Sony announced Wednesday that the PS5 was the company’s biggest console launch ever, and promised more inventory of the next-gen console will be coming to retailers for eager gamers by the end of the year.
The official PlayStation Twitter account made the proclamation Wednesday morning and thanked folks for the continued support of the PS5.
“We want to thank gamers everywhere for making the PS5 launch our biggest console launch ever. Demand for PS5 is unprecedented, so we wanted to confirm that more PS5 inventory will be coming to retailers before the end of the year – please stay in touch with your local retailers,” the account read.
We want to thank gamers everywhere for making the PS5 launch our biggest console launch ever. Demand for PS5 is unprecedented, so we wanted to confirm that more PS5 inventory will be coming to retailers before the end of the year – please stay in touch with your local retailers.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) November 25, 2020
If you’ve been following the release of the PS5 this probably comes at no surprise.
Since the PS5 release date announcement and pre-order dates back in September, the next-gen console has been one of the hottest (and hardest to buy) pieces of tech this holiday season. It’s only possible rival? Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S.
When PS5 pre-orders went live, gamers were constantly having trouble getting their orders in. This problem would grow when the console first released on November 12 in some countries and November 19 for the rest of the world.
Whether it was the lack of stock, online retailers not being able to handle the amount of people coming to its sites, or reseller groups using bots to snatch up as many units as possible for profit, it was becoming increasingly difficult to get a PS5.
Sony didn’t make its console available to purchase in-store, adding to the difficulty in terms of acquisition. This meant gamers would have to brave the online market to try and purchase it as opposed to standing on line at their local retailer like you would any other year.
PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan told Russian news agency TASS this week that consumers will see stock shortages of the PS5.
“Everything is sold. Absolutely everything is sold,” Ryan said. “I’ve spent much of the last year trying to be sure that we can generate enough demand for the product. And now in terms of my executive bandwidth, I’m spending a lot more time on trying to increase supply to meet that demand.”
Retailers are constantly restocking units of the PS5 as Black Friday comes closer and closer, but the announcement that Sony will be making more consoles available by the end of the year should give most at least some sense of reprieve.
Considering the hurdles of a global pandemic and the pitfalls of online shopping, selling as many PS5s as Sony has is impressive. The number of units sold of the PS5 in its first two weeks isn’t known, but back in 2013 PlayStation’s then-CEO Andrew House revealed that the PS4 had sold 2.1 million units in its first two weeks. The PS4 was Sony’s best-selling launch console, meaning that the PS5 has sold more than that number out of the gate.
What do you think of the PS5 launch? Let us know in the comments section.
