The PS5 pre-order process could have been a lot smoother. Sony had stated that it was going to give people plenty of warning for when pre-orders would start, but that did not happen. Instead, after the PS5 Showcase Sony stated pre-orders would start the next day but did not communicate times, nor which retailers would have them at what time. While we tried to keep on top of notifying people of where pre-orders were happening there was still a lot of confusion, and a lot of disappointment as people missed out due to Sony’s poor communication. Now Sony has apologised and confirmed more pre-orders will be going live soon.
Let’s be honest: PS5 preorders could have been a lot smoother. We truly apologize for that.
Over the next few days, we will release more PS5 consoles for preorder – retailers will share more details.
And more PS5s will be available through the end of the year. pic.twitter.com/h1TaGsGBun
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 19, 2020
Even though Sony has confirmed there will be more PS5s available it is leaving the details up to retailers to spread, so buyers will have to track down the console themselves. Counter this to Microsoft’s approach who have confirmed the date, times, and the retailers of Xbox Series X|S pre-orders. The full details of those are:
- UK (8AM BST): Microsoft Store, GAME, Amazon, Dixons, Currys PC World, Argos, John Lewis, Smyths Toys, VERY, AO, Tesco, Simply Games, ShopTo and other participating retailers
- United States (8AM PT / 11AM ET): Microsoft Store, Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, Newegg, and other participating retailers
- Canada (8AM PT): Microsoft Store, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, EB Games, The Source, and other participating retailers
- Australia (8AM AEST): Microsoft Store, JB Hifi, EB Games, Telstra, Harvey Norman, and other participating retailers
- New Zealand (8AM NZST): Microsoft Store, JB HiFi, EB Games, Spark, and other participating retailers
It gets trickier in other regions though. For Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, you pre-orders start at 9AM CEST at Microsoft Store, Amazon, MediaMarkt, GameStop, FNAC, Elkjøp/Elgiganten, and other participating retailers. These will differ from country to country.
Source: Twitter
Shadowtheedge
Dunno what’s behind Sony failing so miserably but what on earth are the team doing?
WaxBull
Ask Nvidea how announcing a pre-order date and time went for them regarding the 3080. There’s software that can be bought then used to pre-order 20+ of a product within a minute as soon as pre-order goes live.
So whilst it was chaos, in an odd way and perhaps strategically, more actual consumers got a PS5 at RRP and less scalpers could react in time. I get it is PR but Sony have no need to apologise. Sadly, a few scalpers still got their grubby mitts on some consoles.
Stefan L
The bots just monitor a page for changes and work whether there’s a scheduled time or not, so maybe the first stores to open preorders caught them napping to set bots running, but not later ones.
duke
To me, it feels like an exercise in hype generation by Sony. Just grabbing more headlines.