We’ve been informed today by a manager at a local EB Games store that the pre-orders for PlayStation 3 will start on tomorrow, October 10th. The pre-order will set gamers back $100. Managers were supposedly told this information today during the afternoon conference call as well as being informed about the quantity each store can expect to have at launch. The launch system allocations were determined by corporate based off the number of software and peripheral pre-orders each store has recieved so far. The stores in our area are all recieving 16 units at launch with one of the stores set to recieve 8.

We’re collecting more information on the subject, but at the latest we’ll know tomorrow.

UPDATE: We’ve sourced this with three different EB Games managers and also a Gamestop manager in our area. I even went to another manager’s house and looked at the notes he took from the conference call.

The stores are only allowing consumers to pre-order the number of units they’re allocated to recieve. This will work out well for consumers for a number of reasons. First is that if you have a pre-order, you’ll be guaranteed to have the unit on the first day. Secondly, after the first shipment is finished, gamers will be able to walk into a store and pick up a unit on first come first serve during any subsequent shipments.