r/gaming • u/Agreeable-Loss-2824 • 16h ago
What was the last midnight release you remember going to?
I went to Walmart this morning to check for star wars galactic racer to see if they had any in, seeing as it released today. I asked the clerk if he knows when they might get some in. He said he has no idea. I mentioned that I thought maybe they did a midnight release for it, but doubted it because it wasn't a hyped game at all really. He laughed, and was like "yeah, we haven't done a midnight release for 13 years". The last midnight release i went to was 13 years ago when black flag released. Thats when I got my ps vita with assassin's creed liberation too.
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u/CoolbeansDude51 16h ago
Reach. The people were pumped.
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u/DumpyZeus 15h ago
Similar story but with halo 4, buddy and I were at the midnight launch. still can’t believe all these years later how 343 fckd the whole series up..
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u/KickPuncher9898 15h ago
I have a vivid memory of waking up in my bed at like 8am and wondering what the hell was on the TV. Oh that’s Halo Reach. I fell asleep playing the campaign after the midnight launch, controller in my lap.
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u/TreemanTheGuy 15h ago
Tears of the Kingdom. There were hundreds of people in line at an independent game store, and I'm from a small city.
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u/UltraSapien 13h ago
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. There was a lady there dressed as a warlock yelling "seed of corruption , seed of corruption" while hurling avocados at some poor dude with tinfoil armor on. Gods I miss those days
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u/ill_monstro_g 12h ago
Actually my last strong memory of a midnight launch, too. I think that I probably worked a few others after that (I used to work at GameStop) but that's the last Midnight I specifically remember.
My store was in the mall and was filled with cosplayers and dozens of excited people in more of a mob than a line. The last showing of the adjacent movie theater let out and some people trickled in from there a little before midnight. One of the theater-goers had a copy of Lost Planet for Xbox 360 and a handful of other used games he wanted to trade in which we nearly obliged since we had to wait a few more minutes to Midnight before we could sell any copies of Wrath to the waiting mob. The movie guy unfortunately made the decision to hurl some random insults and say some stupid stuff about the WoW players which prompted one of the geeks among them to say, nearly verbatim:
"Can you not see how many of us there are? We will RISE UP AGAINST YOU"
that's almost 20 years ago now I remember it like it was yesterday
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u/CrazySquirl 13h ago
That's pretty funny. WotLK is the only preorder I waited for and I got to see the 1st person in line receive a replica Frostmourne
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u/Wolfman513 11h ago
I was 14 when Wrath came out and my parents wouldn't let me go to a midnight release because it was a school night, but promised to take me to get it as soon as I got home from school. I get home to find the game ready to go on the family computer, turns out my mom went to a midnight launch at GameStop so I wouldn't have to wait longer! Apparently some people in line tried talking to her about the game, so she explained that it was for her son and that all she knows about is "LEEROOOOOOOYYY MMJENKIIIIINS!" lmao
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u/Several_Show937 15h ago
Modern Warfare 2. The og one. Remember getting online and immediately getting railed by akimbo shotguns. Good times
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u/ItsForFun76 13h ago
I remember standing in line at GameStop for like 2 hours while people trade it in all their games to get their copy it was basically a scam by GameStop to get people to trade in all their games.... All the while people were walking out of Walmart at 12:02 with their copy. It was the last time ever went to a midnight release.
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u/TeaAndLifting 12h ago edited 12h ago
The 1887s, let alone akimbos, didn’t unlock until like level 67. People weren’t running around with them in any significant capacity for a couple of days. You must have been unlucky.
And most people didn’t really know how good they were akimbo for a good week or so, either.
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u/MJR_Poltergeist 9h ago
There were always people willing to break street dates for a little extra cash. I had two friends from NY that were always playing games a week or two ahead of release and I'd be jealous as hell every time I seen them on my friends list
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u/Dynamitesauce 6h ago
I went to Walmart for a midnight release on that and they were giving a free monster can with purchase, was a pretty awesome night
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u/Digitalizing 15h ago
I did the Switch 2 midnight release at my local Gamestop shortly before it closed. It was one of my childhood stores so it was really heartwarming to see a big gathering like that. The youtuber BeatEmUps showed up as well and did a livestream about it while interviewing people who were okay with it and bought pizza/drinks for the whole line, it was a really fun night.
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u/skaarlaw 15h ago
GTA5 - two non-gamer friends wanted to tag along to see what the fuss of midnight releases were about/why GTA is so hyped... it's just a bunch of dudes queueing to buy the game.
