you can buy the new Xbox? - she pauses and says "I must be dreaming and you must be out of your mind, take out the trash and get ready for work tomorrow"!) I finally came clean and told her I am reporting on this event BUT I also do want a system especially since they will be very hard to get and almost unavailable til January '06. So, she was cool about it, she says I'm still a big kid :-)

So, out the door I go - ignorant to the downpouring rain, (I didnt even notice the rain) I was going to get in line for the new Xbox!

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Check back as I will add more to this story - I was there for 12+ hours - their si lots I could talk about relating to this event. Ill also add more photos soon.

XBOX360 Launch

Xbox 360 Launch Event at Inner Harbor Best Buy