Fallout 3: The 7-Eleven “Midnight Launch”

October 29th, 2008

Hopefully, I don’t have to explain how highly anticipated Fallout 3 is. Terms like “long-awaited” spring forth; the specific phrase “long-awaited fallout 3″ renders just over 400 hits on Google. So, yeah, it’s a phenomenon of sorts, which finally saw light of day this week.

A couple of months back, some eagle-eyed Kotaku readers noticed that there were signs up in their local 7-Elevens advertising midnight launches for a handful of these culturally significant video game releases, including Madden, Gears of War 2, and the aforementioned Fallout 3.  Even if they did have the date for the Fallout release listed a week too early and even if they did list a PlayStation 2 version, the idea of being able to pick it up at midnight at a store mere blocks away from home was an intriguing one.

So, Monday night rolls around and as usual we’re up late, goofing off after watching Heroes, and I say, “Hey, it’s almost midnight.  Might as well stay up the extra twenty minutes and go check out the local 7-Eleven! Sweet!”

We roll down SE 28th.  Yep, there’s the sign mentioning the release.  We gather a couple of beverages and I go up to the counter: “So, do you guys have this Fallout 3 game?”  The guy looks at me, confused.  After a couple of more short exchanges like this, it’s clear that his English isn’t very good and, even though I point out the sign, he clearly has no clue what I’m talking about.  As I wait for Spencer to finish getting his Slurpee, an older guy who appears to sort of be just loitering about the store says very adamantly that he’ll ask the manager about it tomorrow morning.  Maybe he’s just going to hang out there until the morning, I don’t know, but it’s clear there’s no Fallout 3 for us to be had here, so we leave.

Undaunted and driven by the lure of postapocalyptic nightmares, we decide that the next 7-Eleven really isn’t that far away, so we make our way over to Hawthorne and hit up the cashier there for more info.  The sign mentioning the games is somewhat obscured by a large hand-written sign proclaiming a “big sale” on Propel superwater, but the sign is still there, so it’s at least no less promising than the previous place.  The cashier is a young kid who at least understands what we’re referring to, but, again, “I have no idea.”  Helpless shrugs.

By this time, we’re determined; there’s one other 7-Eleven within spitting distance, further up Hawthorne, and we’re driving around at 12:30 in the morning looking for video games, why stop now?  Alas, alack, this one was a bust as well.  0 for 3, no one has a damn clue what we’re talking about.

So much for the 7-Eleven midnight launch.  It was good in theory.

Entry Filed under: Video Crack