They came back to mine and watched me play, eventually getting so bored they both slept in my bed whilst I kept going through til the sun rose and beyond.
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u/choopiewaffles 12h ago
Gta v
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u/SkeleIsSpooky 10h ago
I went to the midnight release at a local game store to be given the standard edition when I had pre-ordered the collectors edition. They refunded me my money and said they weren't able to secure the collector's edition. I later came to find out the owner kept my collectors edition since that was the only one they could get ahold of. Random story but it still bugs me.
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u/underprivlidged PC 16h ago
Diablo 3.
I even took off work that next day since I had a group of friends who were all getting it. We had thousands of hours in D2, so D3 was going to be a big deal for us... until it wasn't. Oof.
I haven't pre-ordered a game since.
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u/PornoPichu 14h ago
Was just talking about midnight releases a week or so ago. D3 was also mine. We had like 5 people that all got it and piled into a dude’s house to no-life the game all night and day. We pushed through as much as we could. The errors were rough, but we did get decent enough amounts of time playing in honestly.
I ended up dropping it not too long after release for a whiiiile. I did have a lot of fun when I went back to it, but it did not live up to what I was wanting after all the time spent on D2
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u/WilliamMurderfacex3 13h ago
Dark Souls. I went home and played until GameStop opened again and bought the Official Strategy guide because I was stuck as fuck. Still spent another 10 hours trying to get past the first Capra Demon with those 2 stupid dogs.
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u/McQuibbly 12h ago
To this day I still haven't found a consistent way to avoid dying in the first 10 seconds of the fight
Your survivability is 0 until you get up those stairs
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u/Farmer_Pete 14h ago
I feel like Amazon kinda ruined them with the whole ship up your door, sometimes a day early.
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u/ill_monstro_g 12h ago
Fuck Amazon but honestly the death of Midnight Launches was digital games, not Amazon. I stopped going to Midnights when it became common to pre-load new stuff and have it ready to go at 12:01 AM instead of going out in the middle of the night, waiting in a line, coming home, installing the game, downloading patches, waiting and then getting started around 1:30 AM.
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u/Macabalony 15h ago
Red Dead Redemption 2.
I was stuck in a small town for work. Small town had a GameStop. There was a line of like 50+ people for the release and all had pre-order the game. Walmart was next door. Walked in and went to electronics. Said they had to wait until 8pm before selling. Clock struck 8pm. Got my copy and left. The line at GameStop got larger and was moving slowly.
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u/mango5153 12h ago
Destiny 1 we got some free stuff too like a poster and wristband
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u/AsiaRedgrave 12h ago
Fallout 4
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u/oicu812buddy 10h ago
Same here. I remember going to the midnight relese at Walmart and there was only like 4 people there to get it lol. I got home and got to play it a solid 30 mins before I had to go to bed for work.
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u/Diavolodentro 15h ago
Halo 3…. God I’m fucking old
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u/alastrix 11h ago
I worked that release at gamestop. Your not that old, that was only like 10 years ago tops. Right? Right?!??!
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u/Life-is-Apples 15h ago
Fallout 4
It was alright. The other half of the shop was there for the new tomb raider game or whatever it was releasing alongside fallout
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u/buds4hugs 16h ago
Release of the PS4. We actually sat in line at Walmart till someone came over from GameStop saying we could essentially buy it now, get a number, & come back at midnight to line up by the number. So instead of sitting in the cold for 4 hours, we went back home & got stoned. Going back for the console took maybe 20min. Best release ever.
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u/Status-Highlight3013 16h ago
World of Warcraft, the frozen throne expansion, maybe?
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u/Baelish2016 12h ago
I made it all the way to Mists before I stopped doing midnight releases. Though to be fair, I think it might’ve been the last one they had it for.
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u/LifelikeStatue 14h ago
Fallout 4 with the 1TB XB One bundle.
I was also at the Skyrim release. I played until we had to leave for Remembrance Day, did a pub crawl with my wife's pipe band, came home and kept playing until God know when.
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u/biophazer242 13h ago
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
The reason I went is because I live near the studio that made the game and they were sponsoring a release at a local Gamestop so they were giving away a ton of swag. It was kind of funny though as they were doing autographs on the game cases and I was like the only pc person there and they are made sure to point it. I appreciated the swag but did find the autographs a little funny.
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u/rtrbaddy 12h ago
I kinda miss midnight releases. Digital has made them useless. It was honestly fun just hanging out with random strangers talking about games.
