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Some of the UK stores are temporarily closed, and more could follow, preventing players from choosing … [+]
Did you pre-order a console in North America this fall? Consider yourself lucky, not just for insuring your console in the first place (and having the money to pay for one), but because you are guaranteed to purchase on launch day. Here in the UK? Well, it’s not that simple.
As an Xbox gamer, and, according to the brain trust on Twitter, an “Xbot”, because it seems like no one can enjoy anything in 2020, I plan to pick up my Series X on November 10th. Thanks to COVID-19, there’s a chance that he won’t get it, and many other players in Britain and Northern Ireland, as the constant threat of a temporary lockdown could completely derail things.
In the UK, only a few companies offered online pre-orders, and that went as well as expected – websites crashed, people got stuck in endless queues, and limited stock meant only the luckiest players secured their console chosen from the comfort of your own homes. To avoid this frustration, thousands of people, myself included, went to a physical store to buy one.
The problem is that ordering a console at the store means you have to pick it up there. If there is a hastily announced lockdown, and there is absolutely every chance of this happening in the UK, given the current situation, the nation’s gamers cannot join the global party, be it for Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 ( arriving on our shores on November 19).
Only a few UK stores, like Smyths, will have Xbox Series X and PS5 on launch day, if … [+]
To make matters more complicated, especially for outsiders, is that the lockdown rules set by the UK government only apply to England, thanks to our crazy government. The other three nations in our tense union (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have their own rules. The redcoats, who once ruled a third of the world in some way (“Do you have a flag?”), We have not yet figured out how to coordinate a decent response to the pandemic in our country, even though we are barely the size of Oregon.
England it is now following Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s eighth or ninth plan, which prescribes lockdown rules based on a three-tier system, applied locally. In general, things remain “normal” in shopping malls and on main streets. The third tier is not closing stores yet, but as has proven to be the case in the past, tactics and rules can change overnight, in the same way that our national lockdown closed all non-essential retail stores, including game stores, between March and June. Just yesterday, there was talk that a Level 4 would be added.
Scotland, which has endured a historically “unstable” relationship with England, recently settled on its own five-tier system. There is a joke that says that what England does, Scotland does not, but all the credit to our northern neighbors; their generally stricter guidelines have been successful. But if any country will cause UK retail stores to close then it’s Scotland.
North Ireland It has already closed all close contact businesses, but retail remains largely open. Again, if things don’t improve, this will spread or intensify.
Welsh It is currently the worst place to be if you want your console on launch day. On Friday (23 October), Wales began its “firewall lockdown”, effectively shutting down all non-essential businesses for two weeks. In real terms, grocery stores are the only retail business that can stay open, as was the case across the UK between late March and mid-June. Welsh stores that sell more than just food and amenities are actively preventing people from buying anything deemed “unnecessary”, including games.
The sale of non-essential items, such as electrical appliances, is not allowed during the Wales Firebreak … [+]
Wales, which is just a tiny bit bigger than Connecticut, plans to lift the lockdown on November 9, just 24 hours before the launch of Xbox Series X. However, once again, if things don’t improve, chances are high that Wales extend their plans for another two weeks.
Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition in the UK parliament, proposed a similar idea for the whole of the UK, in essence our version of Joe Biden, but was rejected, possibly on principle, given the dichotomy of politics. 2020. Still, politics is also fickle and change is rapid.
And yet, in real terms, the possible Xbox Series X and PS5 delays don’t really matter. It is a situation that is absolutely incomparable to the actual victims of the global pandemic; Countless families have lost someone they loved, while tens of thousands more have lost jobs or entire livelihoods to our new indiscriminate enemy. If closing stores for a while means more people are guaranteed to play the games they love on the new consoles that they frankly deserve this year, then the price is worth it.
Thus, one of the largest global markets in next-gen gaming, even only partially, may find itself lagging behind the rest of the world, and British gamers must prepare for that reality. 2020 hits again, potentially taking something else we adore.
