Monday night I had the privilege of being at the Houston Microsoft store for its first inaugural midnight launch for Gears of War 3 before it opened to the public.  I was there to assist and represent Extra Life.  Like much of the gaming community that night, everything was a Gears frenzy.  The crowd was biting at the bit to get their hands on it before the official release at the stroke of midnight.

Our Extra Life crew was there in full effect trying to raise money for our event that is going to be held at the Microsoft store on October 15th.  We were all very excited that we would get to see how our future event could play out.  I was expecting for the night to be quite exciting but I did not think that Microsoft would really do it up as big as they did.  They provided pizza and drinks, Gears of War 3 playtime two hours before the actual release and a Gears 3 Tournament in addition to the door prize raffles.

The line for the midnight launch began to form just outside the Microsoft Store doors at 8pm.  This was during the store’s regular business hours.  Once closing time rolled around at 9 pm, each employee knew their role.  It was as if they went into Harry Potter mode, shifting and moving things into the right place to prepare for the Gears pandemonium that would soon ensue.  They were able to quickly turn the store from regular shopping mode into full Gears COG town!

After the store changes were made, there was an employee pep talk.  The talk went over the night’s agenda, expectations and the importance of adhering to the ESRB rating.  As a parent, I was glad that they took the rating very seriously, enforcing the policy of checking ID’s.

[ - more midnight launch pics here - ]

For me, one of the selling points for this particular event was that the employees actually knew what they were talking about.  When it came to any of the merchandise they all knew their stuff.  All of the non-gaming equipment was still left out so that the computers, phones, tablets etc. were able to be used.  It is nice when there are employees who can relate to consumers and who are actually passionate about the products and games they are selling.

Once 10 o’clock came around things got kicked into gear (pun intended).  The first 100 people got their lanyards immediately entering them into door prize raffles for the night.  Prizes included the game, Gears paraphernalia, and the bad ass Marcus Fenix bust. The night’s schedule ran like a well-oiled machine.  Employees ushered groups of customers in to claim their Swag bag and then released them into the sea of Xbox stations available to play the game.

Some Gearheads decided to just play or entered into the tournament that was running concurrently with the free play.  After a bit of gaming the store made complimentary food and drinks available.  Some gamers opted to get a bit of sustenance while others could not release their grip on the game.  Many people played and mingled, exchanging Gamertags, previous Gears stories as well as this latest installment’s fan expectations.

Once midnight arrived there was a very hearty 10 second countdown and Gears was officially released to the masses!  Rapper Bun B came out to chill with Gears fans and get his Gears console and game.  There was much mingling, merriment and Gears!  The MS crew was very courteous, accommodating and as a whole it was super organized and smooth.

I have been to a handful of midnight releases but for me this release party was the BEST … it was BEAST!