Why preorder count is flawed

[phing77]

That's what i heard from Microsoft

 

[phing77]

Poor people make me laugh. HA! HA!

-_- it's a joke right?

 

[theeboredone]

I've been a bit confused on pre-orders from a store to store basis. GameStop says they are taking in a limited quantity for both consoles (8 near my home). However, Best Buy is just doing the whole "We'll take as many" and when I asked how that would work, they said, when the time comes, they would be telling MS/Sony how many pre-orders they got, therefore, how many guarantee sales they have. Hard to believe Best Buy having 100 X1's in stock Day 1 if that's how many pre-orders they got.

 

[TeknoBlast]

-_- it's a joke right?

Nope nope, not a joke at all. Poor people actually make me laugh. I laugh because these are the same people that own high end cars and high-end mobile devices while living in some mud shack; all while still complaining about not having some sort of internet service, but still be able to afford their desired gaming console plus game cost and online cost. So yeah, I laugh.

 

[Mystictrust]

Nope nope, not a joke at all. Poor people actually make me laugh. I laugh because these are the same people that own high end cars and high-end mobile devices while living in some mud shack; all while still complaining about not having some sort of internet service, but still be able to afford their desired gaming console plus game cost and online cost. So yeah, I laugh.

*sigh* That reminds me of some people I used to know. They could barely afford to feed themselves (fortunately, they did feed their kids). They quite literally would eat one cup of Ramen noodles every day or two, if that... though they would give lots of food to their hungry kids, so at least the kids didn't starve. When tax returns came, they would go out and waste all of it on big tech gadgets. They of course always got back double or triple what I got back, thanks to dependents and such. They had multiple consoles they would buy games for. They pawned any and everything, but usually kept most of their games. I actually think they pawned a game I lent them once, and just told me they lost it :/ These same people also take what little they have and pour it into drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes as well. And then complain about not having much money for anything. I really enjoyed spending time with them, but it was sad to see the way they handled their situation sometimes. They weren't usually debbie downers at all, and didn't always complain, but seeing how they handled it all... wow.

 

[Keith Wallace]

*sigh* That reminds me of some people I used to know. They could barely afford to feed themselves (fortunately, they did feed their kids). They quite literally would eat one cup of Ramen noodles every day or two, if that... though they would give lots of food to their hungry kids, so at least the kids didn't starve. When tax returns came, they would go out and waste all of it on big tech gadgets. They of course always got back double or triple what I got back, thanks to dependents and such. They had multiple consoles they would buy games for. They pawned any and everything, but usually kept most of their games. I actually think they pawned a game I lent them once, and just told me they lost it :/ These same people also take what little they have and pour it into drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes as well. And then complain about not having much money for anything. I really enjoyed spending time with them, but it was sad to see the way they handled their situation sometimes. They weren't usually debbie downers at all, and didn't always complain, but seeing how they handled it all... wow.

The last part sounds like my cousin. Works almost full-time, but never has money because of excessive spending on alcohol, cigarettes, and chewing tobacco.

 

[onysi]

im gonna go to a Microsoft store and buy it. lol

 

[Keith Wallace]

im gonna go to a Microsoft store and buy it. lol

The closest one to me just opened, and it's 90+ minutes away. I can't say it'd be worth the drive, but that's just me.

 

[theeboredone]

Decided to look into the "gaming" section of Employee News at Best Buy. One guy commented how his store right now has PS4 out-doing X1 in preorders. To be more precise, 73 to 15.

 

[Mystictrust]

The closest one to me just opened, and it's 90+ minutes away. I can't say it'd be worth the drive, but that's just me.

Speaking of which, back when the Microsoft Stores were offering the "Give us your old phone, we'll give you a brand new Windows Phone of your choice for free" promotion - would you have driven the 90+ minutes to get there? That was my dilemma. I mean, after the promotion ended they opened a new one 10 minutes away from my place (awesome!), but at the time, I had to debate it.. particularly since the closest store to me was actually 3 hours away. Unfortunately, I somehow found out about the promotion late so I checked online and a lot of people were saying they were sold out of most Windows Phones. So the 90+ minute drive may have been for naught. But still, question stands, would you have driven 90+ minutes if they had that promotion? I had an Android at the time though, and I'm not sure what you're rocking now

To be relevant to the thread, I wonder if I could coax the number of Xbox One preorders out of a local Microsoft Store employee here....

