i'm not suppose to talk about amazon outside that one thread but..

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2013/videogames/ref=zg_bs_tab_t_bsar

ranks the best selling items for 2013 in the area of video games.

I am sure it is not ban worthy. I just have to check my sources. Thanks

LOL exactly.  Don't get me wrong, its nice to see the industry get some momentum with a new launch, but the quote is FILLED with so much PR talk it's not even funny.  2500 per minute is nothing if it was for 12 minutes lol.

As for the bold below, think aboutt that.  They are saying the pre orders for the new consoles were better than pre-orders for the already released consoles last year.  Unless that's a typo, thats a rediculous statement.  Of course they were better.  Let's hope so!

Finally, the last sentence after the bold is vague.  Per orders for systems?  Better than system sales for Black friday last year?  That would be SLIGHTLY impressive, but still, it's a new launch... or course.  New launch pre-orders > 7+ year old Black Friday performance.  Everyone calm the hell down.

"Last week, the Amazon Video Games store made history with its biggest pre-order week ever thanks to the launch of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. In fact, at the peak of demand last week, Amazon customers were pre-ordering more than 2,500 Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles per minute. In addition: · The E3 week pre-orders of the two wildly-anticipated gaming consoles brought a year-over-year increase in orders of more than 4,000%, compared to consoles ordered during E3 week last year · Day-one pre-orders for the two consoles was nearly two times that of all video games sales on Black Friday last year (2012)"

One thing Ive learned is to never go off of preorders for game consoles, especially holiday preorders. Alot of it can easily be inflated due to people just trying to sell them again.

Considering that last week was before the Xbox U-turn, I expect most of those consoles were PS4.

It will be very interesting to see how things pan out now that Microsoft has reversed course on its DRM plans. Looking at the Amazon charts it's clear they've seen a bump in pre-orders. Prior to the 180 the X1 console was 8th on the 2013 list, and the X1 controller and software had fallen out of the top 20 on the hourly list; since the 180, the X1 has now gone up to 7th on the 2013 list, and the controller and a couple games have gotten back into hourly top 20, with many other X1 games seeing improvements elsewhere on the list.

It's definitely a bump for Microsoft, and I expect it will fade to some degree, but the new balance we see coming out of this will certainly be closer between the two than it had been before.

You raised an issue I was wondering about. Was the Wii U available for pre order then? I'm hearing mixed opinions over this. It seems like it, but some said no.

Even if Wii U was available.  It would have had to of been the WEEK AFTER E3.  That is the only week they are comparing.

If the Wii U was NOT available for pre order by then, they are comparing pre orders this year to SALES of existing consoles (360 and PS3) in that 1 week last year.  Duh.  Better be higher.  What HUGE reason would people have to go buy the 360 and PS3 in droves the week after e3 last year???  This is PR at its finest but a lot of people fall for it.

That's the thing about statistics. If you don't give the numbers context and use a few leading sentences people may draw the wrong conclusion. Nevertheless, it seems like the industry is far from shrinking, as some have suggested. It's the latter part I am most interested in - the pre orders of the Wii U or sales of 360/PS3 during that period.

Bold 1: Exactly what is happening here.  This is Amazon PR spin to look favorable to customers, investors, etc.  Not to necessariliy promote the gaming industry.

Could shrink.  Way too early to tell, but it seems like the new consoles will be fine in the LONG run.   Even Wii U could rebound still.

Bold 2:  I bet the Wii U (not sure about that EXACT week) pre-orders were actually very good.  It wasn't till after it released that it started tanking...  A LOT were returned due to poor reselling ability and plenty on shelves.  I predict you might see some of that with the PS4 and Xbox one as well because your "break even" points are even higher on ebay.

If you sold an xbox one for $650 on ebay, you wouldn't make any money!

Hopefully the fools who were scalping the Wii-u have learnt their lessons and wont be trying to buy all the stock up... but i suspect not.