Microsoft’s Xbox One Day One edition console has been a fixture on Amazon’s video game bestsellers chart since it first became available. Even as we approach a month’s distance from when Amazon first began accepting pre-orders, the Day One edition has yet to sell out.
By comparison, Sony’s PS4 Launch Day console sold out in less than 24 hours and never returned as a standalone item. When Sony allotted Amazon more Launch Day consoles, Amazon opted to bundle them with a game instead in hopes of moving some software while demand for the hardware was swelling. The PS4 Launch Day bundle pre-orders continue to perform well and remain in stock.
You would think by now that most early adopters who want an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 have already placed their pre-orders at GameStop, Amazon, Best Buy or other retailers. Yet the Xbox One Day One edition pre-order, as a standalone console outside of a bundle, remains in stock.
The obvious answer as to why is that Microsoft has allotted retailers a huge number of Xbox One consoles that they are comfortable having ready for the estimated November 27 release date. They must have as the Xbox One Day One console has been hovering near the top of Amazon’s video game bestsellers since its debut, and even now is climbing back up the charts after all the console pre-orders took a temporary hit due to some July Fourth-related deals.
At some point Amazon’s stock of Xbox One Day One edition consoles will run out unless they have found the means to manufacture an unprecedented number for launch. Or will it? I have been asking non-gamer friends about their thoughts on the new Xbox One and they had no idea it even existed. We’re well familiar here with the new console living within the gamer and tech world. The much bigger outside world, or casual consumers, don’t really know about the console yet. When they do, they will look at it more as a “cool new Xbox” and the next evolution of a console and grand they are already familiar with than take the time to research the console’s troubled DRM history.
That is when the new Xbox should, in theory, sell out.
Here in the dog days of summer it doesn’t take much to find a spot on Amazon’s video game bestsellers chart. We are in the calm before the storm period. Still, it has to be promising for Microsoft to see Xbox One Day One pre-orders continuing to sell despite the lofty $500 price tag.
