It has been announced that a particular game retailer has come under harsh fire after notifying customers who pre-ordered PS4’s that they are required to pay between £415 and £470 in order to stay within the queue for its launch day.
Starting October 3rd, 2013, Simplygames, has sent out numerous emails to customers that they must put down a certain amount of money to keep their pre-orders. According to the website PixelEnemy, the store has guaranteed customers a console if they also purchase two or more stand alone consoles, but that those who ordered the £350 unit will lose their console if they do not upgrade.
For the unofficial bundles, customers will have to pay £415 and other packages costing up to £470. Eurogamer, which has published an image of the enforced upgrade choices, has shown that it will include unofficial dual-charging cables, making it more likely that they were assembled by the retailer and not by Sony.
This decision by Simplygames has caused great anger in the gaming community and on the official European Playstation forums, with customers pledging never to shop at the retailer again. “Will never order a single thing from them,” read one of the comments in the forum.
Unconfirmed reports also suggest that CentreSoft, the distributor that delivered to Simplygames is the one forcing the bundles upon the retailer. While not confirmed that they still do business with Simplygames, or that other retailers are being forced upon with these bundles, it seems the rumor is unfounded.
Sony has also been attacked by being accused of supplying more bundle units than standalone Playstation 4’s. Sony went on to deny these claims with the following statement:
Sony is not and would not force anyone to buy something they don’t want. We value our consumers and offered the bundles precisely to give them choice and value. And the key word there is choice.
We continue to work closely with our retail partners to ensure we offer this choice against the challenges of managing demand and inventory in the climate of amazing excitement and unprecedented demand for PlayStation 4.
CentreSoft was unavailable for comment, but an employee told CVG that the company has no media relation workers. Simplygames has also not responded to questions and does not have a working office number. This all seems very strange and I am interested to see what action Sony might take.
