Today was quite possibly the worst day for Amazon to experience downtime. Planned to be the day that Amazon began accepting pre-orders for the Metal Gear Solid 4 80 GB PS3 bundle, everything fell apart when Amazon experienced some serious downtime this morning — downtime that many are attributing to the popularity of the MGS 4 bundle and subsequent flood of pre-order traffic.
While technically true, rumor has it that the downtime is actually attributable to several bots set up prior to pre-order availability with the sole purpose of pre-ordering every bundle they possibly could, presumably to resell the bundles at inflated prices on eBay. Considering the stability of Amazon’s site during their Wii pre-order bonanza, it seems likely they’d be able to withstand the onslaught of MGS 4-hungry shoppers.
Reports of those that actually got their hands on a bundle seem slim, leading one to wonder whether Amazon will be honoring these automated pre-orders. So, how many Dtoiders got their hands on the precious MGS 4 pre-order booty before the great strain of our collective lust brought Amazon to their knees?