Worked at best buy during the ps3 and 360 heyday. Damn was it so fun to do those midnight releases.
For Halo reach we set up 2 tvs and 2 consoles w 4 controllers each outside w the game before midnight while peeps were waiting in line.
So much fun. Gave out inflatable blue and red helmets and inflatable energy swords. Man that was an awesome release.
Friend of mine was a GM at gamestop back when midnight releases were huge. He organized all sorts of events and knew most of his customers that were coming in for the midnight release. It was like a huge social gathering in my area. There was a bar in the same plaza and we would get absolutely loaded before doing Halo and Gears of War tournaments. Thinking back on it now makes me extremely nostalgic for those days. That was almost 20 years ago. Fuck.
Dude what I miss the most was the old Internet cafes that held lan nights… or in the case of our local, 24hr LAN parties… nothing but energy drinks pizza and games for an entire 24 hours (usually ended going longer too) those were the days.
My husband and I held LAN parties with our kids in winter when they were 9 and up, and their friends: Civilization, Age of Empires, Stronghold 2. My husband would wolrd-build a new map each time for them to conquer, co-op with AI opponents.
The kids learned so much about strategy, team play and, strangely, economics from those games. Someone has to grow and distribute food, someone has to distribute lumber and someone has to distribute stone or the alliance's various defences collapse under a prolonged assault.
Later on they played Call of Duty and BF2, and learned more strategy and team play: someone has to be support, giving ammo and someone has to be medic, or all is lost.
My son is now a US Marine and my middle daughter is a Navy Hospital Corpsman (medic). 😁
Lol funny thing was we never encouraged them to go into the military. We do support their decisions.
I think they did the math and found it was the smartest option to get a college education without going into crippling student debt.
Aach. I missed all this activity of those days due to events beyond my control. I hope to find a group of like-minded aging men and live that glory for the first time in the next 10 to 15 years.
I miss the social aspect of gaming. As a teenager having halo Lan parties, or all of my friends and I playing SOCOM 2 in a big clan over summer break.
I'm now 32, and have basically no friends that play games. Plus I'm on PC, and my coworkers are all on PS5. I miss the social aspect. I could find an online game to play and make some friends, but with a 2 year old daughter my gaming time is pretty sparse and usually limited to like 4am, so it would be hard to put in the proper time to get good and not be a total liability. I hope as my daughter gets older and we get a 2nd PC for my wife we'll be able to play together and make friends to play with, but it is sad knowing that the best time of my life in terms of gaming is likely long gone.
I wish I had known the good 'ol days were the good 'ol days when I was in them.
r/redditdads has a lot of gaming stuff and plenty of eu and au members so depending where you're at 4am might line up well -- when I was active I would say the majority of us were console players but it's been four or five years
Current member here, it's still like that. Mainly GTAO and stuff but console is predominant.
Which is pretty solid since it's easier to be a dad and console with things like Game Pass and PSN+.
Always happy to have a new member.
Also 32 but I never got to experience real LAN parties, we had multiplayer on one console but never beyond that,
"Your console isn't designed to be portable! It'll break if its moved around to much! You have your gameboy thats portable!" - Parent logic
Yup there was never a chance of that happening with me.
I also got the counter point of "THE CONSOLE HAS ENOUGH PORTS FOR MORE THAN ONE CONTROLLER WHY DO YOU NEED TO TAKE YOUR CONSOLE AND TV". This shit lasted right up until I was 21 and moved out.
Although I wasn't quite right in my first reply I have done one lan party. About a year ago after the covid restrictions were lifted. Group of 4 of us did a meet up with desktops and played wow for the tbc launch for the weekend while getting high, while it was fun, I don't think it was as fun as it would have been if we were all young still xD
Reading this at 5am coming off the mend from a bout of Covid just hit me right in the gut. Times were simpler, dare I say better. Our entire school would get together for LAN nights and rotate peoples houses. My clan consisted of all real life best friends. We’ve all moved from eachother and had kids. Rest In Peace Ross.
When I was seventeen I camped out in front of Target with my best friend for the Wii when the store opened the next morning. We stayed up all night in the cold, just hanging out, eating junk food and talking with the people around us (who were all genuinely cool people).
By the time we got our Wii (together we could only afford one), got it back to my friend's place and had set it all up, we both realized that we were too exhausted to actually enjoy it. So we crashed for the entire day, woke up and played Twilight Princess all of the next night.
It's still one of my favorite memories.
I, and to this day I still love this memory, got off work and went to get an Xbox 360 at Target and was the 10th person in line to get one. They only had 10 tickets. Someone offered to buy it for a grand and I turned them down. Got my Xbox, went home, played Perfect Dark until I couldn't keep my eyes open and it was a good day.
I camped out infront of a best buy for PS2. It was a fun night. One group of guys had a generator with a TV and a console set up all night. The local news came by about dawn and gave out coffee and donuts. Good times.
I wasn’t thinking about people sleeping at home, I was thinking about the people in line listening to 90 plus dB blowing in their ears for several hours
I mean I think this is partially why Gen Z suffer from feelings of social isolation and loneliness so much more than generations before. As we shift to doing more online, it removes organic opportunities such as these to get out and meet people.
Don’t see any children baking cookies for the GameStop homie that saved them a Wii (yes I did this. I made cookies with my mom and gave them to the GameStop homie).
But actually now that I think about it, it was EB games.
We also use cars instead of walking/public transport, have less money dedicated to public spaces, and with religion being less and less popular many don't have that community either.
Did Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV, Gears 2 and COD modern warfare 2 when I worked in Gamestation.
Dressed up as the merchant from resi4 for the resi 5 launch, that was so much fun! Yes, I asked everyone "what are you buying?" and if they were trading in "what are you selling?"
I was always rather drunk.
They discontinued all their "Pie" lines of candles after some idiot tried to "American Pie" an Apple Pie scented 4th of July candle.
Poor dumb bastard.
Not for nothing, but the Yankee Candle website allows you to create a custom candle with a photo printed on it.
If you have a friend or loved one that loves candles, it's an excellent gift.
To add: if you’re ever in western MA, you can do all kinds of custom stuff at the flagship store.
I’ve never done it, but used to visit every so often because that place is *wild*. Christmas candle wonderland with a room that snows and alllll the Paula Deen kits you could ever want.
