Sales launch of Sony’s new Playstation 5, pre-orders exceed the supply

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Since September, retailers and online stores have been receiving pre-orders for the Playstation 5, which far exceeded the existing supply. Only a few people were able to get hold of a game console on the day of the premiere. Online auction houses as well as the black market sometimes offered devices three times the usual price of 399 and 499 US dollars. Sony Interactive Entertainment, the games and consoles division of Sony Corporation, promoted the groundbreaking technology of the Playstation 5, which exceeds the computing power of its predecessor by a factor of 100. The new console also features advanced sound technology. The previous generation PS4 was launched in January 2014. The sales launch in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Singapore and South Korea on November 12th came just two days after competitor Microsoft launched its new Xbox Series X game console in stores.

Approximately 20 games are available for the sales launch, with more to follow by the end of the year for the Christmas business. Games of the PS4 as well as certified accessories of the predecessor are compatible with the new console, Sony announced. In other parts of the world, such as Europe and South America, the sales launch is planned for November 19. The Playstation 5 is available in two versions, one with an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive for $499 and a digital edition without drive for $399. The technical specifications of the Playstation 5 are impressive. Inside works an AMD Zen 2 CPU with eight cores and 3.5 GHz. This is supported by a RDNA 2 GPU, which was developed especially for the PS5 and brings the games in a resolution of 4K with 120 Hz to the home screen. For memory, Sony relies on 16 GB GDDR6 memory and an NVMe SSD with 825 GB capacity. Sony announced that the hard drive memory can be upgraded with another NVMe SSD. However, the function will only be activated next year with a firmware update. Sony will also publish a list of all supported SSDs at that time.

Sony also regretted the low supply and delivery problems during the global sales launch in November. Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, had to admit that the first production batch was completely sold out and that demand far exceeded current supply. “We had done everything we could this year to promote our new console and generate demand. Now we are doing everything we can to increase supply and offer the new PS5 to our valued customers,” said Jim Ryan. He also believes that even without the global Covid 19 pandemic, there would have been production and delivery bottlenecks. According to Ryan, production preparation was the biggest problem as engineers’ travel and logistics were limited due to the pandemic. As an example, he stated that most of the steps in production preparation and machine setup were only possible via video conferencing. Eric Lempel, head of worldwide Playstation marketing, promised that there would soon be more dates for reserving a PS5. The exact dates will be announced via Internet and social media. In view of the still tense global situation of the pandemic with numerous lockdowns and the enormous logistical effort, the head of marketing asked for understanding that the sales will be done as far as possible via online stores. The JIS certification is a mandatory certification that verifies the conformity of products according to the Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS). The JIS certification covers, among other things, products in the fields of electronics and electrical engineering in accordance with the Industrial Standardization Act of Japan.

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