Last year, UK retail stores were hopeful and enthusiastic that the PS3 would be a monster seller. Last Month, Sony claimed that the response for pre-orders of the PS3 in the UK was "overwhelming." With this type of hype, you would think that people are falling over one other to grab a pre-order ticket, so as to avoid the expected avalanche of customers clamoring for PS3s during the March 23 launch.
You’d think that, but you’d be wrong.
rpgsite.net reports that GAME, the largest game retailer in Europe, has sold only 2/3 of its PS3 pre-order tickets, despite a concerted effort to sell them. What’s even more surprising is that the available stock on hand will most likely allow for anyone to just walk in and pick up a PS3 on launch day.
A store manager at one of the GAME stores said, "We’ve had a lot of interest in the console, mostly from PS2 owners looking to upgrade, but the price is putting many off. It looks like you may be able to just walk in and pick one up without a preorder on launch day."
With less than two weeks to go before launch, this sort of news can’t be reassuring for Sony and its launch efforts.
