Today is the day the Xbox Series X launches around the world, but there are going to be plenty of disappointed gamers who haven’t been able to get their hands on one.
Even pre-orders aren’t enough to guarantee you a console on release day, with Amazon confirming that come customers may have to wait until December 31 for their new Xbox to arrive.
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Some Amazon customers have started receiving emails saying that it expects to ship some consoles “in the coming weeks as we receive more inventory in November and December.” So instead of arriving this week, as people may have expected, it’s estimated that affected pre-orders will be delivered by December 31 at the latest.
It’s not a great look for Amazon to have sent emails out the day before the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S got released, especially since it was able to send out similar emails warning about PS5 delays all the way back in September. The PS5 delay isn’t great, but given how much notice customers were given, they could have picked up a pre-order from a different retailer instead. Xbox gamers have had no such luck.
Of course demand for both the Xbox Series X and PS5 has been incredibly high, with both Sony and Microsoft having said that delays may continue into next year as they both try to catch up.
It was expected that some people wouldn’t be able to get consoles on release day, but typically pre-ordering something means it’s guaranteed. Clearly for Amazon, that’s not the case.
Affected customers still have the chance to pick up an Xbox Series X from a different retailer. That said consoles are likely to sell out fast, especially when a decent number of people have been burned by Amazon. Unfortunately it’s not clear how many people have been affected, and how that’s going to affect the difficulty in picking up a console later today.
If you really must get an Xbox Series X today, and don’t want to wait for Amazon to sort out its own mess, make sure to check out our stock page for all the latest retailer updates.
