The great 2020 console pre-launch disaster
Well, I was right. Back in August, I made the case for delaying next gen consoles until 2021. Due to concerns over low stock, I predicted that launching this year would be an unmitigated disaster. Well… so far it’s been an unmitigated disaster.
Pre-orders for the Xbox Series X and S went live today, and sold out within minutes. Which I suppose is better than the mere seconds it took for the PS5 and GTX 3080 to get scooped up last week.
According to reports, GameStop was allegedly only allocated only 6-12 Series X orders per store, and 2-4 for the Series S. These are pre-orders mind you, not even actual stock. The console itself doesn’t actually ship until November. We still have two months to go, and this trash fire has already cemented itself a place on my Biggest Disappointments of 2020 list.
If you’re keeping score, that’s now three major tech companies that have completely bungled their big pre-launch events. Everyone knew that, due to the CCPVirus, there was no way they’d be able to manufacture enough units to even come close to meeting demand. It was going to be a fluster cluck no matter how you sliced it. That’s why so many of us expected them to be delayed until next year. Though I suppose it works out for them. They’re still getting their money from all those orders. The problem is that very few of those orders seem to be going to legitimate customers.
Scalping of new and popular tech products has been a problem for a long, long time. Pretty much since the dawn of internet auction sites. People buy up stock as soon as it goes up for sale, then flip them to desperate consumers for grossly inflated prices. I recall this being rampant back when the Wii and PS3 came out, which is around the time I really started paying attention. However, the problem has been getting progressively worse. It used to be just store employees and people who were willing to line up as soon as the shop opened. Today’s scalpers now have access to bots that can buy up a store’s entire inventory, without user intervention, the nanosecond it goes on sale. Regular consumers don’t stand a chance. Indeed many legitimate gamers who went to buy a PS5, Xbox Series X/S, or RTX 3080 found them completely gone before they could even load the retailer’s websites.
I’m sure you can debate these inflated eBay prices on the merit of supply and demand. However, these are people deliberately buying up stock to artificially create those shortages. Not only is that unethical, that’s a straight up scam in my opinion. Yeah, these are luxury items, and nobody really needs to buy one, let alone right now. But you’re still defrauding the public by doing this.
Perhaps more frustrating were promises made by those in the industry, aimed specifically to prevent this disaster. Promises that were broken.
Sony had said they would give fans advanced notice, and limit reservations to those with existing and active PSN accounts. However, they quickly walked back on that during their presser last week, when they announced an immediate start to pre-orders. Gamers were completely caught off guard, in a move that echoed the disastrous Sega Saturn launch 25 years earlier. For their part, Microsoft at least gave Xbox fans advanced notice. However, it seems nothing else was done to prevent illegitimate orders. Again resulting in the same situation.
So far, only Nvidia has addressed the issue with any concrete plan for correcting the problem. The graphics card maker said they’ve already manually cancelled hundreds of suspicious orders, and will be implementing CAPTCHAs to try and prevent bot accounts from buying up stock on their own store. Yet it’s too little too late.
Of course we can’t take retailers off the hook either for not implementing “one-per-customer” policies, or barring staff members from buying them up. eBay has also done very little to prevent scams like scalping and price gouging. This is just one massive failure on all fronts, with only the gamers getting hurt by it.
That said, unfortunately I’ve got some more bad news for you, because this is gamers’ fault too.
In another recent article I penned, I went into detail over why it’s stupid to be pre-ordering these system, and why you’re far better off waiting. Unfortunately, a lot of gamers still seem to struggle with the concept of delayed gratification. You don’t need to be rushing to give these huge corporations your hard earned money. These consoles will be available in plentiful supply just a few months down the road. By then, we might actually have some worthwhile games out. If you choose to stress yourself out over this, or god forbid, pay one of the eBay scammers triple the MSRP, so you can inflate your e-penis by having the latest tech before anyone else, I really can’t help you.
Hopefully this comes off as a learning experience for everyone. But knowing this hobby, it’ll all be forgotten by Friday.
