The “Break it Down” Blog

So, you want to get your hands on the next big name title early?  Last week maybe it was Gears of War 2 or now it is World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King? You might want to try your local 7-11.  Yes, the place with the Slurpees.  Most 7-11s now carry a few of the big name video games like Halo 3, Call of Duty, Gears of War 2, etc.  However, 7-11s apparently are not always sticking to the release dates on these games.

Last Wednesday I had 3 people on my friends list playing Gears of War 2.  Two full days before it was suppose to release.  All of them got it at 7-11.  Xbox360Fanboy had numerous reports of people getting it early as well.

We’ve been receiving many reports that 7-11 convenience stores are selling Gears of War 2 before its November 7 release (hey, that’s tomorrow!). Even Penny Arcade’s Tycho managed to grab a copy early. We’re not sure how wide spread it is, but if anyone out there is eager to get their Gears fix right now, head to your local 7-11 and see if you can’t snag a copy. We’d suggest being coy about it, maybe just ask to see what games they have. Once you lay your eyes on Gears of War 2, you might say something along the lines of “hey, that game looks pretty neat. I’ll take it, good sir (or madame).” Then casually produce your payment, grab the game, and run like mad.

1Up is reporting that they were able to get World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King 2 days early as well. They even provided a video as proof.

Just one week ago we were clearing out the stock of Gears of War 2 at our local 7-Eleven two days before the official street date — and now we’re back again doing the same for World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King, which doesn’t launch until November 13. Our new favorite game retailer just does not understand the concept of street dates, but we’re okay with that. Check out the video of our latest 7-Eleven run above. While it’s unlikely that Blizzard will allow us early adopters to catch the next boat to Northrend — we expect that switch won’t flip until 12:01 a.m. Thursday morning — we can’t actually test that theory, because the world servers are all down for extended maintenance.

So, if you’re really looking forward to that next big release you may want to try your local 7-11.  I suspect that the more this happens the more 7-11 will traing their empoyees about game release dates, but for now it seems that 7-11s get copies of games a couple days before their release and they’re not afraid to sell them right away.