Sony Putting Pressure on Retail Outlets?

GameSpot contacted representatives of several retail chains today after receiving reports that Sony has asked retailers to remove promotional materials for competing consoles from their stores and online sites.

Electronics Boutique employees refused to comment on the speculation, citing EB company policy. One employee stated, however, that Xbox promotional materials are still displayed in its stores. Ebworld.com, the online retail site for Electronics Boutique, recently removed preorder programs for and information on both the Microsoft Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube. A representative from Electronics Boutique claimed that the company removed GameCube information at the request of Nintendo, but he did not explain why the Xbox information was removed.

According to a Nintendo spokesperson, preorder programs for Nintendo's upcoming GameCube console have been halted at the request of Nintendo. Previous GameCube preorder programs were not endorsed by Nintendo, and because final pricing and product availability have not been determined, they were halted. Nintendo expects official GameCube preorders to commence in late summer 2001.

Gamestop.com, the online retailer for Babbage's Etc., recently removed all GameCube information from its Web site. Xbox preorders, however, are still being taken on that site. After contacting several Babbage's retail outlets, we discovered that Xbox promotional materials are still displayed in Babbage's stores.

Molly Smith, director of corporate communications, at Sony stated that the company has not requested that retailers remove Xbox promotional materials from stores, but she did state that Sony feels that displaying promotional materials for a product without any final specifications is "curious." When asked if Sony had expressed this concern with retailers, Smith claimed that she was not privy to that information.

Microsoft failed to return our phone calls by press time. GameSpot will have more on this story as it develops.