Sony created enormous good will with the thousands of GameStop managers assembled at the GameStop Expo when the company announced that each manager would get a free PlayStation 4 and seven games. Microsoft was quick to respond the following day, announcing to astonished cheers that each GameStop store manager would also get an Xbox One and 9 free games.
GameStop managers probably will not get these consoles until the general release date, and even then they aren’t likely to have much time to play – they’ll be busy fulfilling pre-orders and dealing with customers looking to snag one of the few consoles the stores will get that aren’t already allocated to pre-orders.
Nintendo has stayed out of this giveaway contest, though the company did use the GameStop Expo to announce the price drop on the Wii U and the new Nintendo 2DS console.