1929

Good to see RAD Game tools still plugging away at things. Been a helluva long time since I first ran into them back in '96? for a multimedia CD I was working on. We really struggled with video playback on lower end machines until I discovered their Smacker codec.

1930

So Gamestop has allegedly reopened their pre-orders for the PS5 & their whole site currently has a PS5 automated queue system.

Has anybody actually managed to get in & order so far? I’ve been sitting in the queue for 20 minutes now…

But it IS better than endlessly guessing / sniping at stock like we have for 3080s.

Diego

1931

It was not really any better.

I sat in the queue for half an hour and eventually the page refreshed to tell me they were completely out of stock.

1932

image
image808×821 148 KB

1933

I wondered why people were lining up outside the local Gamestop in the rain this morning.

1934

Gamestop usually doesn’t like to sell just consoles; they crave selling their bundles. I’m surprised they aren’t bitching/pitching that heavily so they can turn a 500 dollar purchase into 750.

image

1935

Is it just me, or did the whole pre-order system for the PS5 seem super rushed and half-assed, in spite of it being dragged out for so long? I kind of suspect they heard about the Betheda deal and knew they needed to get pre-orders locked in ahead of that. Hence the “sign up for pre-orders through us but also wait nevermind here’s the price buy it from these places starting right now, but wait no you can still get it from us” back-and-forth that all had to happen before MS’s announced Tuesday date. Which isn’t to say that the Xbox thing went smoothly either, but for a process that been in motion for the better part of a year, it sure was (and remains) messy at the end.

1936

What do you mean by locked though? I can cancel my pre-order at any time. There is no… like I was going to find out about Bethesda eventually and changes in general. Until it’s in hand, they are not guaranteed anything.

1937

That is one strange thing I noticed when ordering my Xbox Series X on Tuesday. Normally I pre-order stuff on Amazon, and there I’m charged when the pre-ordered product actually ships. But this is the first time I pre-ordered from Walmart, and my card was charged right away, now, last Tuesday, I’m out of $540 now. Of course, it can be cancelled, but still. Being used to Amazon, it was a bit of a sticker shock paying for something over a month before actually receiving it.

1938

I also was charged for my preorder when I bought it from Best Buy.

On some level, I’m kind of glad, because they’re obligated to actually give me something now.

1939

Oh, sure, you can certainly cancel, especially (unless like Rock8man, apparently) when you haven’t paid for it yet. But it’s easier to keep folks that have already ‘bought in’, even if that’s an illusion. Anyway it was just a thought.

1940

I will give you that once you have committed it does take an action to untangle yourself from that commitment.

Aside from visuals and a few kind of generic pitches, it seems like the bigger deciding factor for some is that Game Pass.

1941

When I was reading about Walmart pre-orders (because I have a 5% Chase Visa cash back that starts next month), they said they pre-authorize your card but don’t actually charge you until it ships.

1942

Huh. I think you’re right. Usually something that’s “Pending” is owed by now, but even 3 days later, it’s still showing as “Pending”.

1943

Yeah, it will probably disappear from pending in a few days and then they will charge when it ships.

1944

Yeah, generally when placing a preorder, they’ll put a pending charge on the account to confirm that the card is valid and has enough available balance that it won’t be declined. Then the pending charge falls off, and they’ll charge it for real when it’s ready to ship.

1945

mine took 5 days to fall off from Wal mart

1946

Rumor is the PS5 only has ~664GB of usable space.

1947

Makes sense, the XS SSD reserves a ton of space for OS and game memory snapshots too.

1948

It seems like the PS5 should be readily available come November, right? All the pre-orders are sold out but as far as I can tell, it shouldn’t be that difficult to find one after launch. Or am I completely missing something?