Tacky, terrible, woeful; a shortlist of fancy words that describe Sony’s PlayStation5 pre-orders.
There’s no need to raise an eyebrow at this description because Sony agrees too.
It looked like retailers were trying to take advantage of eagerly waiting customers.
That’d be the only explanation for opening pre-order windows earlier than announced.
Following the disorderly pre-order, Sony apologised to its customers.
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
The long wait
Microsoft and Sony had made customers wait for a long period.
Before the price and launch details for their consoles.
Microsoft finally announced the price and launch date of its console.
After such a long wait, customers certainly did not deserve the stress they went through.
On Wednesday, shoppers complained of several glitches during their order placement.
Consoles grew wings and legs.
Some flew, others crawled out of shoppers carts before completing payment procedures.
It certainly wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Though we believe that it was avoidable.
They planned to avoid it, or so we thought
One vital question in all of this is, what happened to Sony’s pre-order registration list?
A month-old publication on the PlayStation page revealed that only limited stocks of PS5 consoles were available for pre-order.
To this end, Sony decided to adopt an invite-only strategy.
This strategy sought to give few customers exclusive access to pre-order the consoles.
If Sony had followed through with this, I would probably be writing a merrier story right now.
The page currently bears a banner of the PS5 console with a boldly written note “Registration is now closed.”
All seemed to be going as planned when Sony tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.
In a short thread, Sony revealed the proposed release date for different locations.
Afterwards, it announced that pre-orders would kick-off the following day.
See you in November! pic.twitter.com/CjrQ65rJ5a
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 16, 2020
PS5 pre-orders will be available starting as early as tomorrow at select retailers.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 16, 2020
Surprisingly, retailers opened their pre-order slots a few hours later.
Shoppers were more prepared for the rush than retailers.
In the end, it was all pandemonium as retailers couldn’t manage the surge.
It all started with one post from Walmart
Walmart was reportedly the first to open its slots.
They nudged gamers to visit their store and pre-order through a very enticing post.
Make you wait to get the new #PlayStation5? Nah, that’s not like us. Go on, preorder it NOW!
— Walmart (@Walmart) September 16, 2020
Shortly after, other retailers like GameStop, Best Buy, and Target opened their slots too.
However, they all ran out of stock before some gamers could place their orders.
After its apology, Sony promised to make more consoles available in the coming days.
Sony also added that retailers would inform interested shoppers as soon as offers are made available.
There is no guarantee that any console – both those already secured by gamers last week and those to be provided in the coming weeks – will be delivered upon official launch.
Sony has left a lot of details out of its communications.
But, we promise to keep you updated as events continue to unfold.
The good news is that the long-awaited PS5 will be available worldwide by the 19th of November.
Would you be getting one, or are you on the rival side?
Let us know in the comment section below.
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