Whither the Impulse Shopper?

An essay discussing the frustrations of the pre-order graces the pages of GameGirl Advance today. From the article: "I have had explained to me this morning, very pleasantly by an earnest young man, how there will be no PSPs available for drop-in customers on Thursday, and how, because of this, if I haven't pre-ordered, I won't be getting one for months, windfall tax refund or not."

Comments

Re:Nah..

[nicksthings]

I was told that one company in particular (not any of the ones you mentioned) had "cornered" the market on them, taking so many reserves, and pretty much telling Sony "Hey, we need more of these fuckers," and got their way. According to one Best Buy ad I saw, it claimed they'd only be getting 20 PSP systems at launch. And if Sony's previous efforts are any indication (including the recent slim PS2 systems), then finding one of these things isn't going to be as easy as walking into Circuit City and asking for one.

How about we flip this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Games are still a somewhat risky business.

If you live in a town of a modest size, unless it's a HUGE title (ie a Halo, FF, Zelda, etc.), stores aren't going to stock dozens of copies on the launch day. Even guessing how many copies a "big" game will sell is risky business. Just ask any local game store how many CASES of Crystal Chronicles they still have in stock.

PSP shipments are going to be light at first, and if a store takes preorders, those are taken away from walk-ins on launch. So your choices are to either preorder, or try your luck at a store that doesn't take orders, and hope you get one.

If you don't like it, shop elsewhere. But don't be surprised when your local WalMart only has 15 PSPs on launch, half of them sold before the street date, and the other half snapped up by someone to put on Ebay.

I'm fucking tired of hearing my friends whine about how they have to wait a week to get game "X" simply because they were too lazy to pony up $5. You'd think people would've learned their lesson from the PS2 launch...

Re:Stocking is expensive.

[n0wak]

It only helps the big triple-A release companies.

This dependence on preorders HURTS the smaller games and prevents them from getting into gamer's hands. Take Katamari Damacy, for example. This game got a LOT of word-of-mouth buzz after release. BUT, well, you see, the geniuses at EB and other game retailers decided that this was a game that only warranted three/four copies per store. And, just like that, there was a massive shortage of the game AT NO FAULT OF THE PUBLISHER.

I also had a store sell my preordered copy of a game to someone other than me this week, and since everyone ordered only one copy of this game, I can't fucking get it now.

I'm so sick of game retailers and their bullshit (like the new game "warranty" scam that EB has going) that I'm pretty much going to try to rely on the bigger brand electronics retailers for my game purchases (Best Buy and Futureshop).

Gamestop

[miyako]

I've always liked the way Gamestop handles pre-orders (or at least the Gamestop I usually go to, not sure if they all have the same policy). Basically, although you have to put money down to pre-order a game, you are welcome to put down as much or as little as you want, and whatever you put down is taken off the price when you pick up the game. If for some reason they are unable to get enough copies of the game to fill all the pre-orders, then people who put down the most on the game get theirs first.
What I like about this system is that when I hear about a new game that I'm really excited about, I can go and pay for the entire thing, and then forget about it, and the day before the game is released I get a call saying "we have your game, ,$foo, in-stock, you can pick it up starting tomorrow at 10 am. Usually I'm up-to-date on release dates, but occasionally it's a nice suprise, since I've already paid for the game I can go pick it up without worrying about my current financial situation.
Whenever there is a thread about pre-orders, people always mention just waiting until there are more copies and the price drop, but I generally like to get a game soon after it's release just because (except during the holidays) the good games worth playing are spaced out so that generally by the time one comes out, I've finished the last great game and probably played through a couple of mediocre bargin-bin titles.