GameStop holding Madden midnight launch events

For some reason, GameStop has felt the need to announce that its stores will be holding Madden NFL 10 midnight launch events at more than 3,000 of its U.S. locations this Thursday, August 13. Uh, surprise? 

The retailer is promising “pre-game warm-up challenges” at the events, including playable Madden NFL 10 kiosks, “Ultimate Football Fan” contests, “Tailgate Party Challenges,” “End Zone Dance” contests, and in-store tournaments. That’s the plan at least.

In all likelihood, it’ll be a bunch of hooligans standing in a long line for two hours, with maybe a few whining girlfriend scattered about for good measure. Banter will include uninformed talk about the PlayStation 4, the Xbox 720, baseball salary caps, and how Scarface was an underrated game. Also, someone will mention that they thought 2K Sports’ football games were always better, and everyone will start yelling. Also expect poorly a organized trivia contest, and store managers trying to pawn off bags of useless Madden-unrelated-swag they’ve had sitting around for months to make room for Holiday inventory.

Or, you know, you can just go pick the game up on Friday morning. But if this sounds like your kind of thing, check your local GameStop (or here) to see if it’s being forced by GameStop corporate to do a midnight opening.