Black friday may not be until next week, but tomorrow may be the most intense shopping day of the year for gamers. The Wii U will be available starting at midnight, tonight, kicking off a new generation of game consoles. Millions of Nintendo fanboys have been counting the days, clutching at pre-order receipts that represent a specific console in a box that's waiting for them in a store somewhere even now... Or so they thought. Yesterday, with less than 48 hours to go before the console is expected to hit stores, Toys R' Us has started contacting customers to warn them that their Wii U shipments have been delayed, and pre-ordered consoles may not be available on launch day.

Amazon doesn't seem content to wait until next week to start with the holiday offers. It just released the Wi-Fi enable version of its new Kindle Fire HD five days ahead of schedule. That means that holiday shopping season is officially upon us, and even a little faster than usual. At this rate, we'll all be doing our shopping for next Christmas by sometime around President's Day, and will probably just skip the other holidays altogether.