GameStop Employees Surprised By New Shipment of PS5, Xbox Series X Consoles (bloomberg.com) 28
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: GameStop employees across the country were caught by surprise on Saturday when the video-game chain suddenly announced new shipments of the highly coveted PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, sending customers flocking to stores. Workers at the U.S. retailer, speaking to Bloomberg and posting on social media, said they had received little notice for the restock and that the crowds were both chaotic and a risk to their health. The latest generation devices from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have been in short supply since their release last month, leaving gamers everywhere eager for the latest restock. On Saturday afternoon, GameStop told customers that new inventory was arriving, but that it would only be available to pre-order in stores, not online, where scalpers have dominated digital queues. However, employees found out less than an hour before the public, according to GameStop staffers, which left them unprepared for the rush of customers.
One GameStop manager on the East Coast shared an email from the company, sent just a few minutes before the public announcement, saying that their store would have about 15 new consoles available for pre-order. Minutes after the announcement, the manager said, the store had a crowd of about 40 people, violating social-distancing requirements and overwhelming their clerks. GameStop said its last-minute notification to customers was meant to ensure that individuals, not resellers, were able to purchase the consoles. "We realize that in some situations our approach of notifying customers of this opportunity may have caused unintended reactions from both our associates and customers," GameStop said in a statement. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
The rush occurred as GameStop is facing widespread staffing shortages as the retailer has asked stores across the country to cut hours, the manager said. GameStop, which has been struggling in recent years amid the widespread adoption of digital games, reported a disappointing third quarter last week, sending the stock falling as much as 22%. The retailer has shuttered almost 700 stores this year and will close more locations through 2022 while it continues to cut costs, although it expects to see a sales bump this quarter thanks to the new consoles. On Reddit, GameStop employees are sharing similar complaints, telling stories of big lines and unruly crowds.
One GameStop manager on the East Coast shared an email from the company, sent just a few minutes before the public announcement, saying that their store would have about 15 new consoles available for pre-order. Minutes after the announcement, the manager said, the store had a crowd of about 40 people, violating social-distancing requirements and overwhelming their clerks. GameStop said its last-minute notification to customers was meant to ensure that individuals, not resellers, were able to purchase the consoles. "We realize that in some situations our approach of notifying customers of this opportunity may have caused unintended reactions from both our associates and customers," GameStop said in a statement. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
The rush occurred as GameStop is facing widespread staffing shortages as the retailer has asked stores across the country to cut hours, the manager said. GameStop, which has been struggling in recent years amid the widespread adoption of digital games, reported a disappointing third quarter last week, sending the stock falling as much as 22%. The retailer has shuttered almost 700 stores this year and will close more locations through 2022 while it continues to cut costs, although it expects to see a sales bump this quarter thanks to the new consoles. On Reddit, GameStop employees are sharing similar complaints, telling stories of big lines and unruly crowds.
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Please, i'm being serious, go see a doctor.
Stock them without saying anything. (Score:2)
Re: Stock them without saying anything. (Score:1)
You noticed your error yourself, right?
The whole point of corporations is to be bad for customers and employees. Namely, their wallets. Getting a fair deal in return, or being nice to your victims and your slaves is not gonna make you the market leader nor give you exponential profits that shareholder somehow expect to be physically possible forever.
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But by all means don't let a little logic get in the way of a good rant.
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Re: Stock them without saying anything. (Score:2)
Re: Stock them without saying anything. (Score:1)
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i was not aware that counter staff at game stop was hired for their insights
game stop could have saved a lot of time and effort by generating a generic press release
Come on, this is a marketing trick! (Score:3, Interesting)
They are buying them themselves, then selling them again, and morons go crazy like it suddenly became more valuable!
They are low-end PCs without keyboards. And they always will be. The times of specialized hardware are over. The only specialized hardware in the in the Digital Restrictions Management, to rip you off better. You likely don't even need emulators anymore if you got a modern Ryzen with a modern Radeon card.
Re:Come on, this is a marketing trick! (Score:4, Informative)
> They are low-end PCs without keyboards.
Basically but more locked down with a fixed set of hardware.
My PS4 Pro has a keyboard but I know what you mean. It doesn't come with one by default.
It also doesn't come with a mouse. Again, technically you can, but that is not the norm. Trying to play an RTS, such as Age of Empires 2, on a console without a mouse ... I can't even begin to imagine how retarded that would be.
Consoles also come with proprietary gamepads and driving wheels that "obviously" don't work with the "other guy's console" -- even both the PS4 and XBox use USB which is complete bullshit. I should be able to just plug a PS4 gamepad into an Xbox, or an Xbox gamepad into a PS4 and just have it work.
