Written by Alex Maidment (nSanity Beach)

There’s a lot to get excited about in the gaming world right now – from last minute console announcements (we’re looking at you Microsoft and Sony!) through to crazy bang-for-buck GPUs that trounce the performance of the last generation.

We’re also on the verge of a gaming generation that could become completely hardware agnostic (apart from a few some exclusives here and there) – I’ve already spoken to console gamers that say they’re not going to bother with the new consoles any time soon because games are going to be cross-play and Microsoft’s Games Pass Ultimate and game streaming provides everything they need in for the foreseeable future… but more on that later.

Right now, we turn our attention to the September pre-orders for Sony’s Playstation 5, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S and NVIDIA’s 3000 series of GPUs. In the game of pulling straws, Microsoft have potentially avoided the short straw with the last pre-order slot of the three. Going last isn’t always best but based on how Sony and NVIDIA’s pre-orders have gone so far, there might be some opportunities to learn from what’s happened so far.

Despite Sony saying production levels haven’t been dropped, there is certainly something going on out there as we’re now hearing reports of people’s pre-orders being cancelled (after being accepted) and consoles not being delivered on time, even though we’re talking about a launch in 6 weeks time. Further to the issues faced with the pre-orders, despite a specific pre-order date announced by Sony during their latest announcement, some retailers chose to jump the gun meaning they were out of stock before pre-orders were even due to go live…

But that’s still nothing compared to NVIDIA, in which the PC community is feeling a little cheated by just how quickly the GPUs went out of stock with many now being sold across the internet by scalpers for massively overinflated prices.

So, what does all this mean for Microsoft? Well, if they’re clever they’ll start by putting in place some safeguards to stop similar issues happening – with only a few days to go (Sept 22 – 8am BST for Xbox pre-orders in the UK!), what can they actually do?

There is already talk of Microsoft punishing retailers who put pre-orders live early, potentially taking stock away from them – this seems sensible from the supplier side to try and keep things fair, but equally, for those that might get a pre-order early, is it fair to punish the players who are just playing the game to try and get the new console?

Much like the other hardware pre-orders, there is a high chance that the new Xbox pre-orders will go quickly – this is something that Microsoft can’t do so much about, after all the demand is HIGH and while they’ll do their best to provide a lot of stock on day one (as Sony and NVIDIA are both trying to do), it’s likely to come down to luck on the day as to whether you get a pre-order or not.

All I can say is well done to those that managed to secure a PS5 or 3000 series GPU, unlucky to those that missed out on their hardware of choice and good luck to those attempting to get their hands on a day one Xbox Series X|S (myself included!).