Next-Gen Xbox Pre-Orders Come, Then Go
Today is the day that many Xbox fans have been waiting for, pre-orders opened up for delivery on November 10th. But if you are reading this and hoping to get in on the action, you may need to take a seat.
As expected, both the Series X and S are now out of stock at all locations in the US but getting to this point was anything but easy.
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Pre-orders opened right on time in the US and immediately there were problems. Microsoft’s site was hammered with the company’s CMO saying that traffic has been insanely high and other retailers like Amazon and BestBuy did not enable pre-orders until roughly 45minutes after the expected release timeframe.
But once the pre-orders did open, they went fast with every place I checked at the time of writing this post as being out of stock. Microsoft has said that they do expect more availability in the near future but did not provide a firm date on when or where the devices will be available.
While Microsoft’s pre-orders were not as smooth as I would have expected, the process was better than for the PS5 which opened pre-orders last week. Sony’s retail partners were sporadically opening up pre-orders and it was a panicked rush to try and find a retailer who was accepting orders.
But if you find yourself without a console, you still have a couple of options. The first is to try and figure out when Microsoft will have more consoles available for pre-ordering, the second is to try and win one from Taco Bell, and the third is to stand in line at retail stores on Nov 10th to see if local stores have availability.
The good news is that even if you don’t get a next-gen console this year, the games you want to play should also be on the current-gen Xbox console, and with Game Pass, you can play first-party titles on day one.
Conversation 39 comments
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saturn
<p>Personally, I would never preorder anything. I’m not sure if the customer has to pay upfront or whether it’s registering interest by placing an order without paying, however, I don’t like the idea of handing over a lot of money for something I’ll get much later on. Nonetheless, realistically the first year or so of the console’s life probably won’t be that great will it? Won’t most games come out later on? I’d wager there’s not a whole lot of value to be had if getting the console this early in its life. I appreciate that gamers tend to be a very passionate group but I would caution most people to hold off and wait until we see reviews and a much more impressive library of games come out. Seems like moot advice when preorders are sold out anyway, I suppose.</p>