

To say that gamers are excited about the new generation of game consoles may be an understatement. Regardless of what console you are interested in this year, so is almost every other gamer on the planet according to reports that were confirmed with Amazon this week.



Earlier today we confirmed a few of the E3 details, of course not all of the information could be shared with us. “The E3 week pre-orders of the two wildly-anticipated gaming consoles brought a year-over-year increase in orders of more than 4,000%, compared to consoles ordered during E3 week last year,” a rep shared from Amazon shared with us today. That may be somewhat expected with a new console launching, though you could also compare the sales with one of the biggest shopping days of last year. “Day-one pre-orders for the two consoles was nearly two times that of all video games sales on Black Friday last year (2012)” a representative from Amazon shared with us today.



In the end, “at the peak of demand last week” the rep stated, “Amazon customers were pre-ordering more than 2,500 Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles per minute”. Though how long that peak time lasted wasn’t shared, it does show an amazing demand for the new consoles.



Depending on your favorite social-media outlet, you probably have heard things like ‘the Xbox One-Eighty’ or the ‘Xbox Won’ when people describe Microsoft’s surprising decision to backtrack on the company’s online requirements for their new console.



What isn’t surprising is the backlash from the community after the policies were left unanswered for such a long time. Then Microsoft seemed to have no empathy for the fanbase when Don Mattrick stated, “we already have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity. It’s called (the) Xbox 360.” All of that is water under bridge it seems, just a few hours after Microsoft made the announcement to kill off the online DRM and used-game policies, the Xbox One finally was back to being the No. 1 besteller on the Amazon video game page. It took just hours, not even one-day, for fans to finally change their mind, or come off the fence, about the decision.



It was Sony’s PlayStation 4 console that had been dominating the Amazon charts since E3. Many gamers on social-media sites and message boards expressed their dismay in turning to the PS4 but felt that the requirements Microsoft had in place were simply not worth staying. Since E3 the “launch edition” of the PS4 console has been sold out, but the “standard edition” PS4 was at No. 3 the last time we checked the listings.



The Xbox One has been taken off GameStop’s online store, selling out of pre-orders for the launch-day bundle that will arrive before Christmas. Many analysts believe that it’s very possible that the PS4 and the Xbox One will be in short supply before the holiday season, leaving many gift-givers to handout IOUs while the consoles take a few extra days to ship and deliver.



No one knows just how bad the pre-order sales were to make Microsoft make such a decision, or if it was truly just to make fans happy. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has been the number one selling console for over two-years, that’s not something the company wants to give up. Sony can tell you though, that it’s not a crown you get to keep forever if you upset the consumer base, and it’s one the Japanese hardware manufacture has wanted back ever since the PS3 was launched.



more info: amazon/xboxone, amazon/ps4