The hype surrounding the PlayStation 5 culminated yesterday at Sony's PS5 Showcase. Near the end of the event, the PS5's price and release date were both revealed. However, there was no word on when pre-orders would begin. Shortly after the PS5 Showcase, and in part due to the confusion, PlayStation's social media accounts announced pre-orders would go live the following day. However, that's not what happened.
Only a few hours after the PS5 Showcase, and despite Sony assuring fans pre-orders wouldn't happen until the next day, many major retailers went live with PlayStation 5 pre-orders. What followed was pure pandemonium, as retail sites like GameStop crashed due to heavy traffic and started blocking visitors because of DDOS countermeasures.
In the hours that followed, several online retailers like Amazon posted PS5 pre-orders, but it was during a time when most people were either asleep or unaware it was even happening. Several accounts on social media reported that other sites like Target and Walmart were selling out of the next-gen console with the PlayStation 5 in people's carts. Adding to the confusion was the fact that Sony had promoted a PS5 early reservation to certain PSN users, but no one had received word from the company about early reservations when retailers first started listing pre-orders. Sometime during the night, Sony finally sent the reservation emails to a select few, although it was after most online stores had already run out of PlayStation 5 pre-orders.
Why People Are Mad About PlayStation 5 Pre-Orders
All of this is bad enough, and it may not be completely Sony's fault that online retailers went live with pre-orders early. However, the lack of coordination and the mass confusion and chaos that followed should've never happened. Even in July, Sony Worldwide's head of marketing assured consumers that pre-orders for the PS5 wouldn't be a surprise and that consumers need not worry about missing out. However, that's exactly what's ended up happening.
To make matters worse, Sony and PlayStation appear to be completely ignoring the issue. Since the PS5 pre-order fiasco started and at the time of this writing, the Twitter account for PlayStation has been mum on the entire debacle. Its last tweet regarding PlayStation 5 pre-orders still claims it's happening September 17th, when in reality the next-gen console has been sold out for a number of hours at all major online retailers and has been that way with many of them since midnight.
Between site crashes, contradictory information, and general confusion, Sony's handling of its PlayStation 5 pre-orders has been a chaotic mess. So far, the company doesn't seem eager to publicly discuss the fiasco. In the meantime, for the many people who haven't managed to secure a console yet, retailers will hopefully get more pre-order stock before the system releases in November.