Sony on Wednesday confirmed it would have more PlayStation 5 consoles available from retailers this holiday season after what the company is calling its “biggest” launch ever.
Without concrete numbers, we have no idea what that means — the company could be referring to how many consoles were actually purchased by consumers, known as sell through, or the less impressive number of consoles that are simply bought by retailers. Without context or specifics, it’s hard to say.
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
Regardless, it’s no secret the PS5 and its competitors, the Xbox Series X / S, are very hard to find right now. Microsoft revealed earlier this month that both new Xbox consoles would suffer from supply shortages until well into springtime next year. This is due in part to messy and inconsistent retailer sales and bot-wielding scalpers scooping up inventory during the small slivers of time after which Target or Walmart do end up restocking.
It is also likely because these devices are hard to manufacture, though neither Microsoft nor Sony has offered much insight at all into how many units they prepped for launch or even expected to ship and sell before 2021. So perhaps these devices are hard to find because these companies just didn’t plan well enough, and the “unprecedented” demand Sony says it’s seeing for the PS5 far outweighs the supply. It’s another reminder that the game industry seems quite inept at selling hardware for myriad reasons.
So if you’re still on the lookout for a PS5, know that Sony is promising more units over the course of the next month. But it doesn’t have much to offer by way of advice except to “stay in touch with your local retailers.”
