I’ve decided after much deliberation not to worry about getting a Wii on launch day. Final Fantasy III for the DS comes out the same week, so I’m going to enjoy that and pick up a Wii sometime later.
Pre-orders started, and ended it seems, today. If you hadn’t decided you wanted one on November 19, you may be out of luck until the second shipments roll in. Joystiq has a few journal entries up chronicalling their line-waiting:
Seems like stores are getting between six and thirty-two units to sell on launch day. In all the above cases each store sold out its pre-order quotas just from the people waiting in line. I feel like making people wait in line for a pre-order is a little silly. Why not have a sign-up box and do a raffle? I guess a line builds hype, but it’s not like EB Games store managers really like having people hanging around outside their stores all morning, nor do they like turning away customers who didn’t wake up early enough.
Regardless of this, my guess is that there will be plenty available to buy if you go for one in early December, and none to be found if you want to get one in late December. I’m guessing Amazon will have a good supply.