Next gen gaming consoles are right around the corner and even amidst a raging global pandemic, hype for Microsoft and Sony's new systems is in the air. That being said, there's some bitterness in the air mixed with that hype as one company has not done a good job handling initial preorders. Can you guess which one? Here's your hint: rhymes with pony.
During the PS5 live showcase, much about the console was revealed, including the price tag, $499 for the disc drive version and $399 for the digital version. We also got the release date, November 12, 2020, world wide, which isn't far off. With so many eyes watching the showcase, you would think Sony would give gamers a date for when preorders would open. No date was given and this had the unfortunate affect of causing several retailers including Best Buy, Target and Walmart to begin taking preorders and the result was wide spread chaos with a hefty helping for frustration.
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| Image by ExtremeTech.com |
Back in July, Sony said via video chat between Geoff Keighley and Sony marketing's Eric Lempel, that they would not wait until the last minute to issue a preorder date for the PS5. Gamers would be given plenty of notice. What gamers got was silence from Sony and blindsided by retailers. Anger, ranting, scalpers; this more than likely would have happened anyway, but that is besides the point. Sony said one thing and did another or in this case, they said nothing at all. Yes, retailers are to blame for opening the doors on preorders but I've seen responses to justifiably angry gamers in Twitter and YouTube threads stating "It wasn't Sony's fault," as if they are innocent in this entire debacle. Sony is totally at fault here.
As the one supplying the product to retailers, it is on Sony to communicate to them when the preorder date will be. No communication can be just as, if not worse than bad communication and because Sony said jack, we have a nightmare scenario that was allowed to play out for days. You need only look to YouTube to see a plethora of gamers venting their frustration in videos or comment sections of how they failed to secure a PS5 preorder. At the end of the day, the PS5 preorder mess is due to Sony's complete and utter lack of communication, which flies in the face of what gamers were told back in July. Sony screwed up and to exempt them from blame is fool hearty.
Sure, PS5 preorders are legit live now, but ha ha ha, good lucky getting one. Sony did issue an apology on Twitter but the fact remains that Sony could have prevented this whole mess if they were upfront as to when PS5 preorders would go live. Sony promised more PS5s would be available for preorder but keep in mind, we are still facing a global pandemic that has significantly impacted the gaming industry. If Switches are hard to get a hold of, it doesn't take much imagining to see what the pandemic will do on securing a PS5. Also, Sony said they give us plenty of notice on when PS5 peroders would go live annnnnnnddddd, well we all know how that turned out. I wouldn't blame anyone for having trust issues after this fiasco. If you are trying to preorder a PS5, good luck and if you can't get one, just remember, it isn't the end of the world.
EDIT: Annnnd the Xbox Series X preoders were no better than the PS5.
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