 

[theeboredone]

Currently being reported that Amazon is no longer accepting PS4 "Launch" version. They are taking pre-orders for the "Standard" which does not guarantee a PS4 on launch day. X1 still has "Launch" version available.

 

[Mystictrust]

Currently being reported that Amazon is no longer accepting PS4 "Launch" version. They are taking pre-orders for the "Standard" which does not guarantee a PS4 on launch day. X1 still has "Launch" version available.

I do want to add that it is NOT true that the PS4 has been the only one to "sell out" on Amazon. A couple days ago, I noticed that Xbox One was sold out of "Day One edition" consoles. There was an option to choose "Standard", but it wasn't available. Then, I guess the next day, they started selling standard. Then, sometime later, Day One Edition came back and standard went away.

I'm not a fan of Sony fanboys claiming things that aren't true. Both consoles actually "sold out" for a period of time on Amazon.

 

[theeboredone]

I know it can obviously mean that Amazon might guarantee more consoles for X1. Same time, it wouldn't surprise me if there have been some cancellations as well.

 

[someoneinwa]

Not that I really care if Sony has more pre-orders than Microsoft, but I do appreciate to OP's effort to correct faulty data. I planned to pre-order from the local Microsoft Store, but got lazy and used the on-line store instead. I haven't seen any stories about pre-orders that included these stores.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Speaking of which, back when the Microsoft Stores were offering the "Give us your old phone, we'll give you a brand new Windows Phone of your choice for free" promotion - would you have driven the 90+ minutes to get there? That was my dilemma. I mean, after the promotion ended they opened a new one 10 minutes away from my place (awesome!), but at the time, I had to debate it.. particularly since the closest store to me was actually 3 hours away. Unfortunately, I somehow found out about the promotion late so I checked online and a lot of people were saying they were sold out of most Windows Phones. So the 90+ minute drive may have been for naught. But still, question stands, would you have driven 90+ minutes if they had that promotion? I had an Android at the time though, and I'm not sure what you're rocking now

To be relevant to the thread, I wonder if I could coax the number of Xbox One preorders out of a local Microsoft Store employee here....

You know, I'd never heard of that promotion. It would have depended on the actual parameters. Did I have to sign a new contract? Which devices were available at the time of that offer? Which devices could be traded in, could a flip phone from 2007 be traded in, or did it have to have a certain value or be an under-contract device from within the past X amount of time? Which carrier(s) was this offered on? Like I said, this store JUST opened a week or so ago (the one in the St. Louis Galleria), so back whenever that offer would have been going, this store wouldn't have existed. I'm not sure where the closest store at the time would have been, but I'm guessing it would have been 3+ hours away in the Chicago area.

We make occasional trips to St. Louis with my grandma because she shops there as it is, so I could have told her I was interested in doing that, and she would have made a day to go shopping down there to do it, I'm sure. Otherwise, I'd have probably been willing to drive 90 minutes to go get a Windows Phone, if we're talking about getting rid of my HTC Droid Incredible on Verizon, even if it meant getting an HTC Trophy (I have a Lumia 920 on AT&T now). I wouldn't have gone all the way to Chicago for it, but I'd have gone to St. Louis because I could have gone with my family and made other uses out of such a trip. A special there-and-back trip for it would have been iffy, just would have depended.

 

[Mystictrust]

It was reported here on WPCentral as well as I think everywhere else. People started abusing it and they had to lock on restrictions, but I think it went a solid month being the perfect deal. No lie, they literally accepted ANY working phone... Near the end, people were buying cheap prepaid phones just to drop it off and get a fresh new Windows Phone. There was no contract required, they were giving them away as if you bought the phone full price, and all three major carriers had their phones available (Sprint may have already stopped selling their one WP by then, so I don't think the Sprint WP was ever available).

They were even offering up the Titan 2 in many stores, and that phone was so brand new to the market that it was a STEAL, but not every store had it. There were big threads people started in forums everywhere that listed phones available in all the stores, based on user reports of what they saw people getting, what they got, and what phones were left for them to choose from.

I really wish I hadn't found out during the last weekend, when most phones were sold out and there were reports of some stores giving out vouchers to get the phone later but some resorting to just $25 store gift cards. I would have made a 6 hour roundtrip drive to rid of my android (which at that time was a super low end $150 phone) and snag a new Windows Phone. At 90 minutes, maybe it could have been a steal for you as well. Just for that.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Oh, for sure. If I had known about I, I would have been all over taking in the crappy flip phone I had on AT&T (I actually had a line on AT&T and Verizon for 2 years, with the Droid Incredible on Verizon and a Samsung Sync on AT&T) and gotten a Titan 2. I would have also traded the Incredible for a Trophy, I guess, since that was all Verizon offered.

