Pre-order Pandemonium: Console Gamers and PC Gamers Alike Get Burned
By: Mithrandiel
Following the Sony showcase yesterday, where prices were finally confirmed for the upcoming Playstation 5 at $499 for the physical/disc version and $399 for the Digital-only, there was plenty of hype to be had in the gaming community. While many had pegged the prices months ago, there was still a general feeling of pleasant surprise that Sony didn't once again venture into the $600+ territory for their console, and at $399, the digital version of the PS5 is widely being lauded as a tremendous value.
Of course, gamers were itchy to pre-order. If Sony were to be believed, there would be plenty of notice for everyone to get ready for the inevitable crush of orders:
And yet, that was not how it ended up at all. Some folks rushed to their local Gamestop and were successful in landing a pre-order there - not surprising, given how bad Gamestop is hurting for business. Soon enough, Walmart put out a tweet that waiting for pre-orders was for suckers and to flock to their website - now!
Realizing that the race was on, Target, Best Buy and other major retailers jumped on board as well, causing massive lag, failed orders and frozen digital carts. Many frustrated gamers found themselves spamming the "checkout" button in the hopes that they could complete their orders - and Best Buy was a glaring standout when it came to these issues.
The real winner of the night was Wario64 - an extremely popular Twitter user that posts regular deals for video games. He managed to get the legitimate Amazon links up in record time, and it is to him I owe a great debt of gratitude for my own pre-order:
A gentleman and a scholar, indeed.
Needless to say, the waves of frustration and anger are just beginning to pick up as entire swaths of gamers woke up this morning to realize that they missed the first 2-3 waves of pre-order inventory from most of the major vendors, including Amazon. Sony also had an extensive campaign to try and give their most "dedicated" fans a chance to pre-order, and many have yet to receive anything else to finalize this process. There's talk that there will be a fresh wave of Sony-provided inventory tomorrow...but who's to say how that will shake out?
With the console base properly shaken and stirred, you would think that something of that magnitude couldn't happen again? Not within barely 12 hours?
Well, you'd be wrong!
Indeed, the highly anticipated arrival of Nvidia's RTX 3080 was met with an almost instantaneous sell-out across multiple websites. Bots and scalpers have been thrown onto the pyre as the usual suspects for this, but whatever the reason, the lack of inventory for a (reasonably) affordable and extremely impressive upgrade for PC gamers was yet another disappointment leading into the weekend.
Basically, if there's a gamer in your life, they might need some extra support today. If you're one of the lucky few that landed either the 3080, a PS5 or (thank your lucky stars) both, count yourself among the privileged ones!
Time will tell if inventory will catch up with demand...but if I were a betting man I'd say it isn't going to happen by Christmas.
