Nintendo celebrates the launch of Wii, staging midnight openings at flagship branches of HMV and Game on London’s Oxford Street.

Punters queued for hours, even days in some cases, to ensure they got their Wii for Christmas. One disgruntled store manager on Oxford Street called the police at one stage fearful of the gathering masses lining up outside of Game since 4pm. Thankfully nobody could be arrested for ‘loitering with intent to Wii’.

We first dropped by HMV at 5.30pm to see what our chances were of scoring a console on spec. HMV’s policy was to hide its punters in a back alley, were we found only a handful of people sitting on some fairly posh chairs. Even though these people had pre-ordered a Wii and had been guaranteed a console tonight, they still wanted to be among the first. A further 300 or so people would return later, having either pre-ordered a console or been lucky enough to attend a 9.30am role call, signing their name in return for a wristband. Altogether HMV would satisfy just over 100 pre-orders plus 200 consoles for the guys who were in the queue yesterday morning. Staff inside HMV told us “if you haven’t pre-ordered, or if you haven’t got a wristband, forget it – only queue if you want to see the celebrities.”

The glitz and glamour of this UK launch was to happen at HMV. Before the store closed its doors to the public Nintendo was inviting punters to give Wii Sports a try on a special stage area. Down the road at Game, the shop floor was being prepared with Wii software, stage smoke and balloons to provide nothing more spectacular than a fast track to Wii ownership. Simple, but effective, as it turned out.

In the end it would be the Game customers that were the happiest bunch of the night. Store manager of the Canary Wharf branch, Paul Trollope, informed Yahoo! that three managers were on duty this evening to ensure it all ran smoothly. “We haven’t let people down yet on a hardware launch” he said, “everybody who pre-ordered got a Wii.” The queue that stretched from Game’s storefront and right around the block looked to contain a much broader age group. There were plenty of mums here for example, whereas in the back alley of HMV it was mostly teen couples and twenty-something lads.

We got chatting to Sheree Russ, mother of Alfie aged 13. The last time Mrs Russ queued for anything other than the bus was Buzz Lightyear when Alfie was 3 years old. Lucky Alfie is getting a Wii this Christmas thanks to a rather determined mum and Game’s guaranteed pre-registration scheme. Sheree was flanked by a couple of college students Joel Cope and Colin Portman; both Nintendo fans. Also ‘Dudds’ who had dropped by Game just before the weekend and put his name down. Another cheerful mum, queuing for her 11 year-old, was huddling together with the group. Everyone had pre-ordered just a few days ago. Result.

Leaving the Game crowd to their free pizza and Wii blankets, we returned to HMV. At 9.30pm the back alley was bustling with folks claiming their wristband from HMV staff, and the handful of lucky pre-order people. An alarming number of unfortunate souls had joined the queue for several hours not knowing they would be refused entry, clueless that their fate had been decided much earlier in the day. These people were being turned away gruffly at the side door by HMV security staff. Dejected they headed home.

John Donnellan, account manager for Reach, was in charge of co-ordinating the whole UK launch effort for Wii. Donnellan told Yahoo! that all pre-orders had sold out, but there would be two more shipments before Christmas. He couldn’t tell us how many more consoles would reach store shelves however. One of our contacts at Nintendo said that truckloads of Wii consoles would leave Nintendo warehouses on a daily basis, replenishing supplies across Europe. As to how many of these will reach the UK seems to be anyone’s guess. “We think stores will get one or two a week if they’re lucky” said Paul Trollope at Game.

Watching the build up to the celebrity spectacular that HMV had staged, it was hard not to get caught up in the frenzy. Graphic Design student Marwan Elgamal, age 17, will go down in Nintendo history as the guy who queued from 5pm on Tuesday 5 December to collect his Wii from football legend Ian Wright at midnight in HMV. “Wii is amazing. As soon as I played it, I just knew I had to be the first person to get my hands on one,” said Marwan. “I grew up with Nintendo, so it’s been there with me all the time. Xbox and PlayStation can’t be classed in the same category as Nintendo, Nintendo is at the top. Wii is great, it’s for everyone.” We wondered how Marwan had fared having spent 60 hours or so living out of his tent. “I’ve only had about two or three hours’ sleep. I’m not tired; the excitement is keeping me up. The store hasn’t really looked after us, but Nintendo has – bringing some blankets. The first couple of people, they brought us these Wii watches so we could count down to launch.” Nice touch, Nintendo.

As far as Nintendo is concerned this has been a spectacular launch, having sold out of Wiis in only a few hours. But we dare say plenty of people reading this would have sacrificed the media circus in exchange for a Wii console before Christmas. And the unspoken truth is there simply doesn’t seem to be enough Wiis to go around. The way it goes.