The PlayStation 4 is only a week away from launch, and your favorite retail stores are as excited as you are about the kickoff to this year’s consumer holiday spending extravaganza. Everywhere from Shoppers Drug Mart, to Best Buy, and EB Games, has inundated my inbox with promises of launch day PlayStation 4 bundles available in store.
As every marketing major knows, every new launch is an opportunity to upsell. With extra launch titles, preorders, extra controllers, and Turtle Beach headsets, there’s plenty to drive the average price tag up a few hundred dollars more.
EB Games’ American counterpart is no exception, and recently sent out an email blast to its Rewards members as seen below:
Oops!
It seems like GameStop pushed out its marketing blitz a little too quickly, because aside from suggesting extra peripherals like a second PS4 Dual Shock Wireless Controller and the Eye Camera (yes, the PS4 has its own camera add-on too), they also suggest a 12-month Xbox Live Membership Card.
Great idea, GameStop!
The folks over at Kotaku have speculated that…
“GameStop’s gaffe is pretty understandable. They’ve been writing about Xbox Live memberships as required for ages, while up until now PlayStation Plus has been a bonus, rather than something players actively need to play online.”
However, while Kotaku may chalk it up to a little too much launch excitement, it looks to me like a simple case of having too much Xbox copy-pasta flying back and forth around the GameStop head office. A similar suggestion for extra Xbox One peripherals came in the same email announcement (sadly cut off in the screen cap) and looks like the more likely culprit.
Oh well…
We gamers can titter all we like at GameStop’s silly mistake in relative safety because it hardly makes headlines – it’s not like anyone was really swayed into buying an Xbox Live membership for the PS4, right?
…Right?
