Todd’s Side
It shouldn’t be that hard to spend upwards of $750 on a video game system. I mean, for that price you only get two controllers and the system and a throw-in game by all accounts. The textbook on how to do a pre-order and keep your customers happy and engaged was thrown out the window with Sony’s PlayStation 5 pre-order debacle last night.
Amazon went live with their pre-order in the middle of the night. Most woke up to a screen saying the system isn’t available. Best Buy Canada must have only got a few systems, because shortly after 7:45 p.m. after their pre-order link went live all of their systems were also sold out. Apparently links to pre-order the system for PlayStation Plus subscribers are going out today.
Walmart’s pre-orders have been spotty and gone quickly, at best. EB Games’ website is a joke on a regular day, last night broken links, timed out sessions, password implementation issues, you name it. And it all spelled disaster for those trying to pre-order a PlayStation 5 system the disk version of the digital version. It was done so poorly that you would have to wonder how will gaming as an entertainment avenue continue to be vibrant.
I have spoken to several gamers who say they are no long interested in video games as a result. They might get a new Xbox Series X, but the pricing and the experience from last night and the aggravation of buying new games for their PlayStation 4 and not knowing if those same games will play on the PlayStation 5 have driven some to not want to continue with gaming as a primary means of entertainment.
EB Games is selling the system with 2 controllers for $729 and that is an expensive proposition. Panasonic’s 3DO tried to come out of the game back in the day with a high price point and it didn’t survive. Hopefully some retailers will have available systems for those who had trouble navigating the e-commerce waters that were the equivalent of being in dingy with no engine in 8-foot eight-foot swells. Gamers were swamped with stress and aggravation all the while trying to spend their hard-earned money.
That’s the scene from Canada.
Now let’s turn things over to DJ Devereaux for his take on how things went in the United States for the US pre-orders.
That’s the scene from Canada. Over to DJ…
DJ’s Side
Let’s be fair, we’ve seen situations in the past where pre-orders didn’t exactly go as planned.
Ask anyone that tried to get their hands on a collector’s edition of a game, only to either be shut out or ridiculously overcharged with some kind of bundle.
But Sony didn’t just drop the ball yesterday with the PlayStation 5. It dropped the ball, buried it in the ground, then threw some grenades on top to assure that it’d never come up for air.
The first problem is its failed attempt to keep proper communication with retailers. It practically became the Wild West yesterday, with everyone going at random times instead of according to plan, like what Microsoft aims to do with the Xbox Series X (we hope). Walmart went live, then Best Buy, then Amazon, and no one was prepared. As a result, they ran out of stock way too quickly. GameStop even got to the point where it was (accidentally) blocking anyone from its site when they attempted to access their pre-order link.
The second problem is that Sony didn’t keep its promise. Well ahead of the special yesterday, the company vowed to keep certain people informed about the fair opportunity to pre-order a system. Well, as you might guess, it didn’t keep that promise. Pre-orders went up and they were anyone’s game, mainly scalpers looking to make an easy thousand or so off of a system. (Which, sadly, they will.) So even those that took the time to fill out Sony’s pre-order sheet and, I don’t know, have a PlayStation Plus membership for several years? They got shut out badly. Horribly, in fact.
There’s still a slight chance for Sony to make right on this, with a proper pre-order system to allocate whatever stock it might have left for those that truly want to take advantage of it, instead of those looking to just make a buck off someone that can barely afford a system in the first place. But keep in mind that slight is the word. Sony messed up big time here, and now has to scramble just to save face on offering any kind of PS5 hopes for gamers this holiday season.
At least there’s some back-up plan, with a few of the PS5 games being available on PlayStation 4 as well, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and the sequel to Horizon: Zero Dawn. And let’s be fair, some folks aren’t really in a rush to jump to next gen, so this is a smart move.
But, really, this is a far cry from when Sony coolly dominated the market in the 90’s, shutting down Sega Saturn’s early launch with the simple one-word response of “$299”. It has now orchestrated its own chaos, and it’s a matter of making things right – if it can.