> You likely don't even need emulators anymore
Except for bullshit "console exclusives" trying to lock people into a proprietary, closed system, or half-assed ports of consoles games to PC. At least MS is trying -- with Forza Horizon 4 and Forza Motosports available on both PC and XBox. Horizon Zero Dawn is now available on PC. However, good luck playing Gran Turismo or Ghost of Tsushima on a PC. Polyphony Digital doesn't care about PCs -- only about how many PlayStations they can help sell -- although I am seeing rumors that Sony is going to have SOME of their games playable on Windows?
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It doesn't come with one by default.
It doesn't need to, since you can just plug any ol keyboard one has just sitting around.
Trying to play an RTS, such as Age of Empires 2, on a console without a mouse
The first RTS was a Sega Genesis game, no mouse was needed. Though there was a mouse for the Genesis. I've played a few RTS's on console, how they control depends on the game. The ones I have have mouse support, though you can play without it. Some things were easier and faster with the mouse, some were not. I found that Warzone 2100 was the game that was workable no matter which controls you used since the UI chang
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> The first RTS was a Sega Genesis game
Yes, that would Herzog Zwei. However, modern RTS are definitely WAY more advanced now.
> I found that Warzone 2100 was the game that was workable no matter which controls you used
Oh nice! I'll have to look into that one.
> Though you can't really expect cross compatibility with gamepads between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo
Not every feature needs to be supported. Buttons and Rumble are "good enough".
> Most players of PC racing games tend to be PC Master Race
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The first RTS was a Sega Genesis game, no mouse was needed.
The first FPS was a Imlac PDS-1 game, no mouse was needed.*
That fact does not negate that a mouse is a superior and preferred means of controlling FPS games today.
* - Maze War, 1973 https://www.pcmag.com/news/the... [pcmag.com]
...unless you have friends or kids. (Score:2)
They are low-end PCs without keyboards. And they always will be. The times of specialized hardware are over. The only specialized hardware in the in the Digital Restrictions Management, to rip you off better. You likely don't even need emulators anymore if you got a modern Ryzen with a modern Radeon card.
Yeah...ask your friends to gather around the gaming PC...that'll be a fun party. If I want to play a highly focused RPG, shooter or RTS, it's hard to beat a PC. However, with a nintendo, I can have my small kids and their friends play super smash brothers and have a great time...or mario kart (my kids are little) or just dance, which my daughter loves and gives us both a workout....none are really the same on a PC, if they're an option at all.
For me, games were something you did WITH friends and withou
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They are buying them themselves, then selling them again, and morons go crazy like it suddenly became more valuable!
They are low-end PCs without keyboards. And they always will be. The times of specialized hardware are over. The only specialized hardware in the in the Digital Restrictions Management, to rip you off better. You likely don't even need emulators anymore if you got a modern Ryzen with a modern Radeon card.
There are many among us that will enjoy 4k-8k gaming and ray tracing despite no predisposition to computer architecture and design.
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[quote]They are low-end PCs[/quote]
You keep saying this, but it doesn't make it entirely true. Take a look at the Steam Hardware Survey:
https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]
The most common CPU is a Quad core. The most common GPU's are the GTX1060 and the two 1050's. The most common resolution is 1920x1080, the second most common is 1366x768! These would be PS4 class machines, not PS5 or Xbox Series X.
[quote]without keyboards.[/quote]
I must be imagining those USB ports on my PS5, PS4, PS3, PS2, and Switch do
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~ Consoles are just PC hardware with some custom logic. They won't be able to run Windows out of the box, but in theory, it would be possible, and fairly painless, to port it to the PS4, XBOX One, PS5 and XBOX Series
Slashdot shilling proprietary dickboxes (Score:1)
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no shit (Score:2)
they were suprised, when was the last time gamesnot had a new console in it and not some used yard sale garbage in it?
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That yard sale garbage was what brought in the hardcore gamers. These days people are better off just ordering than wasting their time going to gamestop, since now they don't have any of that old stuff any more.
Good attempt (Score:3)
As sucky as this was for employees, I'm glad someone is trying to do something about rampant automated buying of consoles... I wish other stores would move to simply offering a bunch of in-perchase consoles only to try and let real people have a chance at getting a console.
Of course as long as people keep buying them for $1k on eBay and the like, the madness will continue... it's only when that demand abates that we'll start to see sanity return around buying the PS5 and XboxX.
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To the worse the current batches still have ton of bugs which are fixed in minor factory revisions in the upcoming months. No way I would ever buy a PS5 before end of 2021!