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Tech Bytes: Grand Theft Madness
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Grand Theft Madness

By Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

There's going to be a whole lot of madness going on Monday night, with Canada's two biggest electronics chains - Best Buy and Future Shop - throwing competing evening launch events in partnership with competing video game console makers for Grand Theft Auto IV, the most highly anticipated release so far this year.

Future Shop and Sony are throwing bashes at stores in Toronto (Yonge & Dundas), Vancouver (Broadway & Pine), Edmonton (Calgary Trail South & 34th Ave.) and Calgary (Northland Drive NW & 52nd Ave). Best Buy and Microsoft are holding shindigs in Toronto (Bay & Dundas), Burnaby, B.C., Langley, B.C., Edmonton and Mississauga, with exact addresses listed on its website. The game officially releases on Tuesday and is widely expected to smash all first-week sales records. Both chains are holding midnight madness events starting on Monday evening, culminating in stores opening at midnight to accommodate the masses that will doubtlessly line up.

What kind of madness should we expect? Future Shop is promising a street-party atmosphere with DJs spinning music while game demos are shown. Best Buy says customers will find themselves in "themed interactive activities and will experience the hard life of Liberty City first-hand."

The competing events highlight the dynamic between Best Buy and Future Shop, which continues to get more interesting as time goes by. Best Buy bought Future Shop in 2001 and, rather than simply absorb the chain, chose to run it completely separately. Future Shop, in fact, continues to open new stores, as does Best Buy.

Nevertheless, with GTA IV going on sale at midnight on Monday, there are going to be a lot of gamers calling in sick to work on Tuesday.

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Comments

Paul Klimstra

Some. People. Need. To. Get. A. Life.

Posted April 23, 2008 03:39 PM

Jason

I seriously don't get this. All these 'ceremonies' for a game? Sheesh! You watch this game flop like Halo 3. Paul said it best.

'I'm sooooooooooo bummed that it's not happening in NS...'

Posted April 23, 2008 06:09 PM

nyoka

montreal

I'm pretty sure Halo 3 is one of the best-selling games of all time...

Posted April 23, 2008 10:50 PM

mikie

vancouver

wow, after reading this article, i have called my ebgames and plan on cancelling my preorder. So i can join the party on broadway in vancity! LEGENDARY!!!!!

secrest out

Posted April 23, 2008 11:35 PM

Garet

Winnipeg

...Halo 3 hardly flopped, Jason.

I'm thinking I'm going to pick up my preorder from EB at midnight on Monday. Not sure though.

Posted April 24, 2008 10:00 AM

-PeBo-

Toronto

A "street party atmosphere" for what is sure to become the most vicious, sexist and gratuitously violent vodeo game of the year.

Bring the kids!

CBC, this is advertising, not news - I hate it when you chose to join the rest of the media in being corporate mouthpieces!

Speaking of being a corporate mouthpiece... "events highlight the dynamic between Best Buy and Future Shop, which continues to get more interesting as time goes by"????? Please!

FutureShop and Best buy are nothing more and nothing less than the worst example artificial competiton - right down to the weekly competing flyers! At least back in the day when Bell held us all ransom through monopoly, they didn't try to create the illusion of selection! The incestuous relationship between these two electronic giants (oops, I mean ONE electronic giant) is replete with the potential for price fixing and sale collusion. Yet we go on pretending that we are being presented with a choice!

Find a small local electronics/appliance retailer (if you can still find one) and give them your business.

Ofcourse they probably won't be teaming up with Sony to celebrate extreme violence.

Posted April 24, 2008 10:24 AM

Monkey

Winnipeg

Ummm, In all complete seriousness, which is rare in my case but here goes... Future Shop and Best Buy are both owned by the same company, so they are just battling themselves for attention, thats all. What does everyone do? They think its a great idea and they think they'll get the best price around... I pity everyone whos going to one of these since you've all been tricked.

On the other hand woohoo for GTA 4! Can't wait for my PC edition.

Posted April 24, 2008 11:31 AM

Garet

Winnipeg

PeBo, this is a blog, not a news article. Some people find it interesting, and as such, it's worthy of the author posting it.

If you don't like the game, don't play it. It's that simple. But I'd bet 5 or so million people will get over immature criticisms of the game on Monday and pick up their copy of the game. Some people, mainly intelligent people, would wait till they play the game to make such comments. I know I don't base my opinion on 30 second video clips on the internet.

Also, your little rant on Futureshop and Best Buy would mean something if it weren't for the fact that both stores generally have lower prices than any other electronics chains or stores.

Posted April 24, 2008 11:34 AM

Me

here

Very well said, PeBo.

Posted April 24, 2008 11:41 AM

Andrew H.

NL

hey Paul, ironically, there is a building in GTA IV that is called GetaLife (parody of MetLife building or something like that in New York city) haha..

Posted April 24, 2008 01:11 PM

Monkey

Winnipeg

I wonder how many of you are still waiting in line right now, lol

Posted April 29, 2008 08:17 AM

Luc

Buckingham

Got my copy last night at 12:30ish, played for a few hours before hitting the sack for work, no calling in sick for me.... I'm really enjoying the experience so far, this is definitly a must buy for game fans....

