PlayStation 5 Pre-Orders Are Through The Roof - And That's Bad News

It isn't exactly a secret that the PlayStation 5 pre-order situation has been a rather dismal one. Pre-orders were poorly communicated from Sony and from retailer to retailer, which led to a lot of confusion among consumers. PS5 pre-orders also sold out very quickly, leaving a lot of people out in the cold.

The fact that pre-orders sold out is obviously good news for Sony, which wants to sell as many consoles as possible. Speaking to Reuters, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said that in the US, the company pre-sold as many PlayStation 5s in 12 hours as it sold PlayStation 4s in that console's first 12 weeks of availability.

That's certainly nothing to stick your nose up at, and it means demand for the PlayStation 5 is through the roof. While that's great for Sony, that could be bad for gamers who haven't managed to secure their console yet. "It may well be that not everybody who wants to buy a PS5 on launch day will be able to find one," Ryan said, while noting that the company is working the produce enough stock for the holiday season.

We've been through this before, of course. New consoles are often sold out shortly after launch, and some of the most popular can sell out during multiple holiday seasons in a row. In short, if you don't have a PlayStation 5 yet, you might not want to get your hopes up for available stock on launch day or in the weeks and months beyond.

Of course, Sony might be off to pull off something big to ensure there's a lot of available stock come launch day, but gamers might want to prepare for extended stock shortages. We'll see what happens soon enough, as the PlayStation 5 launches on November 12th.