PS3 pre-orders: The hard facts

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HMV PSP bundle no longer enforced, plus more details from other retailers

GAME
Pre-orders will begin when Sony confirm how many PS3s will be available.
No offers or bundles have been confirmed yet, but GAME plans to make an announcement in the next few weeks.

AMAZON
The pre-order service will work in the same way as with Wii last November - a limited amount of pre-orders made available all at once on the website.
However, pre-orders won't be offered until Sony confirms Amazon's allocation of PS3s.
You can sign up on Amazon.co.uk for a newsletter keeping you up to date with the company's plans.

GAMESTATION
Currently Gamestation is not taking pre-orders, but will offer the service once it knows how many consoles will be available.
Any pre-orders made last year still stand for this year's March launch.
There'll be various choices of bundle deals, apparently, and a regular dribble of new consoles for the rest of the year.

PLAY.COM
Pre-orders open now, but since the service has been available since last May - and is on a first-come-first-served - it's unlikely you'll be in time for a launch-day order.
Play is only offering a bundle with F1, Genji and Resistance, priced at £549.99.

HMV
HMV now allows you to pre-order a PS3 by itself, without getting tied up in the £670 PSP/PS3 bundle it had previously offered.
Only a limited number of PS3s will be offered to pre-order online, with the majority of consoles only available to pre-order in HMV stores.
Priority will go to customers who registered their interest first - presumably to placate those who bought into the PSP/PS3 bundle.

VIRGIN
Pre-orders have been available from last Friday, making Virgin your best bet for the moment. Although once Virgin reaches its allocation limit, it will stop taking orders altogether.
A £50 deposit is required, and the only option is a standalone PS3 pack.
Finally, should the number of consoles be less than expected, further batches of PS3s after launch will go to pre-order customers first.

WOOLWORTHS
As pre-orders have only just started with Woolies, you might be lucky.
Plus, as a sweetener, Woolworths won't take the money from your account until after the launch when your PS3 is ready to be delivered.

Ben_Richardson

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.