The pre-order of the PS5 ended in a disaster and the PlayStation 5 is still sold out for pre-order. How could this happen and what is the mood like among potential customers right now?
What went wrong with the pre-order? The epic mess surrounding the PS5 pre-orders began shortly after the announcement of price and release date. During the stream, no word was said about pre-orders. After the presentation, a tweet came with the information that pre-orders would not start until the next day (September 17). At that time, it was around 11 PM in Germany on September 16.
However, contrary to claims, many online shops suddenly went live with PS5 pre-orders shortly after the tweet, and unscrupulous resellers took the opportunity to clean out the inventory using bots. In no time at all, all PS5 models were sold out for pre-order, and since then it has only been sporadically possible to pre-order a PS5 on sites like Otto, Amazon, or Media-Markt.
When a console does appear, it is quickly gone again. It is also said that one might have to wait until January for a second wave of consoles.
A real dilemma, that even the competition from Microsoft’s Xbox is finding amusing. They want to communicate very clearly in advance when the console will be available for pre-order.
PS5 fans feel cheated and lied to
These are the consequences: While the lucky fans who managed to pre-order a PS5 wait contentedly for the console’s release, many potential customers are furious. They feel cheated and deceived, as many went to bed or to their night shifts with a clear conscience after the stream and the tweet. If they had known there would be pre-orders shortly thereafter, they would have stayed up longer or sought another solution.
This was announced: Additionally, Sony had actually promised the exact opposite of what ultimately happened. The responsible manager for global marketing had stated beforehand that they would not keep customers in the dark about the exact mode of the pre-orders.
This is the mood in the community: After this announcement, many fans likely trusted that Sony would tell them when the console would be available for pre-order. Since this did not happen, the mood is currently boiling over, and many fans are bitterly complaining on Twitter about this lost trust and that the consoles are now selling for exorbitant prices on eBay:
- Ashura: “Yeah great, had a night shift, could not pre-order during it and now it’s sold out everywhere. Thanks for nothing.”
- Splatter4Quattros: “I’m annoyed too. Although I even waited until 11:10 PM after the presentation. Sold out everywhere. Of course, selling for hundreds of euros more on eBay, even though I’m registered with PlayStation, I had no chance to get one. This is NOT for the Players.”
- Alex T: “I was still able to pre-order one at Amazon. But it’s really shabby to start like this at midnight. The people who went to sleep after the showcase and want to pre-order one tomorrow will have a nasty surprise.”
- Ed Marks: “Even if you watched the live stream, you didn’t realize when the pre-sale started.”
This is what MeinMMO readers say: Also here on MeinMMO, the dilemma with the pre-orders is not going down well. They complain about the sloppy way in which Sony released the PS5 for pre-order and are annoyed about unscrupulous resellers on eBay:
Thank you Sony, for the huge chaos, first misinforming at the event and now the majority is left in the lurch!!! This was promised differently. Now it is sold out everywhere, already at 7 AM, absolute false start, I feel cheated by Sony and the retailers! I guess I’ll have to decide on an XBOX X! Maybe you can manage it more professionally with the PS6, I’m out. Hopefully I won’t have these problems with Microsoft.
Reader Max is angry about the poor communication at Sony and might now buy an Xbox.
Great. Now I have the one with a drive on my neck…
Reader Genisis now has the wrong console
I indeed pre-ordered it as a “replacement” for exactly this case, that the digital one was already sold out in the morning. I’m still annoyed because I don’t need the drive, I find that drive bulge utterly ugly and it costs 100€ more…
I hope eBay does something against these vultures. It seems the same with the new Nvidia graphics cards. It’s a shame when a new product comes to market and customers are made it difficult to buy their product of choice because of such practices. Like back then with the Nintendo consoles, which were practically unavailable.
Reader Aethos finds the reseller’s outrageous prices on eBay terrible.
Amid all the chaos and anger surrounding the pre-orders, Microsoft now has a historic opportunity to lure dissatisfied Sony customers with the upcoming pre-order start of their Xbox Series X and Series S. Microsoft has already announced that they will make the pre-orders more customer-friendly and transparent than those of Sony. It remains to be seen how the Xbox pre-orders will ultimately unfold.
