Preordered mine from the MS store. Day One delivery at no extra cost. Had to pay tax, but then, I'll be living in Seattle when it comes out, which is in Washington state, which is where Amazon is, so I'd have had to pay tax through them anyway.
To answer jdelrio22, that's what I thought in 2005. Thought maybe $399 for the 360 would lead to short lines and faster availability. It wasn't until I drove by BestBuy the day before around 5pm and saw the people already camping that I might be wrong.
Wound up sleeping in front of a KMart in Arroyo Grande, CA that night (lucky I lived in Cali at the time, the November weather could have been worse). They had seven consoles. I was sixth in line.
Thats a cool story, sleeping in front of Kmart and got extremely lucky to have gotten the 360 at launch but in this day and age, you might the smart move to preorder it online lol How was it like camping outside waiting for a console with 6 other people?
It was pretty funny, really. I had driven from San Luis Obispo to Arroyo Grande to check the Wal-Mart, only to be met with a huge line that, according to people near the front, was far longer than the number of available consoles. It was already after 11 pm. I was heading home and decided to check the KMart just up the road from the Wal Mart. Saw a couple of cars in the parking lot and saw a small number of people lined up near the door. Drove up and asked what was going on, the guy up front told me he had spoken with the manager and they had seven consoles. I counted four people in the line in front of me.
Got my folding chair, sleeping bag, and Nintendo DS, and took a spot in the line. Chatted a bit with the other people, one guy was there with his GF and they were both getting consoles to scalp on Ebay, he said he had two more waiting on preorders. Slept for a few hours, woke up around 5:30. A few more people had shown up and the line was up to about 10.
I made the offer that I'd walk over to the Carl's Jr across the lot and get everyone coffee who wanted it, as long as I could keep my place in line. Everyone agreed. It's on the coast, so it was foggy and chilly, the coffee went down well.
The manager opened the door about ten minutes before 7 (opening time). When he does so, the guy at the front turns to what I thought was a pile of his belongings, says something, the pile shifts and another person, who had apparently been asleep the whole time, is underneath it. So I'm actually sixth in line. The manager says he has seven consoles. He counts out the first seven people, looks at the rest, and makes that open-palm shoulder shrug like "nothin' I can do, sorry". The rest of the people leave. At least a couple of them got free coffee.
Best part about it was I was home playing PGR3 while the people at BestBuy were still waiting for the store to open.
It was an adventure, but, yeah, preordering online and launch-day delivery is very definitely the way to go.