PlayStation VR launches in just over two weeks’ time but, if you haven’t already pre-ordered your unit then you may not get one for a few months yet.
That is if Amazon UK’s pre-order backlog is anything to go by. As spotted by VideoGamer, the online retailing giant has alerted customers that it now doesn’t expect to fulfill pre-orders until December 12th. A recently posted message notes that only one PS VR unit can be shipped per address at this time. “We will be fulfilling customer orders in the order in which they were placed and expect to fulfill all customer pre-orders by December 12th, 2016,” the message reads.
PS VR is launching on October 13th, so that’s almost two full months until Amazon expects to have its pre-orders fulfilled, and it’s still taking new orders now. You can still pre-order from other UK retailers like Game and Tesco, though we can’t say for sure people making an order today will get one on day one. The US Amazon site, meanwhile, isn’t accepting any more new orders, and hasn’t since its final allocation of units ran out shortly after E3 in June of this year.
The headset was actually delayed out of its original H1 2016 release window so that Sony could manufacture more units to meet demand. GameStop, which claimed to have the “bulk” of early units, said its final batch of pre-orders were gone within just minutes of going live, making it the fastest piece of hardware to sell out in the company’s history. Despite this, Japan did get another allocation of units this month, perhaps suggesting Sony has been able to manufacture more than expected.
Even with a two month wait, PS VR’s launch will still be less troubled than the Oculus Rift’s which hit at the end of March but didn’t get up to speed with orders until August. The HTC Vive had a similar experience launching just days after the Rift, though did manage to catch up faster than its rival.
Once PS VR does manage to get its early orders fulfilled all three major VR headsets will finally be readily available for anyone to buy. It’s taken a little bit longer than many of us had anticipated, but the VR revolution will finally be upon us.
