Borderlands has been on shelves for all of a day now, and apparently it's already getting tricky to find in some parts of the country. Or, at least, that's what this official statement from Gearbox makes it sound like...
Yes, Borderlands copies of the Xbox 360 SKU have run out in a few regions, especially the east coast. We are aware of this and are working with production and distribution at ramping up to catch up with demand. There will be more copies of Borderlands available on shelves as early as Thursday or Friday at many retailers.
The PlayStation 3 SKU issues on the west coast are mostly regional and can be addressed by reallocation. We are confident that will happen quickly.
...I quickly glanced at the store stock checkers for the retailers around here and didn't notice any huge shortage for the PS3 version here on the west side. But if there is an actual shortage (and this isn't just some sort of tactic to get people to buy the game), then this east coast 360 shortage could mean heartbreak for Ice "LORD 187X" T, who posted this on Twitter a couple of hours ago:
Ice T's goin' to the game store, to get some more ammo, you know what I'm sayin? It's good to see that Ice T's Twitter-based gang, the FLTG, is keeping him informed about fly shit like post-apocalyptic wastelands full of money and guns. As of this writing, we are still unable to confirm if Ice has been able to procure the game, but it's worth noting that his most-recent achievements are from Batman: Arkham Asylum, and they're dated yesterday, 10/20. Keep it locked right here for updates on this breaking story.
Oh, but seriously, have any of you had any issues finding Borderlands?
Yeah, that price drop had copies flying off of shelves here in Canada. I drove around for a good couple hours last night after work and checked out at least ten different stores and all I found were derisive snorts when I asked about a copy for 360. So I bit the bullet and ordered from Amazon.
I pre-ordered my 360 copy from Gamestop here in Iowa last week and picked it up yesterday without any problems. Only played about an hour of it so far, but I'm liking it.
" Picked up a copy earlier today from Best Buy, and they only had one 360 copy and two PS3 copies left on the shelves. I guess that might constitute a shortage, or it might just mean that they aren't willing to give up any of the insane amount of shelf space that they give EA Sports titles...seriously do they need to keep that many copies of Fight Night and Madden in stock? "
The problem is they aren't having to resupply them.
I didn't have any issue getting my copy from my local best buy. However my buddy who only shows at gamestop had a hell of a time tracking his copy down. Apparently all the local gamestops sold all of their copies during midnight releases. (I was shocked they were even having midnight releases for this game) He appears to of found a copy today though. Not sure if he caved and just bought it from best buy or not.
Me and a friend had no problem here in NY getting tuesday morning. I got it from the best buy they had plenty of copies and he got it at the same time from the Gamestop down the street.
I walked OUT of my local Best Buy at 10:06AM (six minutes after it opened) with the very last Xbox 360 copy. There was quite a few people there to pick it up.
I live in Canada and in my city literally everywhere was sold out of borderlands by about 5:00pm Tuesday I managed to grab one of the last copies in the whole city. Its crazy
Went to my local EB today in Mount Pearl, NF, and the manager (who I'm friends with) tells me that the entire city is sold out. Wal Mart was offering it for 40 bucks, but only ordered like 20 copies of the game, and sold out in no time. The game is selling like crazy, which I was not suspecting. Everyone on my friends list is playing it, which hasn't happened with a new game like this.
Plus, my gold subscription just ran out, so tomorrow's going to be pretty expensive for me.
Actually, yes, I had some issues obtaining a copy. I went to FYE in the downtown Cincinnati mall and they had only brought in 1 copy and someone had stolen it before anyone could buy it. Then I couldn't find parking when I tried the next place so I got pissed and left... then finally I got a copy at my local Meijer (Wal-Mart wannabe store)... they only had 3 left though.
Amazon's "release day shipping" turned out to be "day after release day shipping," but at least I didn't have to worry about the undoubtedly mobbed game stores running out.
I pre-ordered on steam (although Randy Pitchford may not be too happy about that). The service has come a long way since HL2, so I hope they wont have any hiccups at launch.
I definitely ran into problems. Yesterday when I went to Future Shop here in Toronto, they were already sold out. Today after work tried HMV, same problem. Thankfully Toys R' Us was carrying it in stock (no one thinks to look for an M rated game there).
