EBGamestop' s big yearly show is over, and boy were managers left in a tizzy afterward. I' ve had the chance to talk to a few managers I trust on condition of anonymity, and their words don' t inspire confidence about the system launches coming up.

" I asked the regional manager about PS3 preorders," one told me " and he paused and then said he can' t answer the question. He said there is a plan, but they can' t talk about it; we should know in a week to two weeks." He started to sound tired. " Sony just didn' t seem like they had a plan with the show. No plan at all. Barely a mention of the PS3, and almost nothing playable. On the other hand, I waited two hours for Gears of War. There is a feeling that Nintendo and Microsoft really set out to wow us, and Sony didn' t have much to show. There was a PS3 under glass you could look at, and that' s about it."

The difference between HD DVD and Blu-Ray was striking as well. " Blu-ray had a tiny presence in the very back of the show floor, while Microsoft had large displays and surround sound systems in their hospitality suite so you can take a look at what their HD DVD drives would look like. It was impressive, and gave the feeling that HD DVD was real and Blu-ray wasn' t ready for the show."

I asked him his feelings going into the PS3 launch with no word on allocations or preorders, and no news on what will happen towards the holidays. " It' s going to be ugly, there is no way this launch is going to go well."