Amazon’s overstressed infrastructure may delay your game delivery
With COVID-19 slowly crimpling the world, we’re all seen places trying to curve the possible infection. While other organizations have been affected due to lack of manpower or simply not able to meet the now hyperextended shipping demands. One such place is Amazon, the online digital store giant, who has seen their resources stretch further than ever before. Even its mighty two-day shipping offering with Amazon Prime has been pushed out to four or more days. Which begs to ask the question, will Amazon be able to meet the same-day delivery for your pre-ordered games?
Two big titles are releasing this week; DOOM Eternal and Animal Crossing New Horizons. Both of which are releasing on the same day, March 20, 2020. Now, I’ve noticed that when trying to place an order through Amazon, my once two-day delivery is now telling me I would get my items until Friday or Saturday. That’s four days from now and clearly not what I’m paying for. Yes, the world is in full-panic mode, but I’m still paying for that service. I could understand if Amazon were to say “we’re going to drop the cost of Amazon Prime during this pandemic” or something to that effect. But they haven’t and are still charging us for two-day shipping and delivering those items much later than promised. It’s still, pay us what you own us and we’ll get it out to you eventually.
What Amazon has told us that they are aware of the much later delivery times and that they’re hiring more employees to counter this. This was mentioned on their COVID-19 response page. This is ironic, as the government has been telling people to stay indoors. Not sure how Amazon plans on combating that, but I suppose we’ll see.
“You will also notice that some of our delivery promises are longer than usual,” the site says. “We are working around the clock with our selling partners to ensure availability on all of our products, and bring on additional capacity to deliver all of your orders.”
So what does that mean for that DOOM Eternal Collector’s Edition or your precious Animal Crossing New Horizons for Friday? Chances are they’re going to be delivered late. I’ve already watched as my shipping date for DOOM Eternal has slipped from being delivered in the morning to later in the evening. That doesn’t even account for if it doesn’t even ship that day. Which has already forced me to double-dip on a digital copy of the game so I can play it on Friday and not waiting until some time later in the evening. If it even gets here by then that is.
If you ordered a game and are expected it to be here by the weekend, do yourself a favor and check to see if it’s going to be shipped out in time. We’re in a bad shape right now, and we’re all being told to stay in-doors if we can help it. The last thing you’d want to do is go crazy looking at the walls, clocking each passing second waiting for a package that may not get there when expected.