Paul Klimstra, maybe you should heed your own advice....

Posted April 29, 2008 01:16 PM

Luc

Buckingham

Bought my copy at 12:30ish and played a few hours before going to bed, no calling in sick for me....

I am really enjoying the experience so far, there some minor drawbacks but nothing that "hinders" the enjoyment...

I recommend this game to any game fan....

Posted April 29, 2008 01:18 PM

Andrew H.

NL

This game is amazing...just simply amazing...becides the PS3 multiplayer connection problem yesterday, I love it!

Posted April 30, 2008 08:51 AM

Monkey

Winnipeg

Been hearing great things about this game, people flying through windshields, Drunken stumbling (as well as driving)and unbelievable physics... but can anyone tell me if they still have modding garages? That was something i loved in GTA:SA

Even if they don't ill still pick the game up...once the PC version is out, which can't be soon enough

MUST RESIST URGE TO SPEND ON A NEW CONSOLE!!!

Posted April 30, 2008 10:10 AM

Garet

Winnipeg

The game is great, except for the melee combat, which sucks worse than previous GTA games.

Posted April 30, 2008 10:51 AM

Monkey

Winnipeg

Melee? The game has Melee?!?!?! I thought he was just attempting (and failing horribly) to do a Superman.

I just hold true the main point.. or my main point... of playing the game, run down everyone, but the pedestrians are getting tough. Heard that if you look at someone the wrong way they'll whip it out! By IT i mean their pistols. Unless of course they are of a certain profession... either way it would be a good idea to run. Or to get drunk and go face them, lol.

XD

Posted May 1, 2008 10:02 AM

Garet

Winnipeg

If you point a sniper rifle at someone who isn't looking at you, and they are like 20 feet away, they will still somehow usually notice and run away.

Posted May 2, 2008 10:32 AM

Monkey

Winnipeg

They still haven't changed that? Dang, i was hoping they would've fixed that by now.

Posted May 9, 2008 11:10 AM

ummm_halo3flop

BC

Contrary to beleifs of Garet, Yes, Halo 3 was a flop. Sales might have been excellent... so far but still the game was a flop. Gamers all over North America were disappointed and reverted back to Halo 2. The thing people disapproved with was the story mode and how easy it was on ANY difficulty. Plus the campaign mission were...too short...

Oh, and Wait till the fall for those who own GTA4. Their will be a huge update and bug fixes, as well as some updated multiplayer selections.

Posted June 6, 2008 09:18 AM

Garet

Winnipeg

Then explain why there's usually over 2 million people playing Halo 3?

Posted June 6, 2008 12:50 PM

Monkey

Winnipeg

Isn't that a relatively small amount of gamers? 2 mil seems to be on the lower side of the gaming scale.

However if someone could get some factual numbers on how many gamers are playing H2 vs H3 then we could see if Halo3 really was a flop or not

Posted June 9, 2008 09:52 AM

Garet

Winnipeg

But how many 360 owners are there? 10 or 12 million? That's still 1 in 5 or 6 360 owners playing Halo whenever I go online. Nevermind the fact that not every 360 owner bought Halo 3. Maybe I go on during peak times or something though.

Posted June 9, 2008 12:33 PM

Claudio

Ontario

"Yes, Halo 3 was a flop. Sales might have been excellent... so far but still the game was a flop."

?? What in the world is that supposed to mean? Millions play the game so what does it matter that some still prefer Halo2?

Interesting side note: Having long-lasting multiplayer is great, especially for those of us who can't be blowing money on every game thats released but its really not doing the gaming industry any favours.

Posted June 9, 2008 03:59 PM

Jason

Halifax

I find Peak Times are decreasing in numbers when I go on Halo 3 as of late. And not to mention the amount quiters, laggers, online play is dieing slowly, but I will not give up on Halo. Has anyone been able to do the acheivement where your suppose to last at least five minutes with a full wanted level yet on GTA4, without using the the cheap way that XBOX live had posted online?

Posted June 10, 2008 11:51 AM

halo3avidfan

2 million users online? I've spent a couple days during the week and on the weekend have seen roughly close to one million users on, but never two million.

Posted June 10, 2008 11:55 AM

Sensei

Guacamole. Sensei 1 everybody else 0

Posted June 10, 2008 12:50 PM

Carolyn

Some. People. Need. Grammar. Lessons.

Posted July 8, 2008 10:20 AM

Carolyn

Sudbury

(I'm back! Good to see Monkey and Garet again)

I honestly don't mind them throwing parties. It's good to break out into a happy dance now and then to celebrate the completion of a big project.

As for CBC posting not-news, well this isn't exactly the area people go to for ZOMG AMAZING NEWS stories, now is it?

Posted July 8, 2008 10:39 AM

Monkey

Winnipeg

Oh Carolyn, how I missed you! (and your proper grammar too) I agree, there aren't many stories going up worth posting on, unless it is to post random comments.

As for the party, they lacked disco balls and proper jalapeno poppers.

Posted July 11, 2008 10:47 AM

Questionable_posts

Canada

Hmmm... The CBC blogs are turning into a flame war...

Posted October 31, 2008 05:37 PM

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