Fans line up for Zelda Switch release

All right, welcome back to Seattle News Today. I'm A.J. Jannevelle. It's just about 1.50 on your Thursday afternoon. I was just talking to Gail. I was saying goodbye. She told me that she was curious on what I was doing last night because I guess that's a good tease. I feel good about that, that you have your guest saying, what were you doing? So let me show you. This is something I put on Instagram, and I woke up in the morning, and there was about 130,000 people who looked at it. So I figured maybe other people might be interested in it. So this was last night. The Zelda Ocarina of Time came out on the Nintendo 64 three decades later. The game is coming out again, this time on the Switch, and there's a few people in line to pick it up here in Seattle. Let me show you. All right, that's just halfway through. We're going to start climbing. I talked to the guy who is in the very front of the line. He said he got here at 11 o'clock in the morning, so that means he is waiting at this point 10 hours to get this game. Are you online? 30 years ago. So there it is, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time for the Switch 2 coming out. And it has people lining up across the country and the world to get a copy of it. Joining me now is Al, the owner of Al's Music and Games, Hi-Fi Lo-Fi, a video game store in the U District, as well as Federal Way. Al has spoken on panels at PAX, a video game expert. And you are rocking your. Ocarina, your Legend of Zelda, your Link, there they are. There's the original right there. Al, thanks for taking some time to talk to me. I'm cosplaying today, too. It all matches. Cheers. Thanks. Thank you. Let's talk about, so you sell video games. You have people who come in and buy games. That is your trade. What's going on with this game? Why is there so much hype around this release? Thank Well, I think this game is generally, for a lot of people, their Christmas Day video game from 30 years ago, and, like, The fact that, you know, there's not a lot of, you, there's all this talk about, like, physical video games going away and everybody wants to hold on to it and just to remember some of, guys. like, your best birthday gifts, your best Christmas gifts, and that being, like, Ocarina of Time, and it's a lot of people's first introduction, even though it's, so. Yeah, so let's talk about that. This is a game that is 30 years old, and it's coming back out. You actually, Alec, you're cool. You have the original game right there behind you. So this is what everyone's buying. This came out for the Nintendo 64, and so people are buying a remake. Here's another version of the original. I can imagine all of that. I can imagine all of that. The OG. So when I was there yesterday, the line was out the door. People were waiting for it. Tell me about physical. This is something that you know well. A lot of games now, the big release coming out later this month, GTA, not all digital. So what is this kind of drive that we're seeing for physical? I think it goes back to just wanting to own what you have. That is, people are constantly taking away your rights. And so, like, you... It happens with, like, digital release movies. You say that you think that you're, like, buying a digital release, but you're only getting an extended rental, and they could take it away any time. It was a big thing with Funimation when they changed platforms. They delisted hundreds and thousands of anime movies, and they had the people that bought these digital releases, they lost all their items. So you could just, if you buy it digitally, you could just lose the game. Thank So having it physically, they can never take it away. Also, you can give it to your friend. You can give it to your family members. You can give it to your little brother, your little sister, and share that passion with them just with a simple gesture of here you go. Sure. Like, that's fun. You can trade it in, too. You can take it to Al's and get some money on it you. and then flip it and get, you know, record. They see the talking heads behind you. Yeah. So you maintain that kind of ownership. Now, that being said, you can order it online. You can order it on BestBuy.com or Target or Amazon and have it come to your house. But where I was last night, and here's one of the guys who was getting in line for it. He's a familiar face. Let's talk about midnight releases. That's something that doesn't really happen anymore. This was the midnight release for the West Coast, so 9 o'clock. But why is that something that people in your mind and your knowledge of the gaming world They'd be willing to kind of wait out in the rain to get a game on midnight. Because this is something that was huge years ago. I have done a midnight release, and I did one that actually was for Halo 3 back in the day. And I waited out with my friends, and we did... It was really interesting, because they would do, like... I don't know if they did this at the Zelda one, but they did quizzes, and they were handing out, like, water bottles that were Halo, and, like, t-shirts that were... I still have the Halo 3 shirt. Thank And you get to have this fun sense of, just like at a convention of community, people lining up, you automatically have something to talk to with someone else. People want to come out in their cosplays, and it just, you I think a midnight release, who doesn't want to be rushing home, so avoiding schoolwork, because that's what I, with Halo, is like, much. we're not, no, no, no, we gotta play until like four and beat the map. So I... I think it's just generally like a fun thing to do and you automatically get to find like-minded people, make a new friend. There's my impression of the treasure finding. Al, we don't have a lot more time, we got to cut out in about a minute and a half, but I want to ask you a question because that is the fun part of it, right? Is I had some friends who were there and then they immediately took their game and they were playing at a bar. What do you think as far as the physicals? Because this is something too where you have these people who are Thank you know able to take the game with them and we're kind of seeing a little bit of Alice shop there do you feel um that there will be a pushback for more physical especially with GTA coming out in a couple days without that physical release Actually, I think it's kind of funny. They're actually putting... you. There was a lot of comments on the GTA 6 soundtrack because they're putting physicals of the record and the CD and they're making a cassette tape for it. And all the comments I was reading is like, so they're doing physicals for music but not for the game. Thank And I think it will always be good to go physical. you Always have something tangible in your hand. very Thank much, I hope that that wins, especially since Sony is now discontinuing the Blu-ray players. everyone. I hope that they can see the people that are lining up you for video games to know that there is a want. so There's a, there is. You can make more money. much. People are going to stand by and say, no, I'm not going to buy the game then. That is Al of Al's Music and Games, as well as Hi-Fi Lo-Fi. Al, thank you so much for taking some time to join us.