Retailers experiencing ‘unprecedented demand’ for PS4 pre-orders

If early PS4 pre-orders are any indication, it's going to be a good next-generation for retailers and platform holders alike. ShopTo, one of the UK's leading online games retailer, has told NowGamer that the recently announced PlayStation 4 is experiencing "unprecedented demand."

"It’s been the most successful console pre-order to date in our seven year history," ShopTo spokesman James Rowson said. "It resonates with our customer base because we’re very much a hardcore gamers’ destination, so the launch of a new PlayStation or Xbox console was always going to be pretty strong for us. But it has been unprecedented in terms of numbers."

On the night of Sony's reveal, the site saw its traffic triple. “It also increased new registrations to our website as well as in people who’d not previously shopped with us who created an account just to place a preorder, so overall very successful and something we’ve been very pleased with."

This isn't the first time we've heard a UK retailer boast of the PS4's demand. Last week GAME, another UK game retailer, also acknowledged PlayStation 4 pre-orders are "performing very well." It's not just the console performing well either. Many of the software titles that have been announced are also "doing well."

“Killzone and Watch Dogs are the two favorites, but DriveClub’s been doing pretty well as well," he said. Although exact numbers weren't revealed, what Rowson did say falls in line with what research firm Fizziology suggested earlier this week. According to COO Jen Handley, Watch Dogs is the most anticipated PS4 game with nearly 25% of game chatter revolving around Ubisoft's open-world adventure.

But while gamers in the UK can virtually line up for Sony's new console through pre-orders, those of us in the United States must wait. GameStop — one of the world's largest video game distributors and arguably the largest in the U.S. — has said they will wait until Sony reveals the price and release date before they begin to accept pre-orders. We're hopeful Sony will announce some concrete information at the company's E3 press briefing.

Based on hype alone, it certainly seems like the next-generation of consoles, like the PS4, will help pull the gaming industry out of the funk it's currently in. Many believe "gamer fatigue" has settled in and is hurting industry-wide sales. There's hope, however, that a new generation of consoles will fix the problem.