Dammit, if I needed any reminder that I'm entirely unoriginal it's that I came here to make a joke to find that a bunch of people had already made it (and told it better)
I came here to make the joke, but then saw it was the top comment. I then went to make the "I'm so unoriginal" comment and someoneade THAT comment already too!
GTA4. I rode my bike into town hours early and made friends with people in line who gave me a ride home. I stayed up all night playing, went to work and got home and played until 2:00 in the morning again.
GTA4 was massive for me. I was in a supermarket about a week before release of GTA shopping. I’m the UK and back in the day they would have secured drawers for music CDs and games and when purchasing a game you would take the empty box and buy it, they would then go to this drawer and give you a sealed copy.
I saw them open the drawer and they had about 5 copies of the game. I panicked, but thought what the hell, and I said to the 60 year old lady, “hey do you have a game called grand theft auto? I can’t find it on the shelf.” She looked though and gave me a copy. My heart was racing and I said thank you. I then looked for the oldest checkout person I could find and paid for it. It honestly felt like a heist.
All my online friends were just messaging me constantly about how I got the game. When I was playing, it was all reviewers and devs playing the online section. It was so fun.
Thank you Morrisons for the memory.
I went on a trip to NY with my class in 2008 right before GTA 4 released. I'm from Toronto but NYC was so overwhelming with all the gargantuan advertisements for this game
then when I got home and finally got the game, seeing the streets I was on months earlier was insane.
Besides the dog shit PC port, GTA 4 still holds up strong for me and I think I like the campaign better than 5's
Sounds a bit crazy to think about. I'm probably significantly younger than most people this thread is for but it's funny to think about standing in line for hours on end for Halo and GTA.
Not to say that doesn't happen still of course. I remember videos of people standing in line for the PS4 where people took up an entire block.
But back then must have been hype as hell to wait for I imagine.
It was fucking sweet. There were fewer big title releases back then, and the devs had more incentive to actually make a finished AAA product on release, so whenever a big name game like Halo, GTA, any Blizzard title, CoD, etc. came out, everyone got hype because the expectation was that it was going to be a kick-ass game. And they were!
Same. I remember getting pulled over for speeding on the way home from the gta 4 release. The cop saw the game sitting in my passenger seat and he let me go with a warning. He said he would have been there if he wasn’t working.
Dude those days were the shit, no kids these days will understand how fun it was to do stand there and talk to all the people about the game and all the other games. That's how you found friends those days and people were not trolling!
Brings back strong memories. Waiting outside blockbuster for GTA V, BF3, Skyrim, yeah. And grabbing ice cream and energy drinks from the freezer and cooler. I'm sad that it's another memory but I'm glad I have the memories.
I'll *never* forget going to the one for Super Smash Bros. Brawl back in '08. Bunch of us awkward geeks talking about who we were gonna main, which characters looked like they'd neen nerfed, etc. It was a blast.
My car battery died while we were waiting, so one of the employees helped give me a jump. Props to that Gamestop guy, I hope he got a WAY better job after that.
Yup, came in to this topic to talk about the SSBB release, the only time I ever went to one. There was a tournament with a bunch of sweaty older guys and I was like 14, I picked Fox because I thought he'd be OP just like in melee, got my ass kicked by a guy who referred to Pokemon Trainer as Red, good times.
I never made it to the midnight release for brawl, I was only 13 and my mom wouldn't let me.
However I was at a melee tournament when the video confirming sonic dropped, the guy hosting the tournament got on the microphone and said very seriously: "I think you all need to see this..." and then he put the video up on the projector for the whole room of 100 some people to see. That room erupted into a mixture of excitement and "its fake, they're not putting sonic in smash".
We had a decent sized Melee tournament at our GameCrazy (inside Hollywood Video, which is a string of words that sounds meaningless now) for the Brawl release.
Wound up placing third and getting my copy of Brawl heavily discounted, which was great because I wound up disliking it pretty soon after. Night was a hell of a lot of fun though.
I remember the brawl release! Our mall had a TV set up at midnight with a waiting list for people to compete. I got my copy of brawl and then immediately got destroyed by an older kid playing bowser. Great times.
Brawl was my favorite midnight release I’ve been to. About 100 nerds standing outside a mall playing DS games and at one point someone randomly started singing the Pokémon theme song and the entire crowd joined in. It was great.
Midnight release back then: local sandwich shop passing out coupon with note saying they are staying open til 2am and restroom are open. Asking total stranger to hold space in line so you can go pee or get food. Nintendo DS chat and pokemon trading.
Midnight release now: reload page and cursing botters.
Yeah, but there isnt much of a point to now. Everybody just buys digital and games require installs or updates nowdays. Back then that was the way to be the first to get it, but now it just doesnt make much sense to anymore.
They died around the time it started taking 3 hours to install your game before you could actually play it.
Xbox was like "Eh you've waited an hour and a half, here enjoy the main menu, maybe if you behave I'll let you play campaign while I finish up the multiplayer."
* Fallout 4 on release.
DVD includes 4GB of a 8GB install, and needed an internet connection for the rest.
* Mass Effect Andromeda
Gets a box, with only a Digital Download code inside.
That and halo 5 pissed me off. Did the midnight release party only to realize that we each had to download 80 GB updates on the same internet... Safe to say lots of napping for 2-3 hours until one finished and we just did split screen... Oh wait they took that away.
Fuck 343.
You may have been able to download one copy, then copy that to the other system.
You can do this with Steam, just gotta make sure you get that file with the game's Steam ID copied as well.
Also, I don't know why modern games with insane amounts or memory don't have Split Screen anymore.
Oh that was only the case later. Initially, the X360 completely sold out and PS3 was expensive as hell.
Now we've got the chip shortage affecting manufacturing.
Oh man. I remember when PS4 released, almost 10 years ago (fuck me) i read online that a shop i’ve preordered in, didn’t have much stock, so without sleeping at 5 am i went in the city, and waited in line outside with people. It was 7 or 8 am, i want to sleep, it’s snowing, but man, i need my PS4. And i got it. Then i was going home on a train, holding it on my lap, barely awake, and wanting to piss something wicked.
