Howdy!

How come when I asked if Wal*Mart was going to be doing an event, I was told it "was impossible", as Nintendo had changed the release date too often - now I see Sam's Club is doing a company-wide event?

How did Sam's get to be so lucky? :(

Hi Joe-

If you check out the following link, I find it very disturbing.

http://scrapetv.com/Games/Games%20Pages/News/walmart%20to%20cover%20up.html

Does this mean that Wal-mart will also start to cover up "R" rated movies as well?  They are both rated what they are, due to content, for people 17 years and older.

It also mentions that they will be doing half sleeves as well for "T" rated games.  Will this go to cover "PG-13" movies as well? 

I have to admit that lately these attacks against video games ridiculous.  There is no difference between an "R" rated movie and an "M" rated game.  Same goes for "T" rated games and "PG-13" rated movies. 

Thanks for the e-mail. I am aware of no such program. I called my counterpart at Wal-Mart and he even spoke with themovie buyer. No one that I spoke with and my self included is aware of that happening. One should not always believe everything that they read on the internet :-). (You can trust what you read here at checkout!).

So, this means that Sam's Club will have Wii consoles for the Midnight Event?  If so, what will the price be for them?

Well Richard, that is because all WM Supercenters are already open at midnight (24 hours) and we are buying the free worlds supply so don't get too upset as we will have plenty of Super Smash and if you are a Supercenter you will already be open at midnight and have product ready to sell!

As the video game software buyer for Wal-Mart I can safely tell you that there is zero truth to us covering up M rated video games!  No worries, it is not happening.

I find it hard to believe that Wal-Mart would be involved in covers for rated T games, not to mention M rated games. I mean, the strides that have been made to pull in the younger crowd (young adults, not necessarily children) would just be unmade, not to mention it would call in to question the displaying of R rated movies to children as well (which are not behind glass, by the way). No matter how anyone bashes Rockstar for violence, they have nothing on Saw I - IV! That's what the age restrictions on items were put in for. Wal-Mart has been pretty good about carding people, as opposed to places like Game Stop and Best Buy.

... and there I am with egg on my face. So, either that commenter was a troll, or just a naive as I am/was. Apparently, the source of his article is a parody site, along the lines of The Onion. There is no amount of truth to that news story whatsoever.

sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2008/02/rated-m-for-moronic-more-walmart-censorship.html

Tifanie: I'm glad to see that Wal*Mart has gotten beind this game as well - I think it'll be a great seller (I hope I'm right, judging by the amount my store alone is getting!).

Midnight "Retailtainment" events for big movies and games is something Wal*Mart (and now Sam's, I guess!) should do more often.  I know if it's something I'm after, I don't mind hanging around 'till midnight to grab it.  I waited 12 hours two Novembers ago for my Wii and it was boring as heck (worth it though).

I called my local Sam's Club {Kalamazoo MI} they had no idea what I was talking about. They were like no, we are never open until midnight. My conern was do I need to pre-order smash brothers or is there going to be enough copies in stock without a reserve.

Thanks for the feedback. I will send a note to the market manager. We certainly covered it in Kansas City. Communication from the Home Office to the clubs is coming soon, so they will all see it again.

As for quantity, we should have plenty on hand for the event. It is our first chainwide attempt, so we certainly hope we bought enough. Thanks!

This is a question for Joe -

Okay - this may sound bird-brained but I have to ask otherwise I will show up at the wrong time : )

Is the Midnight opening Sunday night at 12 AM or Staurday night at 12 AM. 

Thanks!

OK, let me answer these. ALL clubs are opening at Midnight on Sunday 3/9/08. That means we anticipate that folks will be lining up in the evening on SATURDAY. At 11:59:59PM on Saturday it is STILL Saturday. One second later, at 12:00:00 it is Sunday. This is the earliest one can buy it. Pre-sale is ONLY done via dot com at Sam's Club at present. It is SITE to HOME. You order it, and it is shipped to your home. We hope to have SITE to CLUB in the future and are trying to figure out how to do that and eliminate shipping charges. It is not ready yet. We expect to have over 20 units of Wii hardware at EACH location. We expect to have over 50 units of Super Smash Bros Brawl at EACH location as well. Limit one per Membership on the hardware. NO LIMIT on the software. Hope that addresses it all. It is our first chainwide midnight event, so we will learn from this. Thanks! 

Just wanted to say, I checked again with my local Sam's (Kzoo, MI) and they confirmed about the midnight opening.

Thanks.

Excellent! We rushed to get all of the communication together. Should be a great time for all!

