Online retailer Amazon.com has announced PS4 and Xbox One pre-orders have set a record for the store’s biggest pre-order week in video games ever.
During the week of E3 when Amazon begun taking pre-orders of Xbox One and PS4 consoles, sales increased by 4,000 percent over the same period a year prior. At the peak of sales shortly after pre-orders began, Amazon was selling a staggering 2,500 consoles per minute.
A better gauge of PS4 and Xbox One demand comes from looking back to last year’s Black Friday when video game sales in general are at their peak for the year. Xbox One and PS4 combined pre-orders thus far surpass all video game sales for the entirety of Black Friday.
Amazon is not releasing total sales numbers for PS4 and Xbox One consoles, nor are they breaking down sales numbers between the two. PS4 Launch Day console pre-orders sold out less than 24 hours after they first went up for sale and remain out of stock. Additional supplies of PS4 launch day consoles alloted to Amazon by Sony were applied to four different PS4 bundles. Those PS4 launch day bundles include PS4 and Watch Dogs, PS4 and Battlefield 4, PS4 and Killzone Shadow Fall, and PS4 and Knack.
GameStop was alerted by Sony on Friday that “the floodgates are open” in response to demand for PS4 consoles. Sony and retailers’ willingness to accept PS4 pre-orders with seemingly no ceiling calls into question whether everyone who expects a guaranteed launch day console will get one. As of now both Amazon and GameStop are claiming that launch day bundles will be shipped on the launch day.
Some lucky folks who pre-ordered an Xbox One Day One console at Amazon are receiving emails that they have been upgraded to Day One delivery for free. This means the console will be shipped prior to the anticipated November 27 launch day and arrive on that day, rather than shipping on that day to arrive 2 or 3 days later.
The best way to guarantee a Launch Day PS4 or an Xbox One Day One edition actually arriving when it is supposed to is to pre-order a PS4 Launch Day bundle or pre-order an Xbox One Day One edition sooner rather than later. There’s a very real possibility that either Sony, Microsoft or both will not be able to meet pre-order demand if there’s even the slightest hiccup during production, manufacturing and distribution of these highly sought after new next-gen gaming consoles.