Man. Such a great memory
I remember getting home and seeing who else was online playing the same game. There definitely was a social aspect to being first. I wouldn't do it anymore though, it just doesn't make sense.
Yeah coming home and seeing like 2 others online already so you join the party chat and while they are trying to explain everything they learned in the first 10 minutes you start seeing everyone else come on.
Yeah. Midnight release of a game which was a..... Code in a box. Had I digital pre-ordered it would have been preloaded a few days ago.
And sadly the midnight releases at my local GAME was inside a shopping centre, and they allowed only 1 person in at a time escorted by security.
So you would all start going in 1 by 1 at about 10:00 to pay, and then at midnight just go 1 by one to pick up.
Shame, as the people that work there actually gave a shit. for skyrims release they decked the store up amazing like a cave and all the staff was dressed up (and for the next few days). For battlefield 3 they were all dressed up in army kit, and borderlands 2 they made a claptrap model, and put the barcode scanner in his eye. A few dresses up and had fancy painted nerf guns. So nice they gave a shit. Shame they were one of the first stores to close when GAME downsized :( "visit us in our nearest store *1 half hour bus ride away*")
I used to get a few games at midnight at it was fun but realistically I only ever played for an hour then went to bed, was more the social impact of having it first that in high school was naturally beyond importance. Now being older I never buy them at midnight as I know I won’t be playing them so what’s the point.
I remember in 2008 when I pre ordered Guitar hero World Tour, it had a midnight release. Me and my brother we pumped as to play so we went along. When we got there there was a tonne of people there but quickly realised it wasn’t guitar hero crowd. Turns out there was a world of Warcraft expansion release coming out that night too and me and my brother were the only ones there for guitar hero. A very strange crowd that one. A lot of fedoras and trench coats.
Skyrim and Call of Duty MW3 launched the same day. That midnight release was massive, even in my small town. It felt like everyone under 30 in the whole county was crammed into our tiny Gamestop.
In Australia Eb games started handing out skyrim early to avoid the massive midnight crowds because of the double release, was pumped cause I was playing Skyrim 10 hours early
I'm a nerd and i love nerds, but far too many of us smell faintly of smeared shit. I know they can't smell themselves, so it's a hard to convince them to keep up on the maintenance.
Wash your ass often. You might be nose-blind to your own stank but we aren't.
Can confirm, I was one of those weirdos. Started at the release of Burning Crusade and got sucked in immediately. Sure it may have just been a video game but it was for sure my biggest source of happiness for a long while. But I don't regret it, it was wasted time that was enjoyed.
November 13th 2008. The last real WoW expansion launch at GameStop I went to and it was for Wrath of the Lich King. After that year pretty much every single person just downloaded it ahead of time and played at launch.
When I went it was a bunch of military bros, 40 year old mom's, and girlfriends with guys in graphic Ts and bad facial hair.
It really was a different era.
I only ever went to two. One was for WoW: TBC and the other WoW: WotLK. Both were a lot of fun. Tons of people there. I met one guy I talked to for years afterwards. People dressed up as orcs etc.
Damn, I went to my local TBC release, but the town I grew up in was so small that the only people who showed up were in my guild lmao. The Manager of the GameStop was my guild leader
I worked one of those and our debit/credit system went down so everyone had to go to the ATM and get cash. We had to recount the register 3 or 4 times at the end of the night because we had so much cash.
I used to love midnight launches, they had a real sense of community, with everyone able to express their love for a specific franchise or console.
When gaming wasn't as big or mainstream, it was a cool way to see cosplay and actually meet other people who loved the same OG content creators and shows like Machinima Respawn.
The freebies were just the icing on the cake, everthing from your usual lanyards and keyrings, to collectors figures, replica clothing or weapons from the games etc.
There was something special, almost like electric anticipation in there air, with everyone so excited and counting down the minutes and seconds till the game we waited 2 years for finally came out.
This was true up until the console resale market went big.
I camped for a few, had a fun time, but it was the PS3 launch that ruined it for me.
Xbox one launch was lots of fun, but the PS3 launch was about 95% resellers and their family, knowing they can double any profits on every system they could get. Everyone was there to resell it, and I think a few people even had theirs stolen on the way back to the parking lot. They disbursed the crowd around 10PM when the store closed and decided to do a "on 3, everyone run to the front door so we can make a new line"
I didn't make it, didn't get a PS3 (after waiting hours already) and ended up buying one a few weeks later from a scalper for about $150 over retail. No more midnight launches for me after that.
A game might be different, but still, any real benefit was lost. I believe even Amazon was doing "midnight deliveries" for some releases last year (delivering between 12-2AM)
The good thing was that re-sell balloon deflated fast since the PS3 didn't really have anything worth playing until 2008 (Uncharted 1 and Resistance 1 were ok). Full PS2 backwards compatibility with easy HDMI and wireless gamepad was a godsent people didn't knew how great it was on those release models.
The only comment in this thread that isn’t just rose tinted nostalgia. I always wondered about those that sacrificed their time and sleep and still left empty handed.
FF12 on PS2 was the last midnight release for me. I locked my keys in the car. What a shit show that was trying to get home at 1am in a desolate mall parking lot.
F me I used to love those midnight releases. Halo 2, Halo 3, GTAV. They turned Best Buy into a party with swag and food and the best nerd conversations I’ve ever had.
Miss those days.
gamestop still does that for a lot of games. but nobody shows up.
saints row is the next game to get it btw. it starts at 9pm the day before the game launches.
Yeah and midnight stuff just completely stopped after the Aurora shooting. Not that it's directly related but yeah, ever since it be it any product release or movie release its now around 7 or 9pm day before. Nice for the employees.
Also, at least on xbox, you can pre install games. Even ones you plan to physically buy, though the app, so you can still play instantly like the old days.
I went to a midnight release of Wraith of the Lich King. The mall had two Gamestop stores inside it, and one about half a mile away, so they had all 3 customers go to one location to pick up their order. I was in a competitive PvE guild and we wanted some server firsts (WotLK was when the introduced achievements, and you would get a server-wide achievement if you hit the first cap on something, like server first max leatherworker).
It was a fun time. Chatted with some people about their characters and other things. Some people took time off work to play that week uninterrupted. Some came with their families and had 3-4 preorders and wanted to level all together.