Joe,

I would like to personally thank you, and SAM'S CLUB, for this opprotunity. You see i am disabled; I have twin 12 year old boys; The only thing they asked for last Christmas was a Wii.

Because I have MS it is hard for me to travel to find something whose existance is dubious at best. It has been very painful for me each time the boys have said something about when I thought we would be getting their Wii.

Their mother was out of work most of last year and thus we were not able to give them much else for Christmas and a Wii. I hope the weather is good as i will have to wait outside for the period from closing til midnight with the others. if it is cold or rainy we will have to call it and head for home.

When do you think the product flow on the Wii will get to some balance with the demand so that you might have some in regualar inventory? i am sure you must have done some projections on this.

Thanks agian for this opprotunity.

Charlie in Charleston, S.C.

Charlie, thanks for the kind words, but it really took a team to make this happen. I get the honor of being the front man for an entire team of great folks. I will pass your words on to the folks that deserve the credit, including our partners at Nintendo.

As for the supply meeting demand, I wish I had an answer. The demand keeps outstripping supply and we know we can sell every unit we get.

Hope you are able to get one. We want to make as many people happy as we can. That Sam's Membership sure has benefits!

Thank YOU for being a Member and allowing our Company to help make life better for everyone we can.

To: Joe M

Do you know that the WII for midnight special come with sport' game?

Yes, Wii sports comes with the standard Wii console!

I saw a sign at Sam's today about the 3/9 midnight event.  Having never waited in line for a Wii I am trying to figure out what time I should get in line.  Any suggestions?  Do you think they will pass out numbers or will you have to stand outside the door?

This is our first midnight event. I wish I could give you some guidance, but I do not know. Let's open it up to our audience. Anyone else been in a midnight event before? What time should the lines begin to form?

so does the midnight launch apply for all sam's club stores? just don't wanna end up going there and then they're not even participating.

as for when you should be there. since it's sam's club and you need a membership, i would think you don't really have to be there that early. i went to the midnight launch for guitar hero 3 and didn't have a problem at all. i got there probably 45 minutes before 12. so i wouldn't go more than an hour before or you'll just be sitting there for no reason. but you can't really know for certain...

How will daylight savings time change Sunday morning effect this? DST is supposed to go into effect at 2:00a.m. officially - but I don't know if any of the Clubs are going to be confused.

WOW - a hot topic, getting hotter. Love the enthusiasm!

Stephen - It will apply to all clubs UNLESS they have a law restricting the sale at midnight on Sunday. In this case, when we open, the items will be up for sale.

There are a few clubs in SC, ND, MS, OK, MA, NC, KY and MO (but not ALL clubs in all of these states) in which a state or local law prohibits sale. There are some laws, commonly referred to as Blue Laws, which prohibit us from selling at midnight on Sunday. Of course, we would never knowingly violate the law and will comply with these laws. Our Members in these clubs will have access at normal operating hours.

Just as an FYI, we did not have a midnight launch at Sam's for Guitar Hero. We did have one in 6 clubs in the Orlando, FL area for Rock Band. That was the test for this program. It obviously went well.

Blake - It will not impact this program as the change in time will not occur until AFTER the event. We will be open from midnight until 2:00 AM and the change occurs at 2:00 AM. We sent direction to the clubs on this very point to ensure we are good to go. Hopefully, it will not be an issue.

Glad to see folks are fired up for games at great prices at Sam's Club. I will be there at the Bentonville, AR club. If you are there, be sure to stop and say "Hi" it would be great to put a face to the name.

Take care and have fun.

What a night. I was at the Bentonville club and it was a blast. Great to be able to talk to our Members and see their excitement. We had a great time. Many happy Members and a very smooth time for our first midnight event. Based on the success, I would anticipate that more of these events are coming to a Sam's Club near you! Anyone else make it to their clubs for the event?

Thanks for all the great info.  My kids will be thrilled to finally have a Wii when they receive it at Easter.  I arrived about 11:10 and was 7th in line.  The person at the head of the line arrived at 6:00 p.m.  The manager on duty was very friendly and the hot coffee was much appreciated.  All in all it was painless. 

Glad you liked it. We had a blast here locally as well. learned a lot from the event. These types of things will only get bigger.

I just want to share with you:

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/repair/repair_form_us_ssbb.jsp

Hope this site will help for those who bought the WII console 4-6 mos. ago. If you just buy the console recently, the new Super
Smash Brawl should play flawlessly.

Got to Sams Club at 11:45pm and was out the door with the WII console and stuff at 12:06.  The staff was great.    thanks Sams