Irish gamers hoping to get their hands on the PS5 on launch day were greeted with unfortunate messages from GameStop’s stores in the country this week, with the retailer informing customers that it wouldn’t be able to fulfill some pre-orders until 2021 due to “circumstances out of our control.”
Retail issues with fulfilling PS5 pre-orders seem to be present internationally, with GameStop’s American operations and other stores like Target and Best Buy also running into demand problems. The email sent to affected customers, obtained by VGC, says that customers that choose to keep their pre-orders can expect to get their console in a “future wave” of stock, though a specific timetable wasn’t mentioned.
GameStop’s email follows similar messages about PS5 pre-orders from Amazon in the US, with similarly vague wording about when players can expect to unbox the new system for themselves. Sony informed European retailers how much stock to expect in November earlier this week, and it’s likely those numbers were much smaller than the amount of consoles GameStop sold to customers.
English retailer ShopTo also sent its own customers messages either confirming or denying that their PlayStation 5 systems would be arriving on time. Sony apologized to disappointed fans after the unclear details of the pre-order launch led to chaos among retailers, with many launching their sales hours before the intended date.
Sony said that the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t affected production or distribution of the console earlier this year, but the problems with getting the PS5 to retailers and customers today paint a different picture. The company claims more PS5s will be in stock throughout the rest of 2020. While a subset of lucky players probably won’t be affected by supply issues, it seems like a good chunk of people hoping to play on next-gen will have to wait until the early hype dies down to get their consoles.
Rival Microsoft has also seen an intense customer response for the Xbox Series X, with the console selling out in multiple countries, including Japan, where the Xbox brand has typically failed to impress against Sony and Nintendo’s hardware.
Sony and Microsoft waited significantly longer than usual to announce pricing and availability details for the new consoles. It’s unclear when the PS5 and Xbox Series X & S’s releases were finalized, but it seems that the time spent building hype without specifics hurt both launches. Bringing new consoles to market during a global crisis is a bold strategy on both Sony and Microsoft’s part, and anxious customers sadly seem to be the ones affected most.
The PlayStation 5 will be available on November 12.
Source: VGC
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