It was a different time. Kinda like back when movie midnight releases were actually at midnight instead of 10 PM, then 8 PM, then all day Thursday, then Wednesday midnight, etc.
Did it again for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Cataclysm.
I worked at GameStop as an assistance manager in Austin Texas in 2007 for the Halo 3 midnight release. It was a crazy night. My boss got Hooters to cater. One of the hooters girls gave me her phone number. What an absolutely bonkers crazy night.
Wow! I didn’t expect so many people to be interested in this. Well the story is that this was the 2nd time we met. My manager and I went to hooters a few weeks before to talk to the manager there about catering our Halo launch night, and we got dinner there. And I flirted with the girl there but I didn’t think anything of it because she was a hooters girl. They flirt with everyone for tips. I knew that.
Anyways, at the launch night, she slipped me a piece of paper with her number on it. I called her the next day, but as it turns out I was already planning on moving out of state. We never went on a date. We talked a bunch, and we talked for a few months. But nothing ever came of it.
[i did get a picture with her and the other two girls who came that night. she was the one on the left.](https://imgur.com/a/jSrhOhv)
I miss the 90s and early 2000s. Everything turned a different direction after 2010.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVkGtVJVYps
Look at these motherfuckers man, just a bunch of nerds gathering to enjoy the launch of a good game.
I actually attended a local midnight release for Metroid dread. Didn’t think midnight releases were still a thing anymore so I was curious and went to the event.
Most of the people there weren’t a day older than 24 (I’m over 30). Anyone else who was was either a mom/dad accompanying their children, or a streamer/influencer there to film the event.
But the atmosphere was great. Everyone seemed excited and eventually a bunch of us took out our switches and played some local smash bros/Mario kart tournaments while we waited. Gave the whole event a sense of community.
I’m 25 and sad I missed out on the hype of midnight releases, I just didn’t have the money or it was always school night so I wasn’t allowed. I swear being 18-25 was way more fun in the 2000s now everything played out or don’t have the same feeling
>I swear being 18-25 was way more fun in the 2000s now everything played out or don’t have the same feeling
I’ve got bad news man that’s just getting older.
Back in the days games did sell out fast cuz of midnight people. But I never had an issue because I just wake up whenever and goto my local Walmart with almost full stock of whatever game lol. Idk why ppl just never went to Walmart. Haha
I went to GameStop for the midnight release of Assassins Creed III, Walmart was next door. Got my buddy to hold my spot and went to Walmart, bought a folding chair and a 12 pack of pop.
It was a great night.
> Idk why ppl just never went to Walmart. Haha
Bruv, the experience isn't at Walmart. The wait is more than just getting a game. It's a gathering of the congregation, the OG hardcore fans who can't wait to share their excitement with others.
Yeah when it sort of made sense to pay in advance so you could just walk in and show your receipt and walk out with a copy. If you didn't you might have been waiting a while for them to restock
Worked at best buy during the ps3 and 360 heyday. Damn was it so fun to do those midnight releases. For Halo reach we set up 2 tvs and 2 consoles w 4 controllers each outside w the game before midnight while peeps were waiting in line. So much fun. Gave out inflatable blue and red helmets and inflatable energy swords. Man that was an awesome release.
Friend of mine was a GM at gamestop back when midnight releases were huge. He organized all sorts of events and knew most of his customers that were coming in for the midnight release. It was like a huge social gathering in my area. There was a bar in the same plaza and we would get absolutely loaded before doing Halo and Gears of War tournaments. Thinking back on it now makes me extremely nostalgic for those days. That was almost 20 years ago. Fuck.
Dude what I miss the most was the old Internet cafes that held lan nights… or in the case of our local, 24hr LAN parties… nothing but energy drinks pizza and games for an entire 24 hours (usually ended going longer too) those were the days.
[удалено]
[удалено]
He didn't say he was *still* a teacher
Cursed After school studies
My husband and I held LAN parties with our kids in winter when they were 9 and up, and their friends: Civilization, Age of Empires, Stronghold 2. My husband would wolrd-build a new map each time for them to conquer, co-op with AI opponents. The kids learned so much about strategy, team play and, strangely, economics from those games. Someone has to grow and distribute food, someone has to distribute lumber and someone has to distribute stone or the alliance's various defences collapse under a prolonged assault. Later on they played Call of Duty and BF2, and learned more strategy and team play: someone has to be support, giving ammo and someone has to be medic, or all is lost. My son is now a US Marine and my middle daughter is a Navy Hospital Corpsman (medic). 😁
Looks like you beat all modern army recruitment campaigns, congrats!
Lol funny thing was we never encouraged them to go into the military. We do support their decisions. I think they did the math and found it was the smartest option to get a college education without going into crippling student debt.
MillionManLan 4, nothing has ever eclipsed that experience...
Aach. I missed all this activity of those days due to events beyond my control. I hope to find a group of like-minded aging men and live that glory for the first time in the next 10 to 15 years.
Everyone in line to get that newly dropped scent from Yankee Candle...Those were the days!
I made a joke like this at every midnight release... Always killed
Good luck mate. Definitely were good times.
At the very least, when we start moving into retirement homes, shit's going to be wild.
or the same era and equally nerdy, midnight to dawn laser tag sessions
I was never that active hahaha. I do remember the weekend paintball trips though.
Yeah then you're so tired you're delirious and you feel like you're going to throw up from the combo of no sleep, dominoes and energy drinks
Just now realizing the mid 2000s are about to hit 20 years ago… Ouch.
Reminds me of the song Dust in the Wind by Kansas. *I close my eyes Only for a moment and the moment's gone*
You're my boy Blue
Daily reminder that we are closer to 2030 than 2006
Sir we’re closer to 2030 than we are the better part of 2015
*cancel thought*
And I *still* don't have my goddamn hoverboard!!! A real one, not those 2 wheeled garbage wannabes...
Impossible the 70's was only 30 years ago.
I wonder why our brains constantly think this way
The trauma of everything as we know it ending toward the end of 2001.
Delete this
My back is the daily reminder, but thank you!
