I did not camp out myself, but I did work a register when some early World of Warcraft expansions came out. People went crazy for them.

I remember one evening we had some Wrath of the Lich King collector’s editions available for the release event and there was a huge rush to get in when they opened the doors. I had this sweet old lady come through my line with one of the big boxes. She was very excited because she bought it for her grandson and she wanted to give him a special gift. She was all smiles.

A few minutes later, I had a guy come through my line. He looked a little flustered and had a regular edition in his hand. He said some old lady ran up, pushed him out of the way, hit him with her purse, then grabbed the last collector’s edition and ran to the front.

Pretty sure my sweet old lady customer was the same one that hit him with her purse lol. It was a weird night.

2012 I think Diablo 3 midnight launch.

Total disaster of a launch from blizzards server/network teams

I waited in line for 3 hours to get tickets to The Phantom Menace. I’d like those 3 hours back.

Actually it was with a group of friends so it was actually kinda fun.

iPhone 4. First and last time.

No, not really. The closest I'd have gotten to that is waiting in line for a movie, for which I had a reservation already. Anything you might want to camp out for will likely be available like, a week or a month later.

The only ones that come to mind are a midnight release for Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2008 and one for Skyrim in 2011. I was working the graveyard shift in 2011 and went to work late to pick up the game so my wife could play it.

I did go to the midnight release of Black Ops II, at the insistence of my friend who was very excited about it. I remember seeing the huge line and thinking “Really? For this?” They had about 1000 extra copies.

Pretty decent game. I’m a sucker for anything co-op.

nope never. not for a game, not for concert tickets, not for some black friday thing. I am very much the type where if there is a line I nope out.

Never. Nor will I ever do anything like that.

Not for a game, but for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Waiting outside in downtown Boston with a bunch of other Star Wars nerds who had waited their entire adult lives for this moment was a better experience than the film itself, by a longshot.

edit - there are a few of us in this thread with the same experience. If you weren’t there, you really can’t imagine what it was like growing up with the original trilogy and the hope that someday maybe there would be more. It’s hard to express how disappointing TPM was. In hindsight, it was probably impossible for the studio to satisfy us, but I wish they could have tried just a little bit harder.

Waited in a three-hour-ish line for The Phantom Menace. 100 minutes of "I'm sure it will get better" followed by the Naboo duel tricking my fanboy brain into thinking it was a good movie.

11/11/11

My friend and I camped out for the original Xbox launch (I was only going to pick up Metal Gear Solid 2 which launched the same night). he had saved up his money from his job to buy the system, 2 controllers and 1 game. Now you're assuming it's Halo...no...he wanted Cel Damage. The game was a cel shaded twisted metal style game. That's all he wanted. I convinced him to also pick up Halo because I had read good things about it in some gaming mag. I said I would go halves on it with him and call it an early birthday present.

We go back to his place and we play like one round of Cel Damage and then stay up the entire night playing Halo.

I do it once in a while for stuff I'm excited about. Not really to "get it first," but more to have an experience I can remember and hype myself up about it.

In high school, I worked at Walmart, and I got a pretty nice (I think 10%) employee discount on everything including electronics, so when I heard we were getting a shipment of Xbox 360's that night, I decided to wait for it. Some friends joined me while I waited and everyone else waiting was very friendly. We all talked about what we were excited to play and how cool the features were (at the time). They just told us to hang out around the electronics section, so as people showed up we all kind of knew who had been waiting. Around 11:30 they told us to form up a line and a guy who showed up about 15 minutes earlier tried to get in towards the front. I had never seen a group Walmart customers work together before, but everyone ran the guy off haha.

I did it for the original Switch because the day after I had a flight between the US and Korea, so I figured playing the new Zelda would be a good way to eat through the time. I had a preorder so that kind of killed the excitement around the uncertainty of getting it, but it was still a good time.

I most recently did it for the Switch 2. It was actually pretty difficult to find any local stores selling it without a preorder, and none were doing midnight releases. The only place I could find was Staples that was selling them at opening the day of release. I knew they wouldn't have very many in stock, but I figured I would wake up early, go to the store and if the line looked short enough, I'd camp out until opening. I got to the store at like 3:30 am and there was one guy there... Was cool to get to hang out, talk games, drink coffee, and watch the sun rise.

Yup! Waited in a three hour line at GameStop to pick up my pre-order of Tears of the Kingdom. I was close to the front (10 people back) and they had extras of the Amiibo of Link, and the collectors edition and said they would be selling them first come first serve. I got the last of each, besides my pre-order. Was pretty cool!

Well, not camped but went to a midnight sale of a WoW expansion and there was a bit of a queue.

Went to a midnight release of Halo 3. Then it was a 2.5 hour walk home because no buses. So much excitement on such a tedious walk. Cant be good for the nervous system.

The two longest and most memorable waits I've done were for the Wii and Wii U.

The Wii was great. Was a very social, collaborative experience.

Got to the store probably at 6 or 7 am. Two people were in front of me in line. The first would show up in my circle of friends years later, and I didn't even realize until going back and looking at the pictures. The other was an older gentleman getting in line for his son, and when his son did show up later it turned out to be a friend of mine. I just hadn't met his dad before.

