This past week was filled with both exciting yet confusing news for PlayStation fans around the globe. Last Wednesday, September 16, saw the PlayStation 5 Showcase event, where Sony unveiled many new games, the release date, and the price for its upcoming PS5. While this was exciting news for many gamers, there were some aspects of the event that likely left players confused such as the non-inclusion of a pre-order date.
For some reason, the reveal of the PS5‘s official pre-order date became the responsibility of industry veteran, Geoff Keighley. He, who most would likely recognize from his work hosting and producing such events as The Game Awards and Gamescom Opening Night Live, took to Twitter following Sony’s PS5 Showcase to let everyone know that PS5 pre-orders would go live everywhere the following day, September 17. However, one retailer decided to jump the gun and begin pre-orders immediately, thus setting in motion a dreadful chain of events which led to many players unable to secure a PS5.
At around 4 PM PST on September 16, Walmart made the decision to begin its online PS5 pre-orders before every other retailer. It announced this via a tweet saying,” Make you wait to get the new #PlayStation5? Nah, that’s not like us. Go on, preorder it NOW!” Pre-orders for the console then sold out within minutes, and while this left many players disappointed, this also caused other retailers to re-evaluate if they would stay the course with Sony’s plans.
The actions of Walmart were like small cracks in a dam spider-webbing to the point where the structure couldn’t be supported anymore and all of the water came rushing forth. Not to be outdone by Walmart, other retailers like GameStop, Target, Best Buy, and Amazon followed suit and began taking pre-orders through their sites a day early. Meanwhile, Sony began sending out their invitations to pre-order the PS5 on the 17th; an hour and a half after these other retailers were already sold out.
While Walmart was the impetus for the PS5’s pre-order hysteria, the corporation can’t shoulder the blame alone. Back in July, Geoff Keighley interviewed PlayStation’s Head of Worldwide Marketing, Eric Lempell, asking about pre-orders for the company’s new console. Lempell assured Keighley and the gaming community at large that they would have plenty of advance notice before PS5 pre-orders would go live. However, this idea seemed to go by the wayside considering this information wasn’t even included within the PS5 Showcase that occurred the day before Sony intended to launch them.
It’s odd that the responsibility of announcing the PS5’s pre-order date was left to Geoff Keighley on Twitter considering he’s not affiliated with Sony. Had the pre-order information been shared during the PS5 Showcase that day, there is a possibility that some players wouldn’t have even expected pre-orders to be done on the 16th and would have waited in anticipation for the 17th like Sony had planned.
This series of unfortunate events has led to the PS5 being sold-out at every major retailer and scalpers to rear their ugly head, attempting to sell their pre-orders for thousands of dollars on eBay. Sony has since apologized for this pre-order confusion (even though it’s not entirely its fault) and reassured players that more PS5′ will be available to pre-order soon and more consoles will be available through the end of the year. Walmart, on the other hand, has said nothing on the matter; now, it seems, the hope for players is that Walmart doesn’t pull the same stunt when Xbox Series X pre-orders go live on September 22.
The PS5 is set to launch on November 12, 2020.
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