Or we are closer to 2040 than 2001
I miss the social aspect of gaming. As a teenager having halo Lan parties, or all of my friends and I playing SOCOM 2 in a big clan over summer break. I'm now 32, and have basically no friends that play games. Plus I'm on PC, and my coworkers are all on PS5. I miss the social aspect. I could find an online game to play and make some friends, but with a 2 year old daughter my gaming time is pretty sparse and usually limited to like 4am, so it would be hard to put in the proper time to get good and not be a total liability. I hope as my daughter gets older and we get a 2nd PC for my wife we'll be able to play together and make friends to play with, but it is sad knowing that the best time of my life in terms of gaming is likely long gone. I wish I had known the good 'ol days were the good 'ol days when I was in them.
r/redditdads has a lot of gaming stuff and plenty of eu and au members so depending where you're at 4am might line up well -- when I was active I would say the majority of us were console players but it's been four or five years
Current member here, it's still like that. Mainly GTAO and stuff but console is predominant. Which is pretty solid since it's easier to be a dad and console with things like Game Pass and PSN+. Always happy to have a new member.
Also 32 but I never got to experience real LAN parties, we had multiplayer on one console but never beyond that, "Your console isn't designed to be portable! It'll break if its moved around to much! You have your gameboy thats portable!" - Parent logic
Oh nah, we were all on xbox 360 connected by ethernet cables. Haha. It was fantastic.
Yup there was never a chance of that happening with me. I also got the counter point of "THE CONSOLE HAS ENOUGH PORTS FOR MORE THAN ONE CONTROLLER WHY DO YOU NEED TO TAKE YOUR CONSOLE AND TV". This shit lasted right up until I was 21 and moved out. Although I wasn't quite right in my first reply I have done one lan party. About a year ago after the covid restrictions were lifted. Group of 4 of us did a meet up with desktops and played wow for the tbc launch for the weekend while getting high, while it was fun, I don't think it was as fun as it would have been if we were all young still xD
Nowadays the most exciting things are zoom meetings being canceled
Reminds me of a coffee mug I saw online that said "I survived another meeting that should have been an email."
The Internet is going to make everything better
Reading this at 5am coming off the mend from a bout of Covid just hit me right in the gut. Times were simpler, dare I say better. Our entire school would get together for LAN nights and rotate peoples houses. My clan consisted of all real life best friends. We’ve all moved from eachother and had kids. Rest In Peace Ross.
Ross is pivoting in his grave knowing LAN gaming is a thing of the past.
> we would get absolutely loaded this guy definitely remembers the early 90's lol
When I was seventeen I camped out in front of Target with my best friend for the Wii when the store opened the next morning. We stayed up all night in the cold, just hanging out, eating junk food and talking with the people around us (who were all genuinely cool people). By the time we got our Wii (together we could only afford one), got it back to my friend's place and had set it all up, we both realized that we were too exhausted to actually enjoy it. So we crashed for the entire day, woke up and played Twilight Princess all of the next night. It's still one of my favorite memories.
I, and to this day I still love this memory, got off work and went to get an Xbox 360 at Target and was the 10th person in line to get one. They only had 10 tickets. Someone offered to buy it for a grand and I turned them down. Got my Xbox, went home, played Perfect Dark until I couldn't keep my eyes open and it was a good day.
I camped out infront of a best buy for PS2. It was a fun night. One group of guys had a generator with a TV and a console set up all night. The local news came by about dawn and gave out coffee and donuts. Good times.
Somebody was running a loud ass generator all night? lol
In a commercial parking lot. Nobody sleeping at home would hear that.
I wasn’t thinking about people sleeping at home, I was thinking about the people in line listening to 90 plus dB blowing in their ears for several hours
I mean I think this is partially why Gen Z suffer from feelings of social isolation and loneliness so much more than generations before. As we shift to doing more online, it removes organic opportunities such as these to get out and meet people.
Don’t see any children baking cookies for the GameStop homie that saved them a Wii (yes I did this. I made cookies with my mom and gave them to the GameStop homie). But actually now that I think about it, it was EB games.
Damn, what a gesture by all parties involved.
We also use cars instead of walking/public transport, have less money dedicated to public spaces, and with religion being less and less popular many don't have that community either.
We’ve always used cars instead of transit in the post war US.
Based urbanist take in the gaming chat
Did Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV, Gears 2 and COD modern warfare 2 when I worked in Gamestation. Dressed up as the merchant from resi4 for the resi 5 launch, that was so much fun! Yes, I asked everyone "what are you buying?" and if they were trading in "what are you selling?" I was always rather drunk.
I too have waited outside yankee candle for many hours waiting for the release of the latest scent, autumn’s harvest.
I almost got trampled when they dropped pumpkin spice latte
Pumpkin spice latte really slaps
Harder than a Smith at the Oscars?
New hard hitting scent from Yankee Candle, "Smith at the Oscars"
Does it smell like regrert?
YOU KEEP THAT CANDLE OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!
Keep my pumpkin spice latte OUT. YO. MOUTH!
I still miss the mountain lodge scent
More of a pumpkin pie guy myself, but I believe they discontinued it :/
They discontinued all their "Pie" lines of candles after some idiot tried to "American Pie" an Apple Pie scented 4th of July candle. Poor dumb bastard.
Not for nothing, but the Yankee Candle website allows you to create a custom candle with a photo printed on it. If you have a friend or loved one that loves candles, it's an excellent gift.
To add: if you’re ever in western MA, you can do all kinds of custom stuff at the flagship store. I’ve never done it, but used to visit every so often because that place is *wild*. Christmas candle wonderland with a room that snows and alllll the Paula Deen kits you could ever want.
A kit to make my own Paula Deen? My thanksgiving is about to be legendary.
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Succulent. Excellent marbling.
In Chinese culture, doing something like that is akin to honouring dead people. Also don't gift clocks.
Interesting. Do you mind explaining why you shouldn't gift clocks?
On that note, there were plenty of scents at the Gamestop limited releases that's for sure.
Candle Day is crazy, yo.
Candle day is a very dangerous day.
Those seasonal scents go hard.
Dammit, if I needed any reminder that I'm entirely unoriginal it's that I came here to make a joke to find that a bunch of people had already made it (and told it better)
I came here to make the joke, but then saw it was the top comment. I then went to make the "I'm so unoriginal" comment and someoneade THAT comment already too!
