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NVIDIA apologizes for RTX 3090 pre-orders before they even begin
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090 is going on pre-order this morning, but it sounds like you’re going to need a lot of luck to get one. In a blog post, the company has essentially pre-apologized for the lack of supply, while stressing that it’s strictly designed (and priced) for enthusiasts.
Best Buy cancels all Galaxy Fold pre-orders
In another blow to Samsung's Galaxy Fold, Best Buy announced that it's canceling all current Galaxy Fold pre-orders. That's not entirely surprising given all of the drama around the Fold and the lack of concrete details from Samsung. But Best Buy could be the first of several retailers to make the call. Samsung itself is canceling pre-order for people who don't confirm that they still want one by May 31st.
Pre-order your Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus now
Journalists are torn about whether consumers should get the pricey iPhone 8 or 8 Plus or the pricier, but new and exciting iPhone X. You can now vote with your wallet, as the two new iPhone 8s (but not the iPhone X) have gone on pre-order at Apple's Store, various carriers and retailers like Target and Best Buy in the US. Also on pre-order is the Apple TV 4K and Watch series 3, with all products set to ship on September 22nd. In the UK, pre-orders are also up on Apple's site and with EE and other carriers.
Apple Watch and MacBook pre-orders are open (updated)
Apple's Watch is now on pre-order at Apple's Store, but unlike Katy Perry, you're going to have to wait until at least April 24th to get one. It could take a lot longer than that if you don't order one sooner than later, however, and if time is of the essence, you may have to settle for a model you didn't have your heart set on. Apple said that it expects "strong customer demand will exceed our supply at launch," and information on the Apple Store backs that up. For instance, the 38mm sport model is shipping between April 24th and May 8th, but the 42mm model isn't going out until May 8th at the earliest.
Resident Evil HD pre-orders are cross-buy on PS4, PS3
In holiday spirit news, PlayStation pre-orders of the HD-ified Resident Evil will unlock the game on both PS4 and PS3. Capcom revealed North American users can pre-purchase the upcoming remaster on PSN now, and by doing so they'll get both the PS4 and PS3 versions. The publisher's confirmed to Polygon the cross-buy offer is only available for pre-orders. If you're almost peckish for a remastered sandwich, you don't have much longer to wait. The $20 "definitive version" of Resi's 2002 remake hits PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on January 20, 2015, bringing back crazed canines, creaking doors and Barry Burtonisms in 1080p. If you fancy a bit of before-and-after, check out Capcom's comparison shots. [Image: Capcom]
We're paying for broken games, and it's unacceptable
There was a time when you bought a game, pulled it out of the box, popped it into your device of choice, and that was it. In today's video game industry, however, a single game isn't even the end product. Now we have downloadable content and expansion packs – and don't forget to buy the season pass so you get it all for a nominal discount. Never mind just pre-ordering your games either, now we can pre-load them, guaranteeing access the very second a game becomes available. And the pre-order bonuses, bestowing us with trivial costumes or weapons, or maybe even some extra levels that will inevitably be sold after launch, despite being billed as pre-order "exclusives." Even without these premium additions, the game you bring home isn't the static creative work it once was. Developers and publishers are free to update their games now, patching out unforeseen problems or even adding fan-requested improvements. It's good that issues can be resolved, but the darker side of this is the now infamous "Day 1 Patch." These crucial updates are applied on launch day, providing fixes so last-minute that they couldn't make it onto the discs before they were pressed (or even onto the downloadable code, for that matter). The implication of the Day 1 Patch, of course, is that the game in the box, or sitting in your Steam download queue, isn't actually finished. The troubling part, as 2014 has proven, is that even after you've applied that patch, you can still wind up with a broken game. Not only that, but if the marketing has done its job, you have a broken game for which you have already purchased additional content. Maybe you paid a little extra for a special edition. You're a savvy shopper, so you saved five bucks on future DLC with a season pass. In today's climate, it's easy to plunk down $100 on a game before you've played a single minute of it. If said game doesn't work, all you've got is a fancy SteelBook case, a useless download token for DLC and maybe a plastic tchotchke for your desk. And that's assuming you didn't pre-order digitally, in which case all you have is a broken game and no hope of a refund.
Report: Pokemon 3DS remakes notch a million pre-orders in Japan
Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are already major hits in Japan, despite the fact that neither game will reach store shelves until November 21. Dengeki Online (courtesy Siliconera translation) reports that the two games have already attracted over a million pre-orders in the island nation alone. For those keeping score at home, that puts Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire - remakes of the 2003 GameBoy Advance hits Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire - on a pace to beat the pre-order tallies for 2013's Pokemon X and Y. Both of those games sold like gangbusters even months after they first debuted, and Nintendo should be pleased with the hype its latest Pokegames are generating. [Image: Nintendo]
Nintendo: Pre-orders of Super Smash Bros. surpass Mario Kart 8
Super Smash Bros. pre-orders are at a record high for Wii U, eclipsing those of summer hit Mario Kart 8. In a Bloomberg interview, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said his company expects Smash to give the console a sales boost similar to the one provided by Mario Kart 8. In last month's financial results, Nintendo revealed the racer is at close to 3.5 million sales, with Wii U shipments up to 7.29 million worldwide. "The launch of Mario Kart 8 has essentially doubled our Wii U sales year-on-year," Fils-Aime said. "Our expectation is that the sell-through for Smash is going to be very strong, certainly on par with what we saw with Mario Kart 8. We think the impact on hardware will be similarly dramatic."
