biggest game launch in your opinion

So today is Halo day in the US when masses of gamers line up to play the 6 hour campaign and teabag their friends online to their hearts content.

What do you think was the biggest launch day for a game, not a system, or one that was memorable for you? For me I think last year's Street Fighter 4 launch was pretty crazy, in that Capcom did not ship early to any shops at all, even locally owned ones that always break street date.

What started happening was a week before launch even import Japanese copies were gone in the US, people were so desperate to play it. People on some forums were calling 7-11s (a convienence store in the US) day and night in some random hope they would get a shipment earlier then other shops. Its the only game I waited in line for on launch day at a gamestop, which was packed that night.

So which was the biggest or your favorite game launch?

 

Probably Halo 2. We camped out outside Game in town. It wasn't too big here though. Only a few people.

 

I think Halo 2 as well.

 

Probably Zelda oot, even some playstation only magazines had a review/preview of the game and were claiming it was the best game ever made!

 

If we're talking world wise then t's going to be some Dragon Quest game in japan.

Yakumo

 

My guess for the biggest would be Halo 3. I was working at Gamestop (shudder) when that came out and I remember that, despite there being like 5 Gamestops in the area and our's being one of the smaller ones, we had a massive turnout.

I was not into current gaming when Halo 2 came out though, so that one is probably also a contender.


For me the most memorable launch was Lost Odyssey. I was incredibly excited for that one. Too bad it'll be the last real game Sakaguchi ever makes. :banghead:

 

Yeah, that's what I came into this thread to say, it's going to be some game launch in Japan from the SNES days. Dragon Quest is probably right.

 

In italy must have been FFVIII and fifa/PES. They even got TV ADS!

 

Prob not the biggest, but the one I really remember was the Mortal Monday launch for Mortal Kombat as a kid. The TV ads, the posters everywhere and of course all the controversy in the media that the game was going to turn every kid into killers!

Shame I was brought the SNES version on launch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewVx9eki3CU

 

king of fighters 98, im sorry but its true, best game ever made.

 

Is anyone old enough here to remember new NES releases, that were only (haphazardly) covered in shitty magazines with very, very flimsy release dates? I think I called every local game store in town 3-4 times a week for 6 months until I finally fucking got Super Mario Bros. 2 and Adventure of Link. They hated me so much. I'm sure they all knew my voice. I shit my pants when one of them finally said, "Yes, we have it in".

 

I remember that.....I also remember sonic Tuesday lol... But the game launch I was most excited about was Super Metroid.

 

Halo 3 has to be probably the biggest one...sure, the MK and Sonic launches were relatively big events back then, but it was a different time when gaming was nowhere near as popular as now. Halo 3 got the usual treatment of TV ads and whatever else, but it also had its own Mountain Dew flavor, 7-Eleven cups and other crazy promotions usually reserved for summer blockbusters, not video games. In the 16-bit era it would've been unthinkable for a game to get that much promotion.

 

The most memorable game launch for me was for Donkey Kong Country. They even made a little DCK-theme scenic railway on the toy department on a well-known shopping mall in Greece (which is now closed).

And of course don't forget to mention about Pokemon launch which is in my opinion the biggest game launch I've ever seen.

 

I'd also go with Dragon Quest or Super Mario World. Especially going by the standards of the times when gaming was smaller. Dragon Quest VI in particular really stands out for me.

 

I remember NES game releases 2-5 years after the import, or, just as likely, not at all. Yes, of course I'm a European gamer.

 

Agreed.

 

You must have been the only one then who bought it on Monday. Every place I know of broke street date for that game.

 

The earliest one has to be the 32X launch, needless to say it was a complete fiasco. Saturnday wasnt that far BTW...

Then there was Starfox64, RE2 (not what I expected), Dreamcast, PS2, GTAVC, Halo2 (another dissapointment) and the X360 launch, which was a media blitz anyway.

 

Same here! Mortal Monday!! spend hours in front of the gameshop to be the first!