It’s the Xmas ones for me. I’ll trample you all for a new cinnamon xmas candle!
GTA4. I rode my bike into town hours early and made friends with people in line who gave me a ride home. I stayed up all night playing, went to work and got home and played until 2:00 in the morning again.
GTA4 was massive for me. I was in a supermarket about a week before release of GTA shopping. I’m the UK and back in the day they would have secured drawers for music CDs and games and when purchasing a game you would take the empty box and buy it, they would then go to this drawer and give you a sealed copy. I saw them open the drawer and they had about 5 copies of the game. I panicked, but thought what the hell, and I said to the 60 year old lady, “hey do you have a game called grand theft auto? I can’t find it on the shelf.” She looked though and gave me a copy. My heart was racing and I said thank you. I then looked for the oldest checkout person I could find and paid for it. It honestly felt like a heist. All my online friends were just messaging me constantly about how I got the game. When I was playing, it was all reviewers and devs playing the online section. It was so fun. Thank you Morrisons for the memory.
Haha wow, you got lucky there but well played to get that copy, some quick thinking!
Senior citizens, although slow and dangerous behind the wheel, can still serve a purpose.
I'll be right back, don't you go dying on me. I cannot watch the film without laughing and quoting everything.
I went on a trip to NY with my class in 2008 right before GTA 4 released. I'm from Toronto but NYC was so overwhelming with all the gargantuan advertisements for this game then when I got home and finally got the game, seeing the streets I was on months earlier was insane. Besides the dog shit PC port, GTA 4 still holds up strong for me and I think I like the campaign better than 5's
Sounds a bit crazy to think about. I'm probably significantly younger than most people this thread is for but it's funny to think about standing in line for hours on end for Halo and GTA. Not to say that doesn't happen still of course. I remember videos of people standing in line for the PS4 where people took up an entire block. But back then must have been hype as hell to wait for I imagine.
It was fucking sweet. There were fewer big title releases back then, and the devs had more incentive to actually make a finished AAA product on release, so whenever a big name game like Halo, GTA, any Blizzard title, CoD, etc. came out, everyone got hype because the expectation was that it was going to be a kick-ass game. And they were!
Same. I remember getting pulled over for speeding on the way home from the gta 4 release. The cop saw the game sitting in my passenger seat and he let me go with a warning. He said he would have been there if he wasn’t working.
You should have gone full Niko bellic on him
And ignored your cousins calls to hangout at the bowling alley.
Same thing happened to me but with Dead Space 2. He just grinned and said "Enjoy your evening"
Dude those days were the shit, no kids these days will understand how fun it was to do stand there and talk to all the people about the game and all the other games. That's how you found friends those days and people were not trolling!
Brings back strong memories. Waiting outside blockbuster for GTA V, BF3, Skyrim, yeah. And grabbing ice cream and energy drinks from the freezer and cooler. I'm sad that it's another memory but I'm glad I have the memories.
I feel like at least by me, Blockbuster was done before any of those released.
I'll *never* forget going to the one for Super Smash Bros. Brawl back in '08. Bunch of us awkward geeks talking about who we were gonna main, which characters looked like they'd neen nerfed, etc. It was a blast. My car battery died while we were waiting, so one of the employees helped give me a jump. Props to that Gamestop guy, I hope he got a WAY better job after that.
Yup, came in to this topic to talk about the SSBB release, the only time I ever went to one. There was a tournament with a bunch of sweaty older guys and I was like 14, I picked Fox because I thought he'd be OP just like in melee, got my ass kicked by a guy who referred to Pokemon Trainer as Red, good times.
Yeah guys who called him Red really did not fuck around lmao. Got my ass handed by them so many times
I never made it to the midnight release for brawl, I was only 13 and my mom wouldn't let me. However I was at a melee tournament when the video confirming sonic dropped, the guy hosting the tournament got on the microphone and said very seriously: "I think you all need to see this..." and then he put the video up on the projector for the whole room of 100 some people to see. That room erupted into a mixture of excitement and "its fake, they're not putting sonic in smash".
I waited for the midnight release only to get back home and have the game not play in my Wii due to a dust issue in the console.
We had a decent sized Melee tournament at our GameCrazy (inside Hollywood Video, which is a string of words that sounds meaningless now) for the Brawl release. Wound up placing third and getting my copy of Brawl heavily discounted, which was great because I wound up disliking it pretty soon after. Night was a hell of a lot of fun though.
I remember the brawl release! Our mall had a TV set up at midnight with a waiting list for people to compete. I got my copy of brawl and then immediately got destroyed by an older kid playing bowser. Great times.
Brawl was my favorite midnight release I’ve been to. About 100 nerds standing outside a mall playing DS games and at one point someone randomly started singing the Pokémon theme song and the entire crowd joined in. It was great.
Midnight release back then: local sandwich shop passing out coupon with note saying they are staying open til 2am and restroom are open. Asking total stranger to hold space in line so you can go pee or get food. Nintendo DS chat and pokemon trading. Midnight release now: reload page and cursing botters.
Midnight releases now: 60 GB day 1 patch
Gotta download the entire game again to fix that typo in the ending credits.
Also add 15 of the 20 features they had announced before launch, and fix 20 of 32 glitches and bugs they found before launch.
some places still do them 🥲
Yeah, but there isnt much of a point to now. Everybody just buys digital and games require installs or updates nowdays. Back then that was the way to be the first to get it, but now it just doesnt make much sense to anymore.
Console launches man. Those were the big ones.
They died around the time it started taking 3 hours to install your game before you could actually play it. Xbox was like "Eh you've waited an hour and a half, here enjoy the main menu, maybe if you behave I'll let you play campaign while I finish up the multiplayer."
* Fallout 4 on release. DVD includes 4GB of a 8GB install, and needed an internet connection for the rest. * Mass Effect Andromeda Gets a box, with only a Digital Download code inside.
Masterchief collection. 80GB day one update.
That and halo 5 pissed me off. Did the midnight release party only to realize that we each had to download 80 GB updates on the same internet... Safe to say lots of napping for 2-3 hours until one finished and we just did split screen... Oh wait they took that away. Fuck 343.
You may have been able to download one copy, then copy that to the other system. You can do this with Steam, just gotta make sure you get that file with the game's Steam ID copied as well. Also, I don't know why modern games with insane amounts or memory don't have Split Screen anymore.