OnePlus One to open up pre-orders soon, but there's a catch
The OnePlus One has been sort of an underground hit, namely due to the fact you could only purchase the handset with an invite. Thankfully, if you've had your eyes on it for a while, OnePlus just revealed that its $300 Android smartphone is, more or less, ready to go mainstream next week, on October 27th. Pre-orders for the newly announced general availability are set to go live that day at 11AM ET, which is great news to people who haven't had a chance to jump on the invite-only wave. The bad news, however, is that this is going to be limited to a one-hour window. For now, OnePlus is continuing to take invites, so that's still an option to those with access to one. "While the pre-order system won't completely replace the current invites method, it is certainly a huge step towards expanding the reach of OnePlus," the company said in a blog post.
Glameow it up with Pokemon Alpha & Omega steelbooks in EU
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby are getting their own steelbook bundles in Europe, complete with Kyogre and Groudon figurines respectively. Bundles including the game are coming to GAME and Nintendo's online store in the UK, and will be available for pre-order. The House of Mario Marowak lists the steelbook and figurine separately at £40; we've reached out to confirm if that also includes the game at that price. The Poke-remakes are also scoring some other pre-order goodies in the UK. Pre-orders of the standalone version at GAME get the respective figure chucked in, while early birds at Shopto will get their own early bird, namely a 2D keyring of Torchic. As for the small matter of the game itself, it hits 3DS in North America on November 21, then a week across the pond on November 28. [Image: Nintendo]
Amazon: Wii U game pre-orders up following Gamescom
With all the news that surfaced last week during Gamescom, it makes sense that video game pre-orders would increase at retailers like Amazon. As it turns out, the biggest winner coming away from the show is Nintendo, as Wii U games saw the biggest boost in pre-orders on Amazon (8.67 percent). By comparison, pre-orders for PS4 games rose 5.16 percent and Xbox One games increased 2.81 percent. The largest increase for a single game was 42.3 percent for Slightly Mad Studios' Project Cars. Bandai Namco announced a limited edition version of the game last week, which likely spurred new pre-orders. Rounding out the top five are Rise of the Tomb Raider (30.25 percent), Bloodborne (16.08 percent), Hyrule Warriors (11.77 percent) and Quantum Break (10.77 percent). You'll find the full list of the top ten games whose pre-orders increased on Amazon after the break, courtesy of MCV.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Xbox One bundle unveiled
Microsoft's second Xbox One bundle of its Gamescom conference was for another big-hitter, namely Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The limited edition bundle comes with a digital copy of the Day Zero edition of the Sledgehammer shooter, and it'll include a custom console with a 1TB hard drive, as well as a custom controller and a headset. The price is $500 stateside and £430/500 euros across the pond, and it'll be available November 3. The game's Day Zero edition will also be available at GameStop, allowing customers who pre-order to check out Call of Duty: Advance Warfare 24 hours in advance. Early birds will be able to enjoy double XP in multiplayer across November 3, as well the Day Zero in-game content including the catchily named Advanced Arsenal Bullet Brass Exoskeleton and EM1 Quantum directed energy weaponry.
Smartwatch pioneer Meta returns with a premium alternative to Pebble
Back in the days when Pebble just made a BlackBerry accessory called the inPulse, the biggest name in wearables was MetaWatch, the smartwatch firm that spun out of Fossil. After a few years of seeing other people's devices hog the limelight, the company has shortened its name and is now ready to make a comeback. The Meta M1, designed by Nokia and Vertu legend Frank Nuovo is launching this September, but pre-orders for the unit are opening today. It's the same piece of hardware that we saw back at CES but -- unsurprisingly for a company with a background in watchmaking -- with a wider variety of cases and straps for fashion-conscious consumers including rose gold. For instance, the base model comes with a natural black rubber band, setting you back $250, but those with fancier-pants can slam down $450 for an all stainless steel variant. Either way, we're looking forward to getting this piece of gear in for review.
The Daily Grind: Do you (still) pre-order MMOs?
