Does anyone remember with PS3 and 360 if they were available for pre-order at Gamestop and/or Amazon in the US immediately after E3 or did they wait until later if they still needed to know how many units each store got or how many would be available overall for each vendor.

I don't think so. After E3 the PS4 will be in backorder throughout the whole generation due to demand.

I will be there as soon as Amazon/Gamestop say they're taking pre-orders!  I'LL BE THERE!

not online, but you should be able to find them in stores due to high price. ddon't expect everybody preordering online to pay the console off at launch. Look what happened to Wii U and it will be at least $100 more expensive

What do you mean by that?  If I pre-order on Amazon quickly enough I should get it right?  Do you mean people will order it and then decide not to get it?

i mean, Gamestop said 900k were on waiting list, don't expect all of them to buy the console. Right now nobody know the price so they are just on it in case of they can buy it.

oh I see ok.  Yeah I know not everyone will pay $400 even and I'm assuming $500 for the higher end model (the one I get).  I still saw WiiU going for over $500 on ebay and I think PS4 demand will be much stronger (just a prediction don't mean to offend anyone).  If it's $500 for me to buy, once the supply runs out I wouldn't be surprised to see it go for $800+ on ebay.  Even if I only sell it for cost and have to change the shipping address on Amazon when I sell my pre-order no harm don (though I suspect I'll at least be able to get $200 off every sold pre-order)

I preordered the PS3 after E3 2006 here in Germany (on amazon), so I think it's very likely preorders are open after E3 (if they announce price and date and such, which in my opinion has a 99.999% chance of happening)

And how did that work? Did you have to pay any money in advance? Were you obligated to buy it at launch? Or could you just pre-order and then decide not to buy it without any punishment?

I really want to get the PS4 at launch but I don't want to stay in line physically outside a store because it would feel tiresome, nerve-wrecking and humiliating.

You already can make preorder on Gamestop, no?