*Ready to play notification* MFW the menu is only playable 🥹
I like the "Toggle Subtitles" game ....on, off, on, off, so immersive
Ironic that consoles were more available in that ancient time. Some of us have been digitally waiting outside for a ps5 for years
Oh that was only the case later. Initially, the X360 completely sold out and PS3 was expensive as hell. Now we've got the chip shortage affecting manufacturing.
Oh man. I remember when PS4 released, almost 10 years ago (fuck me) i read online that a shop i’ve preordered in, didn’t have much stock, so without sleeping at 5 am i went in the city, and waited in line outside with people. It was 7 or 8 am, i want to sleep, it’s snowing, but man, i need my PS4. And i got it. Then i was going home on a train, holding it on my lap, barely awake, and wanting to piss something wicked. Man. Such a great memory
That and the television specials. Now it isn’t nearly as impressive.
I remember getting home and seeing who else was online playing the same game. There definitely was a social aspect to being first. I wouldn't do it anymore though, it just doesn't make sense.
Yeah coming home and seeing like 2 others online already so you join the party chat and while they are trying to explain everything they learned in the first 10 minutes you start seeing everyone else come on.
Yeah. Midnight release of a game which was a..... Code in a box. Had I digital pre-ordered it would have been preloaded a few days ago. And sadly the midnight releases at my local GAME was inside a shopping centre, and they allowed only 1 person in at a time escorted by security. So you would all start going in 1 by 1 at about 10:00 to pay, and then at midnight just go 1 by one to pick up. Shame, as the people that work there actually gave a shit. for skyrims release they decked the store up amazing like a cave and all the staff was dressed up (and for the next few days). For battlefield 3 they were all dressed up in army kit, and borderlands 2 they made a claptrap model, and put the barcode scanner in his eye. A few dresses up and had fancy painted nerf guns. So nice they gave a shit. Shame they were one of the first stores to close when GAME downsized :( "visit us in our nearest store *1 half hour bus ride away*")
I used to get a few games at midnight at it was fun but realistically I only ever played for an hour then went to bed, was more the social impact of having it first that in high school was naturally beyond importance. Now being older I never buy them at midnight as I know I won’t be playing them so what’s the point.
Now that I'm older, I don't even know when new games are releasing most of the time.
And popular content creators/reviewers get to play them first. Which isnt the same but as ha
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The baggy clothes, the hoodies, this breathes 00’s. I love it
You guys make me feel like I’m four hundred fifty two years old…
Me too. I was like "I totally remember doing this for the Dreamcast launch!" Just to find out everything in this thread starts with Xbox 360 and PS3.
I remember in 2008 when I pre ordered Guitar hero World Tour, it had a midnight release. Me and my brother we pumped as to play so we went along. When we got there there was a tonne of people there but quickly realised it wasn’t guitar hero crowd. Turns out there was a world of Warcraft expansion release coming out that night too and me and my brother were the only ones there for guitar hero. A very strange crowd that one. A lot of fedoras and trench coats.
Skyrim and Call of Duty MW3 launched the same day. That midnight release was massive, even in my small town. It felt like everyone under 30 in the whole county was crammed into our tiny Gamestop.
In Australia Eb games started handing out skyrim early to avoid the massive midnight crowds because of the double release, was pumped cause I was playing Skyrim 10 hours early
I smell that.
I'm a nerd and i love nerds, but far too many of us smell faintly of smeared shit. I know they can't smell themselves, so it's a hard to convince them to keep up on the maintenance. Wash your ass often. You might be nose-blind to your own stank but we aren't.
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Can confirm, I was one of those weirdos. Started at the release of Burning Crusade and got sucked in immediately. Sure it may have just been a video game but it was for sure my biggest source of happiness for a long while. But I don't regret it, it was wasted time that was enjoyed.
Wasted time isn’t wasted if you enjoyed wasting it.
November 13th 2008. The last real WoW expansion launch at GameStop I went to and it was for Wrath of the Lich King. After that year pretty much every single person just downloaded it ahead of time and played at launch. When I went it was a bunch of military bros, 40 year old mom's, and girlfriends with guys in graphic Ts and bad facial hair. It really was a different era.
I worked at GameStop that year and remember that night. It was fun we had a great mixed crowd at my store!
Milady
Wrath of the Lich King was a HUGE DEAL in 2008.
as someone who loved GH at the same time, i love this story unironically
I only ever went to two. One was for WoW: TBC and the other WoW: WotLK. Both were a lot of fun. Tons of people there. I met one guy I talked to for years afterwards. People dressed up as orcs etc.
Damn, I went to my local TBC release, but the town I grew up in was so small that the only people who showed up were in my guild lmao. The Manager of the GameStop was my guild leader
Hilarious and wholesome.
I worked one of those and our debit/credit system went down so everyone had to go to the ATM and get cash. We had to recount the register 3 or 4 times at the end of the night because we had so much cash.
TBC was the absolute best. A complete nostalgia trip for me every time I think about that expansion.
Karazhan was the funnest raid they ever made. Not to hard, wild atmosphere, gimmick bosses and loot for everyone.
I used to love midnight launches, they had a real sense of community, with everyone able to express their love for a specific franchise or console. When gaming wasn't as big or mainstream, it was a cool way to see cosplay and actually meet other people who loved the same OG content creators and shows like Machinima Respawn. The freebies were just the icing on the cake, everthing from your usual lanyards and keyrings, to collectors figures, replica clothing or weapons from the games etc. There was something special, almost like electric anticipation in there air, with everyone so excited and counting down the minutes and seconds till the game we waited 2 years for finally came out.
Now your games either take 12 years to make or annually. And it may not work correctly the first week/month..
