What are some video games that had remarkably hectic public reaction at physical stores during release day? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by Teodomo@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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I was reading how Dragon Quest III's release in Japan in 1988 led to almost 300 arrests for truancy among students absent from school to purchase the game.

I also vaguely remember reading about Western games that had very big queues at physical stores during their release. I assume these can only be heavily anticipated old games before online distribution took off. I checked up the wiki articles of Super Mario Bros 3., Super Mario World, Sonic 2, Sonic CD and Mortal Kombat II but saw no direct mention of queues or otherwise remarkable physical activity at stores on release.

What do y'all know about this?

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[-] TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

PS3 console has to be in the top. New enough that it brought out lots of diverse people. Perfect holiday timing as everyone wanted one and wanted to scalp them. Coupled with general violence it was a wild time.

I got mine camping outside for a couple days. Had to be police escorted to our vehicles. A few minutes prior at a location 15mins away, somebody was shot in the parking lot and robbed for their PS3. That was a typical American experience there...