Metal Gear bundle kills amazon.com [Update]

by Andrew Yoon { Jun 6th 2008 at 1:45PM }

Well, good job folks. We told you that amazon.com would sell the Metal Gear Solid 4 80GB bundle today. And you all listened. Thousands of you swarmed the site, got rid of their inventory in seven minutes, and best of all -- you killed amazon.com.

Demand for the Metal Gear bundle was so high, that the popular online retailer simply couldn't handle the traffic. If this is the fervor in just one store, imagine how well the bundles are going to sell when they release nationwide next Thursday.

Update: GameStop.com is selling 80GB bundles, but you are forced to buy the questionable Bluetooth headset. The total cost? $560.

Update: Well, it's finally back.

Tags: 80gb, amazon, metal-gear-solid, metal-gear-solid-4, mgs, mgs4

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

ShenKae Lin @ Jun 6th 2008 1:53PM

hahahaha.. thank you ps3 fanboy..
i helped kill amazon..

Adis @ Jun 6th 2008 1:53PM

WOW. Looks like this will give the PS3 a huge boost in sales.. Additionally, I am loving the verity of games coming out for the PS3... not just stuck with FPS's.

KarlW @ Jun 6th 2008 1:54PM

I doubt this is due to the PS3, Amazon can handle masses of traffic.

That said, I'd be glad if it is. Though it appears you can just walk in to Walmart and get them now in some cases.

Denkigrve @ Jun 6th 2008 1:57PM

Wallmart broke the street date?

KarlW @ Jun 6th 2008 2:01PM

http://www.aeroxp.org/2008/06/metal-gear-solid-4-leaks-early-surprised/

I sent this to PS3F a little while ago. Seems they're not interested...

Spoony @ Jun 6th 2008 1:55PM

Now comes the question....how many of the people actually buying off amazon don't plan to turn around and sell it on ebay?

Danie @ Jun 6th 2008 2:18PM

search on eBay for MG4 bundle and start count it. I mean if you are so worry about it... Who in the world cares about that?. May be a fan boy.

Denkigrve @ Jun 6th 2008 1:56PM

Hrm. I think I got an order in. I saw it in my order status, and said it would ship on X date. I never got an email though. I was trying to log back into my account to double-check again, and now can't access Amazon. lol.

Gamestop.com now has pre-orders as well, but requires the purchase of the headset as well as the console. So it's around 560 dollars instead of 500.

Ishimaru @ Jun 6th 2008 1:59PM

Did anyone ever figure out if these are actually shipping today, or just pre-orders?

Binaryfiend @ Jun 6th 2008 2:03PM

All this enthusiasm for the PS3 has to be a good sign. Even last nights update issue, as ugly as it got, showed how many people are hungry for PS content or are paying attention to the PlayStation brand.

halebound00 @ Jun 6th 2008 2:01PM

wow...that's impressive. Good job ps3

nat @ Jun 6th 2008 2:05PM

Amazon was Pre-Order, email says expected arrival date is the 16th, using 1 day shipping.

Just happy I got one!

tozza @ Jun 6th 2008 2:06PM

I can still access it through https (https://www.amazon.com/) instead of http. How about you guys?

Gaucho @ Jun 6th 2008 2:08PM

NOOO!! fools, I was on the golden box thing. . . you killed my chances of getting a cheap tool set. I already have the regular and LE version of MGS4 reserved. . . good stuff. jealous of whoever has the gray ps3.

Popfrogs @ Jun 6th 2008 5:01PM

It looks cool but the 40GB for $200 over normal price for a different color isn't much of a deal. The 80GB is a way better value unless you're a collector with too much money.

golden sapphire @ Jun 6th 2008 2:09PM

hahahahaha this title really made me laugh lol metal gear solid bundle kills amazon lolz

goldenmonkey918 @ Jun 6th 2008 2:19PM

YES!!! I got the bundle and helped kill amazon.com. This is a productive day on the internets.

qbanboi @ Jun 6th 2008 2:24PM

come on people let us kill Amazon.

Silver R. Wolfe @ Jun 6th 2008 2:32PM

Yeah, I crashed their servers. But I got it. :3

Kevin @ Jun 6th 2008 2:33PM

I have no idea if I ordered it or not. - I hit Pre-Order, and then clicked "Buy with 1 click shipping" - and the item was placed in my "Items to be bought later" category. I couldn't move it to my shopping cart, or confirm anything.

Did this happen to anyone else, or did they go through an extra step?

Vosko @ Jun 6th 2008 3:58PM

i work at sonystyle. we got them in today already BUT they cannot be sold till the 12th just FYI

farce83 @ Jun 6th 2008 4:14PM

hey Vosko,

so sonystyle is not doing any pre-orders? just click and buy on june 12? I hope you guys have enough, because i plan on buying one through sonystyle

Popfrogs @ Jun 6th 2008 5:02PM

You guys gotta have this up on your biggest Bravias on launch day.

Akamaru @ Jun 6th 2008 2:34PM

I just keep kicking Amazon while its down. So fun.

Ryan @ Jun 6th 2008 2:38PM

How did anyone even get a chance to purchase one? I was on the site at 1 p.m. Eastern time hitting F5 and never saw an option to buy it from Amazon.com for $499.00. What was I supposed to see?

fersis @ Jun 6th 2008 2:46PM

How many PS3+MGS4 bundles Amazon had ?

btljuce @ Jun 6th 2008 2:48PM

@Ryan
It was on the far right. It had 2 @$899 then about 10:01 switched to 3 @$499. You clicked on the button and it took you to "see all sellers" and one of them was Amazon with a pre-order button. Kinda sneaky, but it worked for those of us who got one by 10:07.