In fact, I would have found all of the crappy phones I had and done that. My mom had an old Pantech Matrix in a kitchen drawer, and I would have traded that in. I would have been abusing that system, no doubt, haha.

They should have this as a running offer, though. To fix it, you'd have to show proof that you were trading in a device under-contract (I know on AT&T, you can see your device on your bill's site), or simply do a credit trade-in, something like making tiers to determine how much you get off of a Windows Phone purchase.

 

[Mystictrust]

lol, you could only trade in one phone and I think you had to print and sign your name somewhere, along with an ID check. Although I imagine some may have gotten around that.

Completely and totally agree that they should have a variation of that running today... Maybe not all the time, but at least "from time to time", and of course with checks in place.

But now we're just completely off topic. If you ended up getting sold on Xbox One and got excited for it (who knows, they could change and/or clarify many things between now and November) would you make the drive to attend the launch event at that Microsoft Store? No doubt in my mind they will be giving away Live Gold cards (as they did at previous console launch events, wherever they were) and having tons of drawings and giveaways and maybe even have some developers over and some gaming parties. They'll be doing something like that at my store. Guy I spoke with is passing the idea up the chain to allow the Xbox One to be launched a few days early exclusively in Microsoft Stores. Would be awesome if that happened.

Microsoft Store preorders require half the deposit price of GameStop, from what I hear. I paid $50 for my preorder, and I hear it is $100 at GameStop

 

[Keith Wallace]

I would easily get around that limitation. When we go to St. Louis, it's AT LEAST 3 of us, sometimes 5. I'd just have my sister and her husband sign for two of them, then maybe have my grandma sign for another, if I could find 4 phones to trade in.

About the launch party, I probably would not. As I said, the store is 90 minutes away. That's 90 minutes I'd have to drive home and not be playing the console. There are literally 4 GameStops in this town, 3 of which are all within 2 minutes of driving from each other (two are actually across the street from one another, with one of them being in our mall). I know you'll likely think the "WTF?" that is warranted with that scenario, and it's because two of the GameStops used to be EB Games, but were converted to GameStops, rather than closed, when GameStop bought EB Games out. The final funny part of that is that the two places that were EB Games were the two farthest from each other. The two that were always GameStops are the two that were across the street from each other. I'm not sure who was the moron that decided that only the mall and the strip mall across from it are viable locations for game stores, but that's what happened.

Besides, if I DO get an Xbox One, it won't be until Christmas. Being in school full-time makes working tough for me. This is especially true this summer, as I am taking summer classes that take up the time block of 1 PM-7:30 PM Monday through Thursday. On top of that, during the Spring 2014 semester (which is when I'll graduate), I'll be doing a work study, meaning I'll basically be going to school full time and have an internship of sorts on top of that, so I don't have a whole lot of time between now and next summer when I'll be able to work. School is out at the start of August for the summer, so I might be able to do part-time from then until the spring, but right now isn't really an option. That'll mean that getting an Xbox will involve asking for money for Christmas, and getting it them.

I'd probably take that route regardless, though. If I was/am working by that time, I think I'd but spare work money into an EOS (I have a 920, but that thing enthralls me nonetheless) and still ask for an Xbox One for Christmas. Oh, and there's the part that I am not the kind of person who would want to drive 90 minutes to be in a crowded mall with a bunch of strangers for several hours.

 

[dba415]

I do want to add that it is NOT true that the PS4 has been the only one to "sell out" on Amazon. A couple days ago, I noticed that Xbox One was sold out of "Day One edition" consoles. There was an option to choose "Standard", but it wasn't available. Then, I guess the next day, they started selling standard. Then, sometime later, Day One Edition came back and standard went away.

I'm not a fan of Sony fanboys claiming things that aren't true. Both consoles actually "sold out" for a period of time on Amazon.

My guess is that XBO was sold out, but then gamers caught win of the DRM stuff and cancelled their preorders and bought the PS4 instead. There is not a reason for Amazon to post the standard edition XBO when the day one edition is still available. They only put up the standard edition for PS4 because the launch day was sold out.