Sony has apologised for the chaos surrounding pre-orders of its brand-new PS5 console and has promised that more pre-orders will be made available over the coming days.
The corporation released the apparently genuine but brief apology on Saturday, via the official PlayStation Twitter account. The tweet acknowledged that “PS5 preorders could have been a lot smoother”, and stated that “We truly apologize for that.” It went on to reassure customers that more consoles would be available for purchase “through the end of the year.”
Nonetheless, an apology may not be enough to appease disappointed consumers. As Screen Rant pointed out, the promise of more consoles at some point in the future “doesn’t much help those would-be pre-order customers who obviously want their consoles on its November 12 launch day” (November 19 in the UK).
The fiasco was set into motion at the PS5 Showcase event on September 16. At first glance, the outlook for PlayStation aficionados seemed positive, with a treasure trove of new games announced including Final Fantasy 16, Spiderman: Miles Morales and the Harry Potter-themed Hogwarts Legacy. Many of the new arrivals were exclusive to the PS5 – although at least one was mistakenly claimed to be compatible with other devices. Possibly even more exciting, however, was the revelation of the PS5 Standard and Digital Editions’ costs and the November 12 release date.
It was also announced at the event that pre-orders would be going live the next day. This schedule was promptly discarded, however, when evidently misinformed retailers attempted to jump the gun and open pre-orders a day early, mere hours after the showcase. Their websites were promptly flooded with purchases, with some crashing as a result. Other consumers, meanwhile, reported pages timing out, being unable to add the consoles to their carts, and said consoles being deleted from their carts mid-way through checkout. Even those who did manage to complete their purchases might not receive them until after the launch day.
Some Twitter users and would-be buyers appeared to be at least temporarily consoled, expressing gratitude and appreciation for Sony’s candour. However the sheer volume of anticlimaxes and broken promises may render this apology too little, too late. Only time and the quality of the PS5 itself, once people are able to try it, will tell if the gaming community’s trust in Sony can be restored.
Words by Emma Curzon.
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