I’ve been gaming since the tender age of three, when I picked up a Master System pad and showed remarkable skill at R-Type. Since then I’ve owned more consoles than I care to remember, spending absurd amounts on my hobby even into my current debt-ridden student state. I’ve been writing about games now for going on seven years, spent a couple of years podcasting about the topic and now I bore Twitter about the topic at great length. Yet despite all this experience, my past intertwined with the coming of console generations, one part of gaming still baffles me: the midnight launch.
Picture the scene if you will, a new game is coming out… and a pretty highly anticipated one at that. There is a chill in the November air in Glasgow, the stars litter the sky as most people are tucked in bed awaiting the next working day. Not our intrepid gamers though, who emerge from their dwelling of choice, heading with excitement to the game store of their choosing. They queue, chatter and chitter with equal measure before piling into the artificially lit shop of dreams. Pre-order receipt handed over with £45 and a shiny new game handed back in return. Scurrying back home with the game of the day they presumably play until morning, safe in the knowledge that they got the game first.

Why on earth would I want to do that? Let’s put aside the obvious issue of a group of gamers heading out for a new game or console at midnight being a mugger’s wet dream for the moment and focus on the realities. All this will serve to do is aggravate me, as I head out at mightnight to shop and still have to queue. I’ve seen footage of those massive queues and wonder what the people there think of when in the cold and dark. Do they ever think about what it could have been like ordering online? That time they could be in the arms of their partner; watching the best of cinema, playing a fun game or making passionate love. They could be excitedly looking at news of the game of their desires, or tracking the package online as it wings its way to their house for launch day. They could be checking online banking, smug at the amount they saved by buying online… even looking at budget games they can pick up with the money saved. Then the day comes after a good night’s sleep, a hearty breakfast and dashing out on that crisp winter morning to college, university or work. Making plans with friends to meet up on XBL or PSN in the evening, bright and breezily heading home for a night of fun and games. Opening the door to your warm house the game sits on the floor, all ready for you to play.
Now, isn’t that a much better sounding plan than standing in the cold to get your game at a higher price for the sake of 8-9 sleepy extra hours of gaming?
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