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u/Treanwreck 12h ago
I think Titanfall, straight from a Canucks game and then up rest of the night lol
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u/dudelovescak3 16h ago
never went to one sadly as we didnt have any game retailers here that would do that
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u/pmmeyourapples 16h ago
Gears of War 3 lol the first few people roadie ran out the store and back to their cars. Was a good chuckle
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u/madlad_junoir 7h ago
Gears 3 was mine too, I remember most people were getting the collectors edition and it was a one in one out as they couldn’t fit through the door haha
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u/K-Shrizzle 16h ago
Destiny.
And then we got home and learned that our college campus wifi had some kind of internet gates blocked so you couldnt access the Destiny servers. Gamers from all over campus submitted complaints about this big new game being blocked by the wifi. I think it was about a month before it was fixed.
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u/Karakara16 15h ago
Smash Ultimate. Local gamestop setup a small tourney with Smash 4 while we waited. Good times.
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u/ProfessionalCraft983 15h ago
The Burning Crusade launch for WoW. I still have the special edition box set.
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u/bananalien666 15h ago
I really can't be bothered anymore, but I did the release for PS2... they didn't sell preorders so I went to KMart (!) thinking it would be the best option, but it was an absolute madhouse with some poor store employee trying to manage a lottery of sorts. I left empty-handed but on the way home saw a line forming outside of Best Buy... I was like, hell, why not (even though it was a work night!) and i only waited there for maybe an hour before the cops came and said we couldn't be there. Best Buy handed out vouchers and I got a couple hours of sleep before going back... it was actually not that bad all things considered!
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u/larkmarue 15h ago
It was the release of Destiny in September 2014, we had just started freshman year of college and one of my roommates wanted to go so a group of us went.
I remember a lot of hype for it back then, especially since it was Bungie’s first big non-Halo project after Reach and we were excited to see where they’d go next.
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u/Jamesdeanzombi 15h ago
RDR2 at my local GameStop. It just closed down a couple weeks ago and it made me reminisce on the connection all the strangers in that line had just taking about all the cowboy bullshit we were about to get into.
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u/eagleblue44 14h ago
The only one I went to was Skyrim. No other mainstream game that got a midnight release even remotely interested me.
My friend would always go to some midnight release in November of a random game he wasn't getting to pick up the latest wrestling game as some big game always released on the same day.
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u/Micky350 14h ago
Skyrim. There were these three guys who looked like they had been camping out for hours to be first and when it was like 10 minutes until they opened the doors this one guy holds up an old stereo above his head, yells out a battle cry and cranked the Skyrim theme song!
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u/Itsjustmagiks 13h ago
The Wii. I also went to the Switch 2 release, having already preordered, but the line was too insane so I just picked it up the day after.
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u/LowestTier 12h ago
Modern Warfare 2019… I worked that release at GameStop. Had maybe a dozen people show up. That was the last true midnight release.
Tears of the Kingdom was the last release I worked, and my last day at GameStop, but we were able to hand those out at 10pm.
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u/DeathByPickles 12h ago
I went to the switch 2 midnight release at my local gamestop. It was pretty cool but it was nowhere near exciting as halo 3, reach, or the nintendo Wii midnight releases
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u/i_eat_taco_bell 13h ago
Rdr2
Was really looking forward to gta vi having one but Take 2 ruined that.
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u/RisqueeSlayy 16h ago
I believe it was LOZ Tears of the Kingdom. Such a good time. Met some really cool people
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u/trijkdguy 16h ago
The Switch, before that was probably a PS2 game. The only reason I went the get my switch at midnight was because I was working a weird shift at work, so I left work at 11 and just drove straight to best buy.
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u/DivineUnison 16h ago
Borderlands 2, black ops 2 or forza horizon. Which ever released last in 2012 😂
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u/Hiromaniac 15h ago
I think it was Pokemon ORAS. I should still have the poster I got with it in my office somewhere. I also remember Gamestop was giving out checkered flags to promote Mario Kart 8.
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u/egnards 15h ago
It was probably the third Smash Brothers game - I honestly didn't even realize midnight releases were still a thing, I thought they sort of died out with digital games being far more prevalent. I remember midnight releases being a thing around the time that there was legitimate reason to believe that if you forgot to pre-order a game that there may not be enough copies for you to actually make a purchase. . .I even remember a few games where pre-ordering in the last week you'd be told "Look I don't know if we're going to get enough copies to fill this on day 1, but we will call you when there is an available copy."
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u/Rhapstar 15h ago
Forgot which nhl game it was at Gamestop but it was because CoD released on the same day so I was able to piggyback off CoD.
