THE CURRENT GEN CONSOLE LAUNCH IS AN EMBARRASSMENT

The PS5 is 6 months old and still nigh impossible to get. The launch of this console generation has been an embarrassment for Sony and the gaming industry. No other industry launches a product that is this impossible to get a hold of for this long.

Now, I realize that the PS5 has set “fastest selling” records. But one thing I want to make abundantly clear, is that is meaningless. "Selling fast" is not the same as selling the most, or that significant quantities are actually making it into players hands. What boggles my mind the most is that Sony KNOWS they sell this thing at a loss. They know that their profit comes from game sales. So even these “fastest selling” narrative nonsence does nothing for them if large percentages of these “purchased” PS5’s are sitting unopened in the homes and offices of resellers.

I’m not here to talk about resellers. It is a thing that exists. I sell gaming stuff myself. I get it. The fact is that Sony and their retail partners need to realize they are losing money in the long term. Players buy games, controllers, subscriptions. Resellers do not. Resellers are driving up the average selling price of a PS5 and that difference is profit that is not going to Sony. It is IN THEIR INTEREST to combat reselling because gamers would have more money for games and accessories, but more importantly actually have the console in hand. There are so many strategies they could use to quickly combat reselling and they won't do it. However, even with rampant reselling solved, that won't make the quantities sufficient.

I have been attempting to get a PS5 since launch and so far the experience has been an absolute JOKE. First off let’s not forget about their abomination of launch preoder where they straight up lied about launch timing and the ENTIRE LAUNCH PREORDER INVENTORY SOLD OUT BEFORE THE LAUNCH TIME.

The PS5 literally sold out everywhere hours before it’s preorders were even going to go live. This would be like if Star Wars tickets were scheduled to go live on May 4th at 4 PM PT and without warning went live on May 3rd and sold out in an hour. Come the scheduled time there are no tickets.

Fast forward to April 2021, six months later, and after multiple “restocks” that sell out in minutes (if that) I have only managed to actually manage to secure ONE order, and that was through a friend even. This order was cancelled just a few days before arriving. They can't even managed to know how many units they will have before giving us an acknowledged order.

Imagine if the newest smartphone released like this. Imagine if 6 months later the new phone wasn’t in stores at all, and you couldn’t even ORDER one. There is a fine line between “manufacturered scarcity” and just awful inventory launch management and Sony has well crossed it. It is one thing to have to wait a few weeks or even months for your preordered new technology to ship, it is another for 6 months to pass and be unable to have even ordered it in the first place. Why can't we just even get in line? There is no back order. There is no wait list. There is only a few minutes of chaos and overwhelmed servers before the greyed out sold out button returns.

At this point, you should at least be able to place an order and be put on a waitlist. For the love of god at least let me put my name down somewhere and wait 2 months for the damn thing. At this rate I am calling it now, we will hit the rapidly approaching one year anniversary of the PS5 and you still won't be able to even order one let alone walk into a store and just buy one.

All I can say is that these new consoles have some of the most absolutely worst mismanagement for a technology launch I have ever seen. Sony keeps making false promises. Their retail partners keep failing to protect end users and give us reasonable order times. There are companies who sell more popular products than these who are able to deliver them in weeks not months. If Sony couldn't manage to produce sufficient inventory to make them at least able to be ordered within half a year, they should not have released the thing at all.