When pre-orders for the PlayStation 5 opened last month, things got messy real quick. The sheer number of people trying to pre-order Sony’s ninth-generation console overwhelmed many retailer’s systems leaving many players unable to even get in for a chance to pre-order.
With this in mind, you’d think that the console’s actual release day would see something similar, that people would be lining up for hours just to get their consoles.
But this wasn’t the case.
For the most part, there weren’t any long lines of customers waiting for the PlayStation 5s. When there were lines, these tended to be short.
More importantly, customers were easily able to get the consoles they had pre-ordered without any hassle. At the Datablitz in SM Megamall, which we had visited to see how the launch day would go, most customers had already been able to get their units by noon.
It was the same story at the nearby Gameline as well.
It seems that the pre-order strategy worked. By having people fight to pre-order their consoles online, Sony and retailers like DataBlitz and GameLine were able to avoid having to deal with issues on the actual launch day.
But this brings up one important question: what about those who weren’t able to preorder?
When asked, representatives from the stores said that the next batch of PlayStation 5s would no longer be subject to the same pre-order system. When they do arrive, customers will simply be able to walk in and purchase them.
The caveat here is that it might take a while before this happens. We were told that they would most likely not get any more PlayStation 5s in stock until the first quarter of 2021. (Read: 4 things you can do while waiting for the PlayStation 5 in the Philippines)
Sadly, it seems that the one-two punch of a global pandemic (which has affected global supply lines) and a console that’s one of the most sought after in history (pre-orders for the PlayStation 5 sold in 12 hours what its predecessor did in 12 months) has made it difficult for Sony to meet demand.
This isn’t just happening here, either. Retailers the world over are running out of PlayStation 5’s to sell. This has led to desperate buyers queuing up on retailers’ websites, as well as the official Sony Direct website, eagerly waiting for the console to come back in stock.
In a way, the situation is reminiscent of that when pre-orders were first opened for the console back in November. With this in mind, the question now then is this same thing will happen once the PlayStation 5 actually becomes available for those who didn’t pre-order next year.
Will there be a big, chaotic rush to get the PlayStation 5 once units actually become available for purchase next year? Only time will tell.
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