Halo 5's Midnight Release Draws A Crowd In Seattle
Stand in the rain for nearly 22 hours just to buy a video game? Julian Yarbrough was all about that as he waited Monday evening at Seattle's University Village for the release of "Halo 5: Guardians."
He, Angie Harter and Raina Hansen arrived in the wee hours Monday -- 2 a.m., Yarbrough said -- to grab a good spot in line outside the Microsoft store to snag a copy of the latest version of the popular combat video game series for XBox One. It was going on sale at midnight.
Their effort paid off: They were first in line and got kudos from Steve Downes, the actor who voices Master Chief, a key Halo character.
"Awesome. You're crazy, but it's awesome," Downes said.
Behind the three of them, hundreds of other fans stood waiting under darkening, rain-filled clouds.
What drives that kind of devotion to a video game?
"Playing Halo since I was 5 years old," Yarbrough said.
"We're ready for this," Hansen said.
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Gil Aegerter
Gil edits feature pieces and helps guide staff reporters through their stories. He previously served as interim digital director and online managing editor at KUOW. Before that he spent seven years with NBCNews.com, where he was variously a senior editor, editor-producer and features editor. He also worked 25 years as a newspaper editor in Anchorage, Alaska, San Diego, Wilmington, N.C., and Seattle. He also was a freelance researcher for NBC Olympics for the Games in Atlanta; Sydney, Australia; Salt Lake City; Athens; and Torino, Italy. He is a graduate of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, with a degree in photojournalism.
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