As we reported yesterday, Activision says that pre-orders are declining across the game industry. Here in MMOland, pre-orders are still kind of a thing, but they're also being supplemented/supplanted by early access sales. What about you, personally, though? Do you (still) pre-order MMOs, whether for the in-game goodies or just out of general excitement? Why or why not? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Activision sees industry-wide pre-order decline
Activision publishing boss Eric Hirshberg says his company's pre-orders are declining. He made the remarks to investors and media on a conference call yesterday, and he also said that the downturn is an industry-wide trend. Hirshberg cited digital consumption upticks as well as wide launch-day availability as factors in the declining popularity of pre-orders. He also said that pre-orders are "just one data point that we look at when determining the momentum of a franchise," and that awareness and "purchase intent" on Activision's Destiny is "at an all-time high and climbing when compared to any other new game intellectual property this distance from launch."
Apple discounts the books Amazon refuses to stock
If you head over to iTunes and look for book pre-orders at $9.99 or less, you may notice something strange: they're all Hachette titles. That's no coincidence -- Amazon is delaying shipment on Hachette books right now, a negotiating tactic it calls an "essential business practice." Authors and publishers think otherwise, with one referring to it as "extortion" that's "illegal when the Mafia does it." As Re/Code pointed out, however, it's ironic that Apple is offering cut rates on Hachette books, considering it was found guilty of conspiring with the publisher to raise prices. Apple has since settled class-action suits that resulted from that judgement, though it won't have to pay if it wins its appeal against the DoJ. Either way, Apple is set to profit by selling buzzy new titles like J.K. Rowling's well-reviewed Silkworm, since Amazon has essentially kneecapped itself. Let's face it though -- Apple also likely enjoys razzing the book industry's 800 pound gorilla.
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax priced at $59.99, pre-orders now live
The stars of the Persona series are winding up for another bout in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, which will host its brand of 2D fighting on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Ultimax won't be out until the fall, but you can plan really far in advance right now by pre-ordering the $59.99 fighter at GameStop, EB Games, Amazon, Newegg or Video Games Plus. The associated press release notes that there will be pre-order incentives, but it doesn't offer hints to what those will be, nor does it specify whether any will be exclusive to a particular retailer. Ultimax is an expansion on 2012's Persona 4 Arena and follows the cast's participation in the P-1 Climax, a round of battles that must be conquered before the world ends. Several new characters will tag in as playable fighters, including Persona 3's Junpei Iori and Yukari Takeba, as well as Persona 4's Rise Kujikawa. There's also a debut from the crimson-haired Sho Minazuki, who will assuredly be pleasant to deal with. Utlimax is one of four Persona games heading to the West this year, including the Vita's left-field rhythm game Persona 4: Dancing All Night and the PS3-bound Persona 5. [Image: Atlus]
WildStar compensating players with bonus loot
The saga of WildStar's name reservation system appears to have come to a close. According to a forum post today from community manager Tony Rey, the system should be working properly now with no further issues. And while Carbine Studios can't turn back time, the studio is at least trying to offer up an olive branch to players and fans affected by the system's instabilities. Players who have pre-ordered will automatically be granted five Boom Boxes, little bonus packs of items being awarded for logging into beta that contain mounts, mount customizations, costumes, and so forth. (There's a short video past the break showing these off.) These boxes will also be awarded to any players who pre-order before 8 p.m. EDT on Friday. There's also a full technical breakdown of the issues encountered on the way for those curious about what went wrong from a technical standpoint. So you might not have gotten your first name choice reserved, but you do get an apology.
Lightning Returns demo out today, Amazon pre-orders get bonus Yuna DLC
You've seen all the trailers - so many trailers - but you can can finally check out Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 for yourself today. The JRPG's demo is available on Xbox Live, and it should hit PSN in North America later today, and Europe tomorrow. If you need extra incentive beyond sheer curiousness, if you use the game's social media themed Outerworld service in the demo to submit a battle score, you'll unlock an outfit for Lightning based on Final Fantasy 6's Siegfried - the outfit transfers over to the full game. Meanwhile, PS3 players who just try the demo unlock an Utsusemi Samurai outfit for the main game too. As if the returning heroine's wardrobe isn't already fit to burst, there's also news today of bonus Yuna garb with Amazon US pre-orders, along with the FF10 summoner's staff and victory pose. That's in addition to the Cloud-based pre-order bonuses, by the way. Somewhere beneath the ever-burgeoning pile of outfits is the game itself, which is due on PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America on February 11, and on February 14 in Europe.
Sony to sell PS4 consoles at London's launch night event
No pre-order? No problem. Instead of forking over cash for a new console early, Sony fans attending the company's November 28 midnight launch festivities in London can buy a PlayStation 4 at the event. This offer does not come without caveats. The supply of PlayStation 4 consoles being sold at the event will be issued on a first come, first served basis. Sony is allowing fans to line up for the launch event as early as Thursday morning, and given that PS4 pre-orders have been sold out for months, it's probably in your best interest to show up as early as possible. While this does mean that you'll likely be spending hours in the chill of an English winter for the chance to spend £350 on a new gadget, Sony is hoping to make things a bit more bearable by offering dedicated line-sitters food courtesy Red Bull and Domino's Pizza. There's no word on heating elements though, so if you hope to grab a PS4 from the launch event, we suggest you bundle up.