I've had some major issues since it's not actually released here yet. I keep begging retailers for a copy, offering bribes and threatening to infect them with swine-flu, but nothing seems to help. :/
" I pre-ordered on steam (although Randy Pitchford may not be too happy about that). The service has come a long way since HL2, so I hope they wont have any hiccups at launch. "
Why would they be angry about people buying their game? I know I'm going to get it on steam eventually too, but don't the make the same amount of money on both PC and Xbox per sales?
My store (GameStop) in Sacramento sold out on release day for the 360, and today we only had 1 copy left on PS3. If you really want a game, you NEED to pre-order it. In some cases we are shipped only the exact number of pre-orders we have at that time and are given no extras. Most recently we had this problem with Operation Flashpoint and Demon's Souls.
@TrackZero: lol oh yeah i know about that trick since the N64 days. I would also suggest as a last ditch effort people try out places like staples, they don't usually have a good selection but no one ever goes there to buy games so they'll either have a ton of copies or heavy discounts on 3 month old games! (which doesn't help with getting borderlands but getting prototype for 20 bucks will take the sting off :P)
in vancouver it was sold out by noon at 2 futureshops 2 eb games and the walmart didn't get their shipment until today. i had to go downtown to an hmv to find it. now it's completely sold out
Dang, I live on the East coast, in a pretty big gaming community. Good thing I was up at midnight and decided to grab a copy or I might not have been able to find one. Who knows.
Hey wait a second... 360 version was running out on the East Coast? And PS3 version running out... on the West coast? AAAW SHIT!! COAST WAR!! THROW EM UP!!!
" I pre-ordered on steam (although Randy Pitchford may not be too happy about that). The service has come a long way since HL2, so I hope they wont have any hiccups at launch. "
Why would they be angry about people buying their game? I know I'm going to get it on steam eventually too, but don't the make the same amount of money on both PC and Xbox per sales? "
It all depends on the margins and the deal, but typically digital releases actually make more money for the publisher/developer per sale than retail. Retailers often require various deals for their shelf space, and retail means physical printing/transportation costs, etc. But publishers still like retail because the volume is much greater and most people still buy games at retailers so its a great way to get games in front of the non-hardcore consumer. But I don't know if PC or Xbox gets higher margins.
But anyways, my comment about Randy was related to his comments regarding Steam. I'm sure he's happy that people are buying his game, but perhaps not elated if its through steam. And I highly doubt he'd be "angry" about any of it :)
In Vancouver Canada I had to go to a number of places before I found an xbox 360 copy in stock. But then again Canada's got this thing going where for some reason Borderlands is only selling for $40 for the first couple of days in all the big-box electronic chains, so I imagine that's spurring demand a little bit
Ice T's verdict is now on Twitter. He apparently played it for four straight hours and considers it to be "dope". I completely agree.
As for the game being sold out, I do know the EB I work at didn't even receive enough copies to fill pre-orders on day one so that would indicate some kind of shortage. Wal-Mart had some, but then I was there two hours after they opened so they may well be sold out by now. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the weird, low-ball $40.00 price tag some retailers were offering first day of release. Maybe 2K wants to generate enthusiasm, but not lose to many copies at such a low price-point. Just a guess.
Best Buy didn't have it on tuesday around noon when I went. FORTUNATELY for me I got to wait in a 20 minute line up to get to the cashier who then told me it was sold out. Why they still had the ticket card things out I have no idea. Luckily I had pre-ordered it elsewhere. I was trying to get in on the 39.99 deal here in Canada.
I got pretty lucky finding a copy considering I didn't nearly anticipate just how many people were buying up this game and pretty much every store here in southwestern Ontario was out of stock.
Luckily, a Walmart near my house actually had missed their shipment on launch day, so the following day when the shipment arrived I was able to jump in a little earlier in the day before noon to grab a copy. It was still surprising to see that there were only 3-4 copies when I got there to pick one up though.
When I went with my friend to pick up his copy at Best Buy, we could find the PS3 but not the 360 version. In the end, they had it in a back room. So yeah, we had some trouble.
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