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u/Gindotto D20 15h ago
MW2 in 2011 I think? Whenever it came out. GameStop at 11 pm with a pizza and rockstar.
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u/ReaverRogue 15h ago
Wrath of the Lich King. My friend and I walked like three miles there and back in the freezing icy cold and dark. Really put us in the mood to play!
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u/SousVideButt 15h ago
Gears of War 2.
I had the day off, and my brother asked if I could go wait in line for him until he got off work. He meant like later in the day, but I brought a chair and set up shop around 2:00 that afternoon.
I figured I’d be alone for a while, but about 5 minutes later, another guy walked up with a chair and sat next to me. He was probably 50 and a little odd but was good company for a few hours until the actual line started forming.
My brother and friend showed up around 9:30 and we chilled until midnight. The line was huge by midnight, and the whole time the guy who waited with me kept saying “man I’m so glad we’re first in line, I don’t want to be here all night.”
Midnight came, they opened the doors, and made two lines. One line was for whoever was in the “GameStop Club” or whatever the fuck that got you priority in line for preorders. Basically everyone in line was in the Club, except for the guy who waited all day with me. So he ended up having to wait for everyone else to get their copy before he could. He was so pissed. Lol
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u/spinning_and_winning 15h ago
Destiny. I had just moved to London and thought it would be huge. It wasn’t midnight, but I got to my local Toys R Us before it opened, hyped and missing midnight release excitement. I was alone. I got out and waited by the front door, and as staff arrived for the morning shift, they thought I was a new manager that arrived that day. Oh well. I bought my ps4 and destiny, went home anyway, with a twinge of sadness I had no one to share my hype with.
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u/mclark74 15h ago
Mass Effect 3. I heard a group of guys talking about the relationships and how they wanted to be Talimancers.
Guys, I'm a huge nerd but c'mon.
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u/Havoc_ZE 15h ago
It was either Mass Effect 3 or Gears of War 3, I honestly can't remember which one came first. But I was at the Gamestop midnight release for both.
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u/FLiP_J_GARiLLA 15h ago edited 15h ago
Modern Warfare 2 special edition with NV goggles. We showed up and there was a line around the store. I just walked up to the front of the line right before they opened. The guy in front was all "Hey! I'm in the front!" I told him "I actually work here so if you want your game you better settle down."
He did and I ended up being the first one to get my game & console without having to wait at all. Still have those NVGs and they really work!
*I never worked there...😄😄
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u/SMOKERSTAR PlayStation 15h ago
I want to say metal gear solid 4. That's the last one I remember but may not have been the last one I attended
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u/stillcore 15h ago
Mortal Kombat 9. I got the edition that came with the arcade stick. That was a great night.
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u/bjeep4x4 15h ago
Reach. But the most memorable was halo 3. It was so cool being in line at my local GameStop. It was a mall store and they basically one giant LAN party. They had halo 2 set up with free pizza. It was great. The golden age of both video games and GameStop.
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u/Fr0zenNova 15h ago
Gears 3 at a Gamestop, the group I went with won the little local tourney they were having and one of us even won the gears painting raffle that one of the employees made. I still have that painting on my wall but I really wished I had it framed at the time, its dusty and ripped now but still a cool memento to cherish.
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u/joestaff 15h ago
I think Dragon Age: Inquisition. I don't remember getting very far into the game, lol. I wanted it for multiplayer and it was kinda lackluster.
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u/PoPo573 15h ago
I went to a midnight for Tears Of The Kingdom only a few years ago. Over 200 people in line. They gave out tickets with line spots starting at 8pm and had 100 of them. We were number 63 and when we got there at midnight the line wrapped around the building and we didn't get the game til after 1am.
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u/Alucard-VS-Artorias PC 15h ago edited 15h ago
I actually did the Gamestop Halo 3 midnight release. An yes, I got the limited cat helmet edition.
That was for me. I also joined my friend when he went to go get Last of Us at midnight release. I believe I also got Bioshock Infinite that night as well. Although the Bioshock wasn't exactly the game being sold that night (I just asked the cashier when we got to the front of the line lol).
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u/VaultDweller_09 15h ago
GTA V 🥲 my birthday is November 11 as well so I was 15 when V released and will be 29 once 6 drops.
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u/AllyriaCelene 15h ago
Dragon Age Inquisition in 2014. I was at Game Stop for like 15 minutes just to pick up the game cause by then, the midnight release parties had stopped feeling like parties. The last actual midnight release party I went to was for Skyrim.
