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Does anyone know if EB games or any other game stores are having midnight releases of the PSP when it comes out on the 24th? Just wondering if anyone from the stores or if anyone at all even knows.

I don't think so. This probably isn't a good idea for a product in short supply. Why draw a crowd if you have to send most of them away empty handed?

Originally Posted by epobirs I don't think so. This probably isn't a good idea for a product in short supply. Why draw a crowd if you have to send most of them away empty handed?

I mean why would people be empty handed. They will show up if they pre-ordered and EB will get enough in to cover pre orders. SO why would a person show up to a special pre order only event if they didnt have it pre ordered.

P.S. I'll never say Pre order again lol

Originally Posted by pimpinc333 I mean why would people be empty handed. They will show up if they pre-ordered and EB will get enough in to cover pre orders. SO why would a person show up to a special pre order only event if they didnt have it pre ordered. P.S. I'll never say Pre order again lol

2nd shipment people showing up when its only for the 1st.

Originally Posted by pimpinc333 I mean why would people be empty handed. They will show up if they pre-ordered and EB will get enough in to cover pre orders. SO why would a person show up to a special pre order only event if they didnt have it pre ordered. P.S. I'll never say Pre order again lol

When Halo 2 shipped there were plenty of copies for anyone just showing up to buy. Only suppplies of the LE version were in doubt. The promotional fervor was worth encouraging to get that big first week so in turn they have bigger numbers for the press releases saying how big it was so why haven't bought an Xbox yet and gotten yours...
I saw news coverage for the event at a particular EB in LA where they had well over 100 people showing up for Halo 2. Over the course of the night there were several hundred people came and spent money, according to what the manager told me a few weeks later.

No one store is going to have anywhere near that number of PSPs to deliver. It just isn't going to be as much of an event for lack of product. It will be a good day at the till but not worth opening the store at odd hours.

The store where I have my order is in a fairly affluent neighborhood but last time I asked they only a bit over two dozen units pre-ordered.

Originally Posted by gizmogc 2nd shipment people showing up when its only for the 1st.

at gamestop weve been told that we will have enough for first and second shipment, so if you have a 2nd shipment reserved you should be getting one

Another way to look at it is manaufacturing capacity. Sony has made press releases about having a million units available in the first month.

That would be minor for a DVD based product so long as there was sufficient demand. If EB had decided they needed 1 million units of Halo 2 just their stores and online business, Microsoft would have had little difficulty delivering that. At worst they might have to delay manaufacturing on some other titles for a few days but no sane publisher wanted to launch their Xbox game within a week before or after Halo 2, so no one is likely to be inconvenienced. Microsoft would have just said, "Yes, Sir!" and made it happen.

On the PSP it doesn't matter how many units a big chain thinks they can move on launch day. They aren't items coming off any of a dozen production lines that can switch which item they're producing on an hourly basis. That facility could be producing 12 differents games simultaneously, 2 games on 6 lines each, 3 on 4, etc. No problem supplying a highly anticipated launch.

Originally Posted by iheartmetal at gamestop weve been told that we will have enough for first and second shipment, so if you have a 2nd shipment reserved you should be getting one

How many units are in those shipments? The question whether there will be enough to create the kind of accessory buying frenzy that would merit having the store open at abnormal hours.

Originally Posted by iheartmetal at gamestop weve been told that we will have enough for first and second shipment, so if you have a 2nd shipment reserved you should be getting one

I don't know how gamestop works but wouldn't it vary from store to store? Because at my EB, we're only getting enough to cover about 1/4 of the people who have already preordered PSPs in our system. But in another EB I sometimes work at about 5 minutes away, they're receiving more than they've got preordered because they managed to get way more preorders for systems+games than us...

Originally Posted by vietgurl I don't know how gamestop works but wouldn't it vary from store to store? Because at my EB, we're only getting enough to cover about 1/4 of the people who have already preordered PSPs in our system. But in another EB I sometimes work at about 5 minutes away, they're receiving more than they've got preordered because they managed to get way more preorders for systems+games than us...

I say YMMV on this LOL

From evreything I've read about the PSP launch and I'm read alot they will have one million PSPs day ONE! Check out ign,com for a good story about the psp launch. While alot of PSPs are going to get sold and they will sell out at EBs and gamestop but wal marts and targets should have plenty for at least a couple of days I bet.

Supposedly one of our local gamestores (we have 3 Eb's alone) is getting 40 as confirmed this last friday. They only have 45 on preorder.

Originally Posted by generalpatton71 From evreything I've read about the PSP launch and I'm read alot they will have one million PSPs day ONE! Check out ign,com for a good story about the psp launch. While alot of PSPs are going to get sold and they will sell out at EBs and gamestop but wal marts and targets should have plenty for at least a couple of days I bet.

Do a bit of math, though, and the amount per store isn't that great for a high demand item.

EB list 2000 locations worldwide but I assume at least half are in the US.

GameStop too has at least 1000 of its 1500 locations in North America.

Target has about 1450 locations.

Wal-mart has at least 3000 between regular stores and Supecenters. (I'm going to assume warehouse stores like Sam's Club and Costco won't have the PSP until supplies are more regular.)

Another 900 stores for Sears.

Kmart claims 1500 stores but that might be a few days old, so I'll call them 1100 stores to pile together with Sears for an even 2K between them.

GameCrazy has 700+ stores

Gamerush I cannot find any numbers for quickly but considering their density in SoCal I'm going to assume they're on equal footing with GameCrazy, so call it 700 stores.

Toys R Us has about 650 stores still going.

That already brings us up to 10,500 probable locations selling PSP at launch. This no doubt leaves off many major retailers that I'm not likely to think of due to their not be national or in my region. That already gets us below 100 units per location in the best case scenario where the entire million is in the stores on the 24th.

Anybody have any likely retail chain to add to this list?

You also have to figure a good chunk of the inventory will go to online sales. Probably equivalent to 500 retail locations at the least.

So now we have them divided up between at least 11,000 stores.

D'oh!

Best Buy has 800+ stores

Circuit City amounts to another 600 possible PSP outlets.

So now we have 12,400.

Their will be plenty. The Game Rush stores in my area are getting 22 each. My store only has 8 reserved. So come midnight it'll be fast and clean. Also I was just informed today I'm working the midnight PSP shift, yay.

Toys R us in Times square didn't have to open ad midnight to sell Halo2...but they did. I suspect they'll do it for the PSP aswell.

It's a major rollout of an expensive consumer product, it's silly to think some stores wont try to capitalize on the word of mouth and news crews running around trying to get a scoop on a new product from a major multinational company like Sony.

Originally Posted by Alpha2 Toys R us in Times square didn't have to open ad midnight to sell Halo2...but they did. I suspect they'll do it for the PSP aswell. It's a major rollout of an expensive consumer product, it's silly to think some stores wont try to capitalize on the word of mouth and news crews running around trying to get a scoop on a new product from a major multinational company like Sony.

But did the TRU in Times Square have to turn away 99% of those who turned up hoping to buy? The hype and desirability of the product are not in question, it is the supply that is at issue.

With nine days to go none of the stores that had midnight events for Halo 2 in my area have placed ads in their windows for a similar event when the PSP launches. Probably because all of their units for that day are already sold. The manager at a local EB said he doesn't expect to have all of his pre-sales satisfied until well into April.

My Toys R Us said they were considering a midnight thing. He didn't think they would get many systems either for some odd reason.

do you think wal mart would have them out at midnight since they're open all night anyways?