Polygon reports that GameStop stores across the United States have ceased taking pre-orders for Xbox One consoles due to extremely limited quantities.
According to some GameStop employees Sony are planning to supply several times more PS4s at the launch of that console. One store manager commented "We were only given an allocation of 16 Xbox Ones but we have 60 PlayStation 4s and we're still taking orders."
Another store added "There's no point trying any GameStops. We've stopped that SKU until we get notice", allocations are determined by Microsoft with one GameStop manager commenting "All stores have been told to stop until we get some more units from Microsoft."
The console remains available to pre-order on Amazon where the PS4 launch edition – the consoles guaranteed to arrive on day one – are sold out.
Neither GameStop or Microsoft have currently commented on the issue. GameStop announced on June 10th that customers in the US could place a $100 deposit for the console to be delivered in November with deposits being limited to one per household. GameStop stores in other markets are still taking pre-orders for the system with Irish customers able to guarantee a console for €20 – though there's no option to deliver outside the US.
It has been rumoured for some time that Microsoft are working to downgrade the Xbox One's GPU clock due to ESRAM yield difficulties. If true, it could account for the limited quantites of the console available at launch.
Sony are expected to have the opposite problem with the positive reaction to the company's pre-E3 press conference last week leading to both SCEA president Jack Tretton and SCEI CEO Andrew House warning that "demand may now outstrip supply", despite the higher number of PS4 consoles available.
