Xbox Series X and S Sold Out Almost Immediately at Australian Retailer
The launch of the PlayStation 5 and Nvidia 3080 pre-orders were small-scale disasters for both companies, respectively. In response to that, Microsoft intends to do better with tomorrow's Xbox Series X and Series S pre-orders, letting fans know the exact date and time that they can expect the pages to go live. However, it appears that fans will need to be quick if they want to grab one.
Australian retailer EB Games reportedly sold through its stock of Xbox pre-orders in about 20 minutes, which is roughly as fast as PS5 pre-orders managed to sell out, though the PS5 has since gone in and out of stock. The speed with which the Series X sold out through EB Games hints at potential trouble for fans looking to snatch up consoles tomorrow, as the situation may very well be replicated as potential buyers try to secure their own consoles.
There are a great number of things that can go wrong. Depending on the retailer, the pages may fail to load, or bots may be able to gobble up all the available stock, a situation that has led to RTX 3080s being sold on eBay for crazy amounts. While retailers are, hopefully, working to address those issues, there's been barely any gap between each release, so it's unlikely any problems have been resolved yet.
The limited availability of the consoles may prove to be a massive source of frustration for players, as it already has been with the PS5. With the Xbox Series X selling out so quickly through EB Games, it seems likely that it will be the same situation for US retailers like GameStop and Walmart. Of course, a large part of the frustration in the PS5's case comes from pre-orders being announced suddenly, and also going live a day before they were meant to, leaving some hopeful purchasers in the dust.
Unfortunately, this simply isn't a problem with much of a solution. The coronavirus pandemic has had a large effect on global supply chains, leading to the temporary closure of certain manufacturing plants, and it seems likely that it's affecting the ability to produce new video game consoles.
There is also the possibility that EB Games wasn't allocated many consoles in the first place, possibly opening more of them up to the US market, but it isn't clear if that's the case either. Fans will just have to act fast tomorrow if they want to snag their own Xbox Series X console.
The Xbox Series X releases November 10.
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