PlayStation 4 pre-orders aren't guaranteed to be launch deliveries

Over in Europe, Sony may not be able to fulfill all the pre-orders for PlayStation 4 that were guaranteed to be delivered during launch day. Now that shortage could creep into the United States.

European store ShopTo via Softpedia made a statement on Tuesday saying that all orders placed from that day onward would not be guaranteed to be delivered on the launch day, but will still accept orders with impending cancellations.

That shortage threat could reach the United States, according to Softpedia.

It’s unclear whether Sony has enough PlayStation 4's in production to fulfill orders in the United States or if a similar warning will soon be linked to worldwide pre-orders.

Analysts believe that pre-orders for next-gen consoles are much bigger than those for the PS3 and the Xbox 360.

There's multiple reasons to why this upcoming console generation is already healthy in sales. The economy is thriving compared through the majority of the last console era, financing is available all over the place (like Amazon, Best Buy, etc), and the launch prices are considerably cheaper -- especially the PS4 marked $200 less than the PS3 was at launch.

For those that need a PS4 at launch here in the US, it's strongly recommended to take action now. Otherwise, those that have a little patience can save some money with an early launch bundle.

 [Photo credit: The Examiner]

Commentary: Will Xbox 360 Have More Preorders in US, Too?

There hasn't been much praise for Microsoft's new game console cable box with the fiasco of how games will be played on it.

Apparently, that doesn't matter over in the United Kingdom where Xbox One preorders are exceeding the PlayStation 4. Despite gamers' protest of needing to connect online at least once every 24 hours and the console not playing used games, the casual market doesn't seem to care.

For the casuals who play Call of Duty and Madden on their Xbox 360 here in the US, will that trend carry over?

It's possible, but that theory will be tested with Microsoft releasing the product at a steep $499 retail tag that was announced at the Electronics Entertainment Expo on Monday. A relase date of this November was also announced.

The price is about $100 more than what some analysts predicted. With both versions of Madden and COD coming out for this generations' consoles, the number of early adopters may be very small for such a high price despite generally favorable responses from the E3 presentation.

Sony's presentation will be tonight. They have potential to gain the attention right back that the Xbox One has received for weeks if they come out with a lower price (if that's planned) and attract to both the casual and hardcore gaming markets.

If so, then the next step will be to physically move those gamers to Sony's next console. In a way, Microsoft's undoing could be the same that Sony faced over six years ago when introducing a high-priced model with some non-gaming features (Blu-ray player).

More speculation and response to come after Sony's conference.

[Source: NBC News]
[Image credit: Flickr/NewGameNetwork]