I was doing xmas shopping yesterday and went to several stores -
First stop is the Best Buy, this is the bigget Best Buy in our area. Most customers that frequent here are upper middle class.
Everyone is looking for Wii and Wii games. There were so many people at Best Buy in Nintendo section picking up Wii games, accessories along with DS games. I was ask by couple people about games, I try to recommend game like Metroid Prime, Mario Galaxy, Zak & Wiki but sadly the mass are only interest in games like Carnival, Transformers, Rattatuille ... *sigh*
Guitar Hero 3 for Wii and Xbox 360 are both sold out. They are one item, beside Wii that I see people asking for. Plenty of PS2 version and PS3.
They have plenty of Xbox Pro (premium), several Halo 3 version and mountain of Arcade. Xbox area is also quite busy but not as busy as Wii section. No Elite to be found.
PS3 section also have a lot of people this is the busiest I have seen PS3 section. I saw one lady bought a 40gb, browse the game section briefly but in the end only got the system. They have big pile of both 80gb and 40gb version.
Also the only version of Rockband they have is the PS3. (I was looking for 360 version but they are all sold out).
Next stop was Target.
This is a big Target and one of the more busier store, the store look like it was ransack. This store demographic is different vastly from the Best Buy. (It's not as quite upscale , the store is on opposite side of town in lower income area). They have several Elite, one Arcade, one Halo, but no Pro. (I am sure they have plenty more in the back. Again Wii section is quite popular also the 360 and PS2. Not a single person beside me was looking at PS3 stuff.
My last stop was Toys R Us, it's near the Target, but it is also the only Toys R Us in 100 miles radius. The store was pack and look like it was completely ransack in the game department. I must have heard the theree clerks repeated "we are sold out of Wii" about thousands times (ok, exagerate here but plenty of times). People seems really angry and they all blame Nintendo for not making enough unit. (Poor Nintendo, last year it was DS, this year it's Wii). Some people think Nintendo is doing this on purpose to create demand. One of the clerk said well they got in 42 and was sold out in less than an hour.
She said system wide Toys R Us got big Wii shipments but they are all sold out. However, Joe the average guy don't really seems to care (understandable consider two weeks before Christmas). I really feel for the people that work for Toys R Us , it seems they are pretty tired of getting blame for the lack of Wii. Their mantra seems to be if you are unhappy please call Nintendo and tell them to ship more units.
What I do notice is that this Toys R us is completely sold out of the Arcade. Probably the deal they have going (50% off game with Arcade purchase) that combine with the lack of Wii? May be this is the exact reason why Microsoft is pushing out the Arcade. They have one Pro unit left and that was all. I ask about the 360 Arcade, and the same lady that was talking about the Wii told me that she was quite surprise that they are almost sold out of the 360.
The wii and DS game section are very popular, and so are the 360. They just got in shipment of Rock Band (no Guitar Hero 3). I saw several Rock Band being bought (all 360 versions, poor PS3).
It seems a lot of people that shopping for kids, still go to Toys R US as a destination for games. I have to say while this Toys R Us selection is pretty poor compare to the Best Buy, they have a lot more people looking at games than the Best Buy. It could be also ease of shopping, since they could get toys also among other things for kids.
- Wii is definitely number one video game item
- GH 3 for Wii and 360 are all sold out. Plenty of PS2 bundle. This I think is probably due to the fact that most people already have guitar for the PS2. Toys R US is doing $40.00 off when you buy PS2 & GHIII.
- Wii will do killing in both hardware and software this Christmas. But the true king is DS system. That little handheld really move software.