In what can only be seen as a roller coaster ride over the last two weeks for gamers, comes an update about pre-orders for Sony’s next-gen console, PlayStation 5. And, from the looks of it, this ride may not be stopping anytime soon.
First, there was the surprise jumping of the gun with PS5 pre-orders, when select retailers misunderstood the ordering instructions sent down by Sony. As a result, retailers such as Walmart were accepting pre-orders a day ahead of when Sony had instructed them and authorized.
Yet other select retailers that chose to jump out of the gates a little early, had the next-gen consoles, such as PlayStation 5 and PS5 Digital Edition, offered on their sites within hours of the closing of Sony’s PS5 Showcase last week.
Those retailers that followed the rules, and waited to go live with their pre-orders as instructed, saw a complete sell-out within mere minutes. Gamers were fast and furious in placing their orders, and as a result, many sites were not able to hold up under the onslaunght.
Those sites that did not result in completely crashing ground to an all but halting crawl, with yet others finding customers having to struggle to get confirmation of their purchase.
It has been reported that many gamers, elated with having gotten their order to go through and subsequently receiving a confirmation, were then left saddened—as just a few hours later, some received an email stating their order had been canceled—with no offering as to the reason why.
Sony quickly made apologies for the entire fiasco, as did Microsoft. Both companies experienced the same issue with their next-gen console pre-orders. However, now here we are two weeks later, and reports indicate that both the USA and the UK have received another shipment of consoles.
Today, GAME and GameStop had their second shipment of orders go live, and as was not unexpected, all the consoles sold out. This may seem depressing to some gamers, but not to fear, as the good news is that more retailers are in the process of receiving their second shipment of PS5 stock and should be going live any day now.
For those gamers that can wait for the next-gen consoles to hit the shelves, then they can buy them on November 12th in the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Mexico. The remainder of the countries will be able to purchase them the following week on November 19th, 2020. The cost of the PS5 next-gen console is $449.
The weeks following the pre-order launches will undoubtedly see more consoles drop, as has already been seen in the second week of the event. Bagging one will become more and more difficult as the holiday season draws closer and closer, and could mean the difference between paying the manufacturers suggested retail price for your own console or having to pay an eBay scalper upwards of $1,000 or more.