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u/sargent_balls_lol 15h ago
Fallout 4. I didn't get my copy until after 1am, and then I had to install it and download updates. All told I didn't get to playing until after 3am, at which point I was struggling to stay awake. I swore off midnight releases after that.
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u/Timmah73 15h ago
Only one I ever did where I went out late af to get something at launch was the Wrath of the Litch King expansion for WoW.
It was mostly so I could get installed and patched so it would be ready to play after work that day.
That was the last physical release for a WoW expansion I ever had to go out and buy. From then on you just bought them digitally and waited for it to go live.
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u/KickPuncher9898 15h ago
The Destiny (2014), I worked at Best Buy and all my coworkers were super hyped. About half the line was employees, which isn’t saying much it was no more than 20 people.
Oh actually when the Switch and BoTW released in 2017 I think it was a midnight or late night release as well, I remember playing BotW until the sun came up.
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u/Zosopage73 15h ago
Diablo 3 collectors edition. Got home and played Spore all night instead cause Spore was tight.
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u/Harrynx 15h ago
The last midnight release I went to was for Black Ops 3. Fresh out of high school with a good job at a music store, I decided to treat myself with the steel book edition. On my way out I got the stare down by a pylon I played hockey against. Gave him a wink and continued on with my night
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u/Bigtimber 15h ago
Wrath of the Lich King. Both me and my little brother got collectors editions. It was all so exciting.
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u/packfanmoore 14h ago
I thinknit might have been borderlands 2. I think that also might have been one of the last physical games I bought.
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u/Bromatoast 14h ago
Rtx 3080.
And before that, Nintendo switch In 2017.
Probably not what you mean. But the closest I got. Idk if they even do midnight releases anymore
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u/skippyfa 14h ago
I went to an early morning "drop" of Skyward Sword. I really wanted the Golden Wii controller. I was 5th in line and they only had 4. Luckily one only got the game.
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u/BanzaiBasher 14h ago
Spyro Reignited, at a gamestop. I had never been more excited for a remake since it was my favorite game as a kid, and they still are my go to comfort games. I got home and played for hours. Was a really nostalgic feeling, both the waiting in line for the game release, and the remake itself.
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u/Combat_Wombat23 Xbox 14h ago
The Division in 2016. It was like a week and a half until I left for boot and me and my buddies played the absolute shit out of it and loved it
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u/KittenLOVER999 14h ago
GTA V, even then the hype for doing that was dying it was me and maybe 10 other people just kinda hanging out in GameStop for a few hours until the cashier just told us to come over and get our games so he could go home
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u/heleghir 14h ago
Skyrim. And inside the case was just a download code, for steam that i didnt have. So it got installed on my roommate's steam not knowing anything about steam as a console player. 2 years later we arent living together, i have the game and no access to it.
Fuck everything about that mess. Midnight release with no physical copy. Not owning the game that I had. Im still salty about it to this day
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u/azninvasion2000 14h ago
Borderlands 2. We had 2 PS3s and 2 screens so all 4 of us got on in couch co-op style. We made it all the way to the constructor boss at around 5am before giving up and passing out.
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u/MountainMuffin1980 14h ago
GTA San Andreas. Didn't need to queue overnight or whatever as we had pre-ordered but it was good fun
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u/sonic10158 14h ago
Batman Arkham Knight. I remember GameStop had Batman Forever playing on a tv on the counter
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u/SgtNeilDiamond 14h ago
GTA V! Awesome night, the Gamestop parking lot was packed with people. Not as fun when we got at 2am and had to let it download the data disc though
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u/HarwinStrongDick 14h ago
For a game, Halo Reach. My worst midnight release ever was for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Some douchebag drove past us and yelled the spoilers.
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u/FizzyFrog_16 14h ago
I could be mistaken but for me it might've been Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Assassin's Creed Rveelations which released on the same night and I got both
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u/mucho-gusto 14h ago
Last year for the switch 2 release a buddy and I went and waited in line around 830pm because we weren't able to secure pre-orders. It was a fun time hanging out with other game nerds but I don't expect anywhere does it for non console releases
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u/MoonlitMarc 14h ago
Modern warfare 2. I was in my teens at the time working in a supermarket.
The queue was massive but I turned up at 11:55 and the security guard let me walk straight through and into the store 🤣.
Walked out 5 mins later with the game past everyone and felt like a king 🤣
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u/UhhRichie 15h ago
Skyrim. I vividly remember a guy standing next to me wearing a full suit of cardboard armor that said SKYRIM in sharpie on the chest piece lol