Nov. 11, 2006, was one of the most stressful nights of my gaming life. That was the date the PlayStation 3 launched in Japan — and it was hell.
Leading up to the PS3 launch, Sony had pushed a hype-fueled PS3 roll-out. Japanese gamers, who had been frosty toward the Xbox 360, were anxious to enter a new era of high-definition gaming. But it wasn't the hype and the expectations that made Nov. 11, 2006, so damn stressful — it was the fact that most retailers didn't offer preorders.
Preorders have long been commonplace in the West. Gamers line up for slips of paper that they redeem for the product when it actually goes on sale. But people lining up for slips to exchange for product a month or so later isn't sexy — it doesn't quite make for the same photo opportunity that unfolds when 1,000 people line up for a new console and leave the store exhausted and smiley with their new hardware. Lines for preorders feel far more subdued and abstract, even. They're lines of people patiently waiting to enter into an agreement with a retailer to buy a product that they'll receive at a later date.