I know, I know – this is supposed to be PC Pro, not Console Gamer.

But I realise you’ve all been anxious to know whether I got my copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl this morning. So, for the record: I did. Game on Oxford Street appeared to have a few hundred copies, and Soviet-style queues were conspicuous by their absence. I guess the weekend will be the real test.

However, while my fears of stock shortages seem not to have materialised, I did encounter a striking instance of another phenomenon mentioned in yesterday’s post – the strange way unreleased products exist as mere potential for would-be customers while being at the same time a very material reality for manufacturers and retailers.

Because can you make out the sticker on my copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl? This is a genuine, shrink-wrapped copy of the game, direct from Nintendo; and (presumably a few days ago) the retailer has stuck a sticker directly onto it saying “Coming soon“! The message couldn’t be clearer. It doesn’t matter if you’re staring straight at the thing: until launch day, it’s not here.

It reminds me of Microsoft’s “genuine software” campaign, which asks us to imagine that a genuine piece of software can somehow become counterfeit – and vice versa – without a single byte changing, simply on the say-so of an absent third party. But that’s a blog post for another day…