At first we were in the lobby, then moved to the garden center, eventually to outside the front entrance before noon. Employees didn't really know to expect us or what to do with us.

Everyone had their DSes and we spent most of the day playing something or other. Toward the end of the night, when the crowd got bigger, I remember doing 8-person Bomberman battles.

It was a cold November day. By the evening, I was freezing and hungry. My parents and some friends swung by at different times to bring blankets, snacks, etc, and those felt like such exciting moments.

Fast forward to the Wii U. I got a preorder, but they said there weren't enough preorders to do a midnight launch. Stubbornly wanting to relive the great time I had waiting for the Wii, that was enough to make me drive over to the next big town and wait at a different store.

For a long time, I think I'm the only one in line? Or maybe someone was before me. Idk. But the line didn't build up until like, an hour before midnight. I talked to people, but didn't really connect with anyone strongly.

The cold was bitter this time. I was layered up way more, but felt as tho I was barely hanging in by the end of it. Folks in line kept asking if I was alright, offering to hold my place in line if I wanted to go take a break and warm up in the car.

I don't know that we did any multiplayer sessions, but it was cool at least to get 3DS streetpass hits all day.

After all of it, I could just as easily have walked into a store the next weeks and bought one.

So yeah, the Wii was a moment for me, the U was a failed attempt to revisit that moment (a lot like the systems themsleves, kinda). Then there's the difference between being in high school, hanging out with friends in your home town, and being in college keeping to yourself.

Never.

The closest I ever came was Black ops 2, I went to the midnight release and then played with my cousin all night long on it. but it wasnt really camping, it was showing up an hour early and waiting for our pre-order copy.

I'm thinking of queueing up for the Steam controller. Does that count?

I camped overnight for The Phantom Menace tickets. We were not allowed in theater property until 6am release day, but we were allowed on the sidewalk loading up to their property at 6pm the day before release.

When they let us move up to the door we figured someone would walk over to us and lead us to the door... nope the manager stood at the doors and yelled across the parking lot and beckoned us. It turned into a mad dash.

The sidewalk turned and went up a hill, those of us nearer the end of the line were closer to the entrance than the front of the line. We just ran down the steep hill and moved way up in the queue. I was wearing a kilt, I felt like Mel Gibson in Braveheart as I ran towards the door.

The people that had been near the front were complaining we cheated, but they were the ones that started running first. If they had walked up nice and orderly like we learned in kindergarten they would still have been first.

Anyways, I saw TPM 9 times in the first 48 hours.

In highschool a few friends of mine waited to get the final Harry Potter book when it was released. We all got a copy and then I think I finished it that night so I talked with one of my friends about it the next day at work. Great fun but a little embarrassing to admit now. Fuck J.K. Rowling

Yeah, went to a midnight release of the Wii and also did a midnight release/smash bros tournament.

We played Melee, and whoever won the tournament got to buy the first Brawl disc. I didn’t win, but my best friend made it to the semi finals. And yes, items were turned on.

Was a good time with a couple of friends.

I lined up to get the Wii on it's release date. I went to Walmart at around 11 am to wait on the midnight launch. We were put in the garden center, and it was pretty chill. The guy at the front kept a list so people could go to the bathroom or to grab food without losing their spot. One guy brought a portable TV with a PlayStation and guitar hero, so we spent a lot of time playing that. I brought my DS, but not many people in line had one. It turned out to be a fun and memorable experience, but I've never waited in line like that again.

No, but I worked at the Apple 5th Avenue store for the launches of both the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS, where people camped out, and there were lines around the block both times

What an absolute nightmare that was

Husband and I camped out for the Wii when it first came out, at Target, I think it was Black Friday? Somehow everyone in line caught wind of how many were being stocked. So we were like number 16 in line or something and they had something like 20-25. so once everyone knew pretty much where they were, we all just hung out, and occasionally went to our cars for warmth and back in line after a while without any drama. It was a bit hectic once the doors opened but they queued us in kind of separately if I remember right, so it was pretty orderly. Nothing too cutthroat.

No. I did do pre-orders and stop by to pick up my game on launch day though, but I haven't done that since the 1990s.

Never camped over night or anything. But I did go to the midnight release of Smash Brawl, Gears of War 3, a few Pokémon games, and most recently the Switch 2. Switch 2 was the most fun, as everyone in line was in the same boat. Everyone missed release day pre-orders so we were all commiserating about the process. Everyone had their Switch with them and people were playing all sorts of things.

Gears 3 was probably a close second. The Gamestop I went to absolutely broke street date with one single copy, and had it set up on a 360 outside the store with 4 controllers, so you could play it before it even came out. As soon as they opened the doors to let people in the store, I went up to that TV, quit out of multiplayer, and played a round of Beast mode for the first time ever, a few hours before official launch. It was great.

I remember this being quite common before digital music was a thing. There'd be a line at the music store for whatever new album would be out for a popular artist. It was great because you got to meet like-minded people that were excited enough about something to line up and wait for it, giving this sense of community that's lost with streaming online. While I appreciate being able to summon any song from any era at an instant on my phone, I do miss those encounters with strangers that otherwise I never would have met.

Queued for an hour for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Other than that, not really.