Xbox Just as Fraught

The last few days have seen folks losing their shit over pre-order frustrations, myself included. On the 16th the PlayStation 5 started pre-orders in a very haphazard manner leading to a lot of units seemingly snapped up by flippers and not that many folks in my circle managing to secure the unit they were wanting. Yesterday Microsoft tried something different and instead started all of the preorders at the same time, or at least attempted to. It felt like Microsoft was even throwing a little bit of shade on what happened with Sony, which now seems like hubris. Yesterday did not go smoothly but I can’t necessarily tell if it was more or less successful than the Sony start.

Modern Vintage Gamer is an excellent YouTube channel that goes over the security and design of retro consoles, and he was an early member of the Xbox mod scene. He filmed his out journey yesterday as he attempted to get a system as the preorders started. In my experience it seems like the only folks who got a unit early were the ones who tried to do so through Walmart.com. Target and the Microsoft store both cratered under the weight of all of the user sessions. I have no idea what happened with Best Buy because either the preorders went so fast that it seemed like they never had any, or they still have yet to do their presells.

The person that I knew that was most invested in getting a Xbox Series X was my friend Pete, so I more or less lived vicariously through him during this launch. In the lead up to the PlayStation 5 pre-orders I had followed a bunch of sources of gaming news and releases and as the process unfolded I was sending Pete links each time a new one came across my feed. Even though I expanded my feed significantly, the two best ones seem to be the tried and true that I have followed for years @Wario64 and @VideoGameDeals. Luckily when things opened up on Amazon he managed to get in and snag a unit and hopefully it really is a good order.

That has been another frustration in this whole process is not really being certain that you did in fact lock in your preorder. During the PS5 preorder, there have been cases of orders being invalidated because the platform oversold the number of units that they had been allocated. The image above is from my own PS5 preorder through Sam’s Club and I am hoping it is real. That last statement however always gives me great concern, because they can and have changed orders on me in the past but never in a significant manner. To be truthful… the only online retails that seem to have been able to handle this in stride are Walmart/Sams and Amazon. Target, Best Buy and Game Stop sites all fell apart under the load of all of the people trying to hit them in both the Xbox and PS5 situations. In all of those cases I had systems in basket but encountered problems actually checking out.

So the question that has been kicking around my circles is why this console preorder cycle seems to matter so much. For me I had put off upgrading to a PS4 Pro for roughly a year and a half thinking that the PS5 had to be right around the corner. So this was absolutely a purchase that I had planned for a long time and as such I have a back log of games that I would simply rather play in glorious 4k. For others… I think given the shitty times that we find ourselves living in we are in essence trying to buy happiness or at least future happiness. I’ve been watching a lot of collectable markets that are tied to the nostalgia of days gone by booming. Vintage Magic the Gathering prices for example are going through the roof after stalling or retracting at the beginning of the pandemic.

All products right now are having severe supply chain issues, either in getting the materials needed to manufacture something or getting the product out to the customers. This is leading to an artificial sense of scarcity on products that should in theory be stable. We all remember the toilet paper rush at the beginning of the pandemic, and I still have yet to be able to purchase a single Clorox wipe either online or in store. This ends up building to a anxiety of not being able to get the things we want or need and that is sort of trickling out to everything as well. Console launches are always stressful and frantic, but the level of fervor over this one is considerably higher. Products that feed into this, like Zendikar Rising Set Boosters which already have a massive gambling component are benefiting by either a real or manufactured scarcity. In this example it is a product that should retail for $150 a box that is going upwards of $250 if you can even find it.

So we live in this time when things that should never normally be hard to get are weirdly hard to get. I think everyone is craving stability and normalcy, and it is leading us all to do some somewhat dumb things. For me it is raging over trying to order a console system that doesn’t really even really have a game that requires it. For others it is attending big house parties that end up infecting everyone with Covid-19 all because they craved social contact. We are living in weird times and I find myself digging deep into nostalgia to get through them. I think that is why I have been hoarding cartoons that I grew up watching and playing World of Warcraft again because it lets me drift along on the afterglow of better times. Folks deal with things differently, and I am trying to do so in the manner that keeps me the safest in the long run.

1 thought on “Xbox Just as Fraught”

  1. For me at least, I think you are right and there is definitely an element of “buying happiness” in this shitty year. I have also been looking forward to new consoles for a while, but logically and practically, if I get them in November or January it doesn’t really matter THAT much. It isn’t like I don’t have a huge backlog of stuff to play that runs fine on current consoles or even my middle-aged gaming PC.

    It’s funny though. This online pre-order debacle makes me think fondly back on the old days of just camping out in front of a story for 12 hours to get a new console on Day 1! At least there was some “line camaraderie” in those days. You’d be hanging out BSing with the people near you in line about your favorite games and stuff.

    Thanks again for throwing me that Amazon link. I was actually refreshing the Xbox ‘page’ on Amazon but they never added an actual link to buy the darned thing! And y’know a few minutes after you sent me it, they went out of stock.

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