The first of Europe's gamers got their hands on Nintendo's new video games console yesterday after stores across the continent opened their doors at midnight to end die-hard fans' long wait for a Wii. In Britain some fans camped out for over two nights on Oxford Street, London's main shopping drag, to guarantee bagging a Wii, the latest entrant in the $30 billion global video game market. "I can't believe it's real, I've been waiting for this for ages, said Marlon, after he became the first gamer in Britain to buy a Wii.
"It was definitely worth it, I'd do it again," he added after revealing he had queued for two days, including one which saw a tornado and torrential rain hit London.
The Wii has been making waves with usually cynical gamers even though its computing power is dwarfed by the Xbox 360 and the PS3 and it does not offer the lifelike, high-definition graphics its bigger rivals boast.
Players can thrust, wave, swing and twist its one-handed, motion-sensitive controller to direct the on-screen action and simulate real-life moves such as swinging a sword, hitting a tennis ball or shooting a bow and arrow. Instead of trying to steal hard-core gamers from Sony and Microsoft, which have already released the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, Nintendo hopes to expand the traditionally male video game audience by luring new players with a different style of game playing.
It was that difference that was exciting most of those waiting in line.
"I've heard so much about it and finally it's out in the UK," said Amid Hussein as he neared the front of the queue outside the HMV store.
"It's a different sort of gaming really, you're not just sitting there and just pushing buttons, you are actually getting into the game."
Nintendo's European marketing director Laurent Fischer said that the company had been keen to do something new.
"We wanted to step away from what is the current status in terms of innovation in video games."
"The area where there is a lot of freedom and a lot of creativity for developers is the interface (controller) and the way you play the game."
Mr Fischer said the company was looking at a variety of motion sensitive options which would suit other games such as soccer games.