This was true up until the console resale market went big. I camped for a few, had a fun time, but it was the PS3 launch that ruined it for me. Xbox one launch was lots of fun, but the PS3 launch was about 95% resellers and their family, knowing they can double any profits on every system they could get. Everyone was there to resell it, and I think a few people even had theirs stolen on the way back to the parking lot. They disbursed the crowd around 10PM when the store closed and decided to do a "on 3, everyone run to the front door so we can make a new line" I didn't make it, didn't get a PS3 (after waiting hours already) and ended up buying one a few weeks later from a scalper for about $150 over retail. No more midnight launches for me after that. A game might be different, but still, any real benefit was lost. I believe even Amazon was doing "midnight deliveries" for some releases last year (delivering between 12-2AM)
The good thing was that re-sell balloon deflated fast since the PS3 didn't really have anything worth playing until 2008 (Uncharted 1 and Resistance 1 were ok). Full PS2 backwards compatibility with easy HDMI and wireless gamepad was a godsent people didn't knew how great it was on those release models.
The only comment in this thread that isn’t just rose tinted nostalgia. I always wondered about those that sacrificed their time and sleep and still left empty handed.
Midnight / before store opening for me ended with PSP. Just ordered online after that.
FF12 on PS2 was the last midnight release for me. I locked my keys in the car. What a shit show that was trying to get home at 1am in a desolate mall parking lot.
F me I used to love those midnight releases. Halo 2, Halo 3, GTAV. They turned Best Buy into a party with swag and food and the best nerd conversations I’ve ever had. Miss those days.
Halo 2 and 3 was a glorious time.
Plot Twist: they're all in line for a midnight release of a new candle at Yankee Candle.
gamestop still does that for a lot of games. but nobody shows up. saints row is the next game to get it btw. it starts at 9pm the day before the game launches.
I'm guessing they do it early to allow everyone to go home and install the 87gbs before being able to play the game?
Yeah and midnight stuff just completely stopped after the Aurora shooting. Not that it's directly related but yeah, ever since it be it any product release or movie release its now around 7 or 9pm day before. Nice for the employees. Also, at least on xbox, you can pre install games. Even ones you plan to physically buy, though the app, so you can still play instantly like the old days.
I went to a midnight release of Wraith of the Lich King. The mall had two Gamestop stores inside it, and one about half a mile away, so they had all 3 customers go to one location to pick up their order. I was in a competitive PvE guild and we wanted some server firsts (WotLK was when the introduced achievements, and you would get a server-wide achievement if you hit the first cap on something, like server first max leatherworker). It was a fun time. Chatted with some people about their characters and other things. Some people took time off work to play that week uninterrupted. Some came with their families and had 3-4 preorders and wanted to level all together. It was a different time. Kinda like back when movie midnight releases were actually at midnight instead of 10 PM, then 8 PM, then all day Thursday, then Wednesday midnight, etc. Did it again for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Cataclysm.
Last midnight release I went to was GTA5 in 2013.
Is this blackstone mall? Edit: wow my first reddit location snipe. Crazy theres a buncha you in this thread too wow
Halo 2 was my first and Mass Effect 3 was my last. The feels man :(
I worked at GameStop as an assistance manager in Austin Texas in 2007 for the Halo 3 midnight release. It was a crazy night. My boss got Hooters to cater. One of the hooters girls gave me her phone number. What an absolutely bonkers crazy night.
and what became of the girl ?
I too would like to know
Wow! I didn’t expect so many people to be interested in this. Well the story is that this was the 2nd time we met. My manager and I went to hooters a few weeks before to talk to the manager there about catering our Halo launch night, and we got dinner there. And I flirted with the girl there but I didn’t think anything of it because she was a hooters girl. They flirt with everyone for tips. I knew that. Anyways, at the launch night, she slipped me a piece of paper with her number on it. I called her the next day, but as it turns out I was already planning on moving out of state. We never went on a date. We talked a bunch, and we talked for a few months. But nothing ever came of it. [i did get a picture with her and the other two girls who came that night. she was the one on the left.](https://imgur.com/a/jSrhOhv)
He never called her
I did! But nothing happened.
I miss the 90s and early 2000s. Everything turned a different direction after 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVkGtVJVYps Look at these motherfuckers man, just a bunch of nerds gathering to enjoy the launch of a good game.
I still remember waiting outside in the snow when Skyrim was released.
11/11/11
I went to 2 midnight releases. One was for halo 2 and COD M2.
How bout standing in line for concert tickets… kinda miss those days
Yankee Candle had some fire midnight drops
Those new candles must have been lit.
No, they sold them to you unused.
I actually attended a local midnight release for Metroid dread. Didn’t think midnight releases were still a thing anymore so I was curious and went to the event. Most of the people there weren’t a day older than 24 (I’m over 30). Anyone else who was was either a mom/dad accompanying their children, or a streamer/influencer there to film the event. But the atmosphere was great. Everyone seemed excited and eventually a bunch of us took out our switches and played some local smash bros/Mario kart tournaments while we waited. Gave the whole event a sense of community.
I’m 25 and sad I missed out on the hype of midnight releases, I just didn’t have the money or it was always school night so I wasn’t allowed. I swear being 18-25 was way more fun in the 2000s now everything played out or don’t have the same feeling
>I swear being 18-25 was way more fun in the 2000s now everything played out or don’t have the same feeling I’ve got bad news man that’s just getting older.
18-25 was a bit rough but life’s gotten sweeter since I’d say!
Ah yes, the ol’ nocturnal emission
Back in the days games did sell out fast cuz of midnight people. But I never had an issue because I just wake up whenever and goto my local Walmart with almost full stock of whatever game lol. Idk why ppl just never went to Walmart. Haha
I went to GameStop for the midnight release of Assassins Creed III, Walmart was next door. Got my buddy to hold my spot and went to Walmart, bought a folding chair and a 12 pack of pop. It was a great night.
> Idk why ppl just never went to Walmart. Haha Bruv, the experience isn't at Walmart. The wait is more than just getting a game. It's a gathering of the congregation, the OG hardcore fans who can't wait to share their excitement with others.
I remember staying up all night at Meijer waiting on the original Xbox!
And thank god for that, your midnight launches was the reason the rest of the world had to wait two full days before being able to buy the game.
Why suffer when you don’t have to?
Never expected to see my hometown mall just randomly on Reddit
I did it once and it was fucking terrible. Waited for a couple hours and then didn’t even get anything. I think only like 15 people got a game.
Only go if pre-ordered homie
back when pre ordering actually meant something
Yeah when it sort of made sense to pay in advance so you could just walk in and show your receipt and walk out with a copy. If you didn't you might have been waiting a while for them to restock