I think Nintendo's main franchises, Mario Sunshine, SSBM, and Mario Kart, never got onto the "Player's Choice" list, aka the $20 list. They're still $30 new, and it will likely be 2 years before Brawl's price drops.

I have it reserved at gamestop. Think it's the 3rd game I've ever pre ordered.

BenKenobi88 said: ferret1603 said: RCTjunkie said: I did via internet on Bestbuy.com, but the order got cancelled! I used the money I got back to get SMG, though. I will re-reserve it when my birthday comes (15 days) Wow, you have to pay to reserve in the US? Here when you pre-order websites only take the money when they dispatch the game to you.  Duh.  How does reserving games work in your country?  Here, you pay money, typically a $5 minimum.  It goes towards the game's cost...so you typically pay $45 when you pick up the game...and you can put the money towards a different game if you cancel...not sure if you can get it back in cash though. There's high demand for games, and putting money down on it ensures that you get a copy...otherwise everybody could walk into a store and "reserve" a game, and never come back for it...that'd suck.  It'd be an overstock of software. And anyway, like I said before, reserving's dumb, you can typically get your game without reserving.  It's systems that should have reserving.

If you pre-order online you don't pay any money until the game is on it's way [amazonUK or play.com] I have never pre-ordered a game in a store but I think you just put your name on a list usually... perhaps big gameslike brawl are different. I had to give a £20 deposit for my Wii "pre-order" though [quote marks are because I had to pre-order it 2 months after release] Pre-ordering is not big here, things like Halo obviously got pre-ordered but If I went in a store now to order No more heroes I doubt the store clerk would let me bother, instead just advising me that I will be able to buy it day 1 [which is true]

I've never preordered online, maybe you don't need to pay for that...because it's an online system that has a larger stock of games. In a brick and mortar store, you need to make a downpayment because sometimes software is limited and demand is high. It makes sense, and I guess it makes sense that you don't have to, since demand isn't as high where you live. It's not like we're losing money though.

lots of smart people and lots of dumb people.

It works different here too BenKenobi88, I reserve a game without paying for it (unless it's a 360 pre-order get with nice extra's) they will call me on the day of release and ask me if I still want to pick it up.

I always wait for Circuit City. They always have the best deals on new releases.
Galaxy and Toys-R-Us was the exception to the rule.

When you pre-order Brawl with them, you get a $10 gift card when the game comes out.

I've never seen the need to reserve a game in australia due to worry that i may not get it, since it has always been there on launch day, but if i know i'm going to get a game, i will wait until the last week of shop catalogs are out before the launch and see who has the best preorder deal, and on all big games, they usually have really good deals to compete with other shops

Here in MD its five bucks to reserve...
Nintendo has to make a lot of SSBB's
Like everyone reserved the game so they have to make a lot

yeah assuie + good games = low sales. No offense. Party games do better then bigger titles.