Oh, and I got my confirmation email....
Still shows available on Circuit City and Gamestop....
Poor Amazon, this really is quite funny. This "EVENT" will be the talk of the boards for awhile. Fanboy ammo...

Ryan @ Jun 6th 2008 4:33PM

@ btljuce

WTF! I saw it go down to $499 and I click on the "See all options" button but Amazon wasn't listed... not even for pre-order! Oh well, time to wait in line at Wally World...

Jak @ Jun 6th 2008 3:27PM

There Video game sector is unavailable. haha. legendary

Jon Acheson @ Jun 6th 2008 3:19PM

Good thing I got my Blu-Ray sale order in yesterday.

rodrigo @ Jun 6th 2008 3:33PM

lol good more ps3s coming

Twinturbo120 @ Jun 6th 2008 3:47PM

holy crappp thats just amazon!!!!!!

fersis @ Jun 6th 2008 3:59PM

Some parts of the MGS4 section of amazon are still down.
yeaaaah, thats history in the making my good fellas.

Raptor007 @ Jun 6th 2008 3:54PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

Sorry guys, you didn't do this.

Geoff Gibson @ Jun 6th 2008 5:11PM

Sorry guys, the PS3 bundle did NOT cause amazon to fail. Amazon is one of the biggest websites out there and if it can handle the original launch PS3 pre-orders, Wii pre-orders, and Xbox 360 pre-orders and not fail then it certianly isn't going to fail because of the MGS bundle.

Correlation does not imply causation...

coyurtney @ Jun 6th 2008 6:57PM

haha thats funny, theirs no way in hell that killed Amazon. The opening day for Wii and the other consoles did not do it either. that was good for a laugh though/.

AF @ Jun 6th 2008 11:26PM

Actually, Amazon crashed back when they were doing crazy sales 2 christmases ago for things-- I remember they had the 360 for $100 or something and it crashed the site. The Ps3 could very well have if enough people try to order at the same time. That's why last year for the crazy sale at Christmas they let you order anytime and selected randomly by number who actually got to order it.

skin.bintin @ Jun 7th 2008 1:38PM

MGS4 Bundle killed Amazon? Yeah ok, whatever.

Iridium @ Jun 7th 2008 2:01AM

Actually you can be pretty sure this did kill Amazon. See with the other things like console launch days there were hundreds of thousands of places to get in line and order one. In this case Amazon was the only outlet available at the specific time.

Even with massive servers and all kinds of backups there is still the issue of bandwidth and order processing. See even if the actual system at Amazon did not go down the shipping system or billing system may have gone down. Too many queries from one source heading out to VISA and Mastercard can shut down a system. It isn't about total number of orders that can be processed, it is how many can be done at once.

Look at the timing and you can see a correlation. In this case that preety much gives you the cause. What I find funny is MSNBC.com has the story up but does not mention a possible cause. I wonder why?

The first Victoria Secret webcast fashion show killed the entire internet for a day. I think a one time issue like the MGS4 bundle on Amazon can kill a site.

God are the paid Microsoft attack bloggers at it again, sure looks like it. Duh MGS4 can't kill the Amazon, Halo 3 didn't even kill a site so there. Where's my check Microsoft.

Remz @ Jun 7th 2008 3:47AM

I got mine at 1:05 pm on June 6th
My credit card wasn't charged yet.
They give me my confirmation emails
Looks like the item is estimate to arrive on June 17th 2008
I feel bad if according to the earlier posts it is still available on Circuit City and I don't care to order it on Gamestop because of the cheap Headset which got bad reviews.
If anyone is interested I have Ebay Listing if you were not lucky enough to find one on Ebay, Gamestop or Circuit City

Remz @ Jun 7th 2008 3:49AM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=220243412318

Remz @ Jun 7th 2008 3:47AM

For those that missed out. The funny thing was the front page of the Amazon.com listing listed Buy New and Used for $899 from third party vendors.If you clicked on that link you would have been brought to another page where it would have given you the option to Pre-Order from Amazon directly.

Remz @ Jun 7th 2008 3:49AM

Here is my Ebay Listing:
Along with so many others
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=220243412318

Wallamania @ Jun 8th 2008 6:54PM

Ive had to laugh, just been on Aamazon.com to check out the metal gear solid 4 ps3 80gb bundle an came across a customer review for it that had me in stiches it was posted by a xbox 360 fan, this is how it read 'This bundle is nice but i think i will wait for the Xbox 360 bundle that's supposed to come out in fall '08. Good deal Amazon but i will pass' 0 out of 76 found this helpful, well this certianly was my highlight of the day coz i think this xbox 360 fanboy is dreaming if he thinks theres going to be a xbox 360 mgs4 bundle any time soon

falledman @ Jun 7th 2008 9:45AM

Hey, Feel relieved!
Use this tool!
http://www.tucows.com/preview/519334

AF @ Jun 7th 2008 10:15AM

Anyone who bought this simply to Ebay it is a scumbag. Some people actually wanted these, and your greed deprived them of getting it now. I hope you lose money on it because people buy them in stores at normal price. I have 60Gb by the way, so you didn't keep one from me. I just think it's greedy.

toefer @ Jun 7th 2008 11:48AM

I agree. Some people need to get real jobs, instead of trying to make a quick $. Remz (the guy above) has one listed on eBay, and has the nerve to say on the page that he'll cancel the auction if it doesn't meet his expectations.

What are his expectations, a $100 profit, or more?