Slashdot Mirror
GameStop Short PS3s For Launch Day
GameSpot reports that GameStop will have too few units for preorders on launch day. Employees are being "asked" to wait until the second shipment of consoles to purchase units, to ensure customers can receive what they paid (and waited in the cold) for. From the article: "For launch day, preorders will be filled in the order they were received, and those who had a preorder but are denied a system on day one will receive something for their troubles. GameStop will give those unfortunate customers (as well as unfortunate employees) a free used game or DVD valued at $19.99 or less when they eventually wind up purchasing the system. Those who reserved a system won't need to wait long to find out if they can expect a system on launch day. Starting tomorrow, customers who preordered a PS3 will be contacted personally by phone and updated on the status of their reservation, the rep said."
On a second note, havoc on ebay ensues. There goes a good ebay feedback rating down the toliet.
I would respond to your troll but i'm too busy playing Gears of War and downloading a Rainbow Six Vegas demo while listening to MP3's in game and chatting to my buddies over xbox live using the 360 webcam.
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
You're missing what the $20 is for... a used game or DVD. It's a sad excuse of a "gift." The least they could've done is just given you a flat $20 credit applicable to anything.
People have been camping out a week ahead of time for PS3s here in the States.
...
...
... ...
...
Because they know how limited the supply is
The PS2 launch was absolutely crazy, but nothing like the PS3 launch is turning out to be.
Because of how limited the supply is
The Wii hype seems to have fallen off a bit but appears to be still pretty strong. Good thing Nintendo fucked over GameCube owners wanting to play the new Zelda or the Wii launch lineup would be pretty pathetic. Lack of online play for almost all games until next year and many of the big games other than Zelda aren't appearing until March or so.
How are Gamecube owners fucked over by having to wait 2 weeks for a game? And how is the Wii launch lineup pretty pathetic without Zelda? And what big games other than Zelda aren't appearing until March or so?
Wii hype has "died down" only so far as people are a little hyped out
Most people have spent the past 6-12 months talking about "When the Revolution/Wii will be released" that they're mostly conserned with going out and buying one now
Seems like the gaming press has forgotten the 360 is still around.
That could be because everyone who owns an XBox 360 is playing the videogame that is currently ranked #1 among games released in 2006 by gamerankings.com
I wouldn't say that GameStop is entirely devoid of fault, but neither should the manufacturers be blame-less.
Would MS and Sony love to know exactly how many consoles will be available at ship? Of course! Shafting retailers because they weren't able to produce as many as they thought they would, is just bad business. But it's obviously not intentional. You could argue that they shouldn't make any estimates whatsoever, until much closer to release (or until they actually have the units created). That I can understand, although I'm sure retailers don't like that approach either. (Legions of gamers want to pre-order well in advance, and not wait till the last few days)
That said, the retailers must have known that console shipment estimates are just swags at best. You could also argue that the responsible thing would be to not allow pre-orders at all. After all, that's what Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and a slew of other retail stores do. The problem is that game stores want to have a way to distinguish themselves apart from the big-box stores, and cater to a user-base that wants and are used to pre-orders (for games at least).
So basically, I think everyone should share a bit in the blame. Manufacturers, when they know an estimate is really difficult to nail down, need to stop making promises to retailers. Retailers, when they know the same thing is shaky, need to stop making promises to consumers. And arguably, we the consumer, need the calm the heck down and live with the fact that some things (guaranteed pre-orders of low supply consoles) may not be possible.
-- jchenx
One word: Battle.net
LOAD "SIG",8,1