A mere two weeks since telling Gamestop to open the floodgates for 'unlimited orders' of the Playstation 4, the company is no longer taking preorders on their site. Neither Sony nor Gamestop have released any official statements in relation to this.
Having no official word from either company, we are left to speculate on possible reasons why. It may be too hasty to say that stock allocations have run out. It is possible that Gamestop is experiencing temporary hiccups processing preorders on their end, or that they have hit the limit of their actual capability to deliver that many PS4s to consumers.
Or, Gamestop may have learned their lesson from the PS3 launch ilast 2006. For those who don't remember, demand was so high that PS3 preorders ran out within minutes, only for the retailer to reveal a month later that they did not get enough units to match demand and some customers would have to wait. In the ensuing chaos, PS3 units started coming up on eBay for astronomical prices, and people literally fought to get units.
Given all this history, it may have been irresponsible for Sony to tell Gamestop to take unlimited orders, even if they were confident of their ability to deliver units to meet demand this time. In spite of all this, and irregardless of the reasons, the high demand for the console is good news for Sony. Let's hope they can make assurances that they will be able to honor all preorders in a timely fashion.
