With a simple note from interactive entertainment chief Don Mattrick, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles are more similar than ever. For Microsoft, the surprising Xbox One policy reversal was deliberately timed to coincide with an additional allotment of Xbox One Day One pre-orders given exclusively to GameStop and Amazon.com.
Amazon.com has been pre-selling the Xbox One Day One edition console, the only one guaranteed to be delivered on the launch day, for over a week now. It went out of stock briefly late last week, but has since been readily available, especially after Microsoft allotted additional units last week.
GameStop is treating their new stash of Xbox One Day One pre-orders a bit differently. With their audience more geared toward “core” gamers, GameStop had completely sold out of Xbox One Day One edition consoles a little less than two days ago. Before they were being sold as individual items. Now they are not.
If you want to grab an Xbox One Day One edition console from GameStop then you’re going to have to buy a bundle. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as there is little point in purchasing an Xbox One and not picking up one of the launch title games to go with it. All twelve GameStop Xbox One pre-order bundles only include games, eleven of which one game only.
The most popular Xbox One Day One edition bundle at GameStop right now is the Call of Duty: Ghosts bundle for $559. The other game + console bundles are designed around Battlefield 4, Dead Rising 3, Ryse, Forza Motorsport 5, Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, Madden NFL 25, Kinect Sports Rivals, FIFA 14, and Need for Speed Rivals. An additional bundle including FIFA 14, Madden 25 and NBA Live 14 is also available for $679.96.
You can browse or shop all of GameStop’s Xbox One pre-order bundles here.
For PS4, GameStop has taken the exact same bundle approach. The only difference is that the PS4 pre-order bundles have the Sony exclusives rather than the Microsoft ones, and of course the $100 cheaper price tag. These include Knack, Killzone Shadow Fall and Drive Club. These bundles are similar to the PS4 pre-order bundles at Amazon.com that all promise launch day delivery. There is currently no retailer offering a PS4 by itself that is guaranteed to be delivered on the anticipated November launch day.
Browse or shop all of GameStop’s PS4 pre-order bundles here.
Given that Xbox One can only be obtained for day one delivery outside a bundle via an Xbox One pre-order at Amazon.com, that still should be the first place that it switches to a “sold out” status.
