EB Games out of Xbox 360s

If you wanted an Xbox 360 by Thanksgiving and were planning to order it from EB Games, apparently you're out of luck. This week, the online store for the game retailer stopped taking preorders for the consoles, proclaiming it has gone through its launch-day allotment of the next-generation console. "We are currently sold out of our popular Xbox 360 bundles," reads the message. "Check back frequently for more opportunities to pre-order an Xbox 360."

[UPDATE] When will those "opportunities" be? "I can only speak for the online division, but we've reached our internal launch allocation," an EB spokesman told GameSpot. "I am not sure if we will receive an additional allotment before 11/21, but historically launch allocations are a moving target."

Calls to local EB outlets yielded insubstantial results. The friendly clerks at several San Francisco EB Games stores confirmed that they, too, were all sold out of their initial allotment of Xbox 360s. "We might get more, we might not," said one. "We just don't know." Though they knew the first batch is expected on November 22--the console's launch date--EB Games clerks had no estimates as to when the second allotment would arrive. "Hopefully by the end of the year," said one.

Calls into local branches of EB Games' soon-to-be owner, GameStop, got the same answer--all the 360s that can be reserved for the console's November 22 launch have been. However, the home page for GameStop's online store trumpets the fact that "Launch Quantities [of the 360] are still available!"