I was watching this story develop over at Joystiq earlier today when I got a hot tip via email from a blog reader that guess what? There was a store* in the Seattle area that broke the DS Lite street date as well, and they were selling them. He promptly game me the name and the address of the store. After work today, I decided to go on a little mission to see if I could walk away with a DS Lite a full 11–days before the official street date. After fighting with Seattle traffic for about 40–minutes, I arrived at the store…ready to go in for the kill. I walked into the store, and made my way towards the gaming/electronics section. Of course on a Tuesday night around dinner time, this place was kind dead to put it mildly. I wandered up to the video game case, and my heart sank as all I saw was a stack of Electric Blue DS’s. I frantically looked around the case and then just as I was about to give up hope…I saw it. Peeking out from below a stack of those Electric Blue units was a lone white case. Could it be? I crouched down…turned my head sideways to try and see if I was in luck. Sure enough, there it was in plain sight and in black and white on the side of the box: Nintendo DS Lite.
SCORE
Now, how to release it from this glass prison? I looked around for a sales person, but was only able to find a nice lady in an adjacent clothing department. I asked her if she could help me…she said no, but she would find someone. Now that I had found my prey, I was not about let it out of my site. Camping out at the glass case, I waited for the nice lady, or anyone to come help me.
So I waited.
60 seconds..
2–minutes.
4–minutes.
5–minutes
After about 8–minutes, a mid-20’s gentleman who clearly just finishing his dinner (hint: he was wiping his lips with a Subway napkin) wandered over and asked me if I’d like some help.
“Why yes, I’d like one of those” I said, pointing at the white box on the bottom of the stack. Either he was screwing with me or he was not watching my hand motions, but he grabbed one of the blue DS boxes and started to lock the case. “no no’ I said “I want that one…the white box.” Basically grabbing it out of the now unlocked case and handing it to him.
He took it and looked a the box, and then looked at me and said “wow, we’re selling a lot of these today, looks like you got the last one”
After paying the $129.00, I briskly walked out of the store and was on my way home with my shiny new Nintendo DS Lite.
Mission Accomplished.
To add a level of proof to my story, I posted some photos of my new toy next to my custom Xbox 360 hard drive to prove that yes, I really do have it in my hands.
Thanks to blog reader Mike who tipped me off, and thanks to the awfully nice store clerk who unwittingly sold me the embargoed unit.
Next: I need to get Reggie to sign it.
*To protect the retail establishment from getting in trouble, I am not going to say which store it was, but I will say that it a large chain store.
Two new free themes are now on the Xbox Live Marketplace. For you graduates, we have the ‘Class of 2006’ theme, and for Dads we have the ‘Father’s Day Theme’ (complete with tools and ties.)
This content is available in the US, Canada and Mexico only.
Edit: These themes are 150 points each.
On my latest Show, I had BIGVIP from the Xbox PR team on to talk about the upcoming dashboard update. Towards the end of the interview we discussed the Xbox Live Vision Camera. During this portion, he mentioned a release dates. It turns out that the dates discussed in the show are incorrect.
The (current) dates the Xbox Live Vision Camera are scheduled to be released are:
North America: September 19th
Europe and Asia (except Japan): October 2
Japan, Australia and New Zealand: I don’t have confirmed dates yet.
Of course, these could change as well…but that’s what I am being told right now.
I dropped by the On10.net studios and gave Tina a quick walk-through of the new dashboard features. The new dash is coming soon...I don't have the final release date yet, but I will post as soon as it's locked and loaded.
You can watch the show here
Also, you can can also download this video to your iPod or PSP if you are so inclined. (click the down arrow next to the pause button for downloading options.)
You can now download '
Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II' content from the Xbox Live Marketplace. The 'Elves Picture Pack' is available for 160 points and the 'Cinematic Painting Theme 1' for 150 points. This content is available in all Xbox Live regions.