Image: Push Square

Bickering Begins Over PS5 Pro's Inability to Sell Out

Oh boy, here we go again

by · Push Square

There have been periods, certainly in the UK, where PS5 Pro has been unavailable. Sony has been adding new inventory to its PlayStation Direct site, however, which means you’re technically still able to pre-order the supercharged system several days after it went on sale. For some on social media, this is being taken as a signal the $700/£700 system may end up a failure.

The Verge’s Tom Warren made the following post on X (or Twitter), which quickly rocketed to the top of Reddit:

This led to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella posting the following response on Blue Sky:

Deleted last because it seemed like engagement bait. Just stick to hyping AI crap no one wants rather than say that it's somehow bad a not limited edition console hasn't sold out for preorders.
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2024-09-29T18:49:06.060Z

To be fair to Warren, he never actually said it was bad the PS5 Pro hasn’t sold out. We do agree with Piscatella’s overarching point, though: Sony’s goal, as a manufacturer, is to ship enough PS5 Pro consoles to ensure everyone who wants to buy one can do so easily. Sell outs obviously create the illusion of scarcity, but they’re not ideal for customers, who are forced to scrap over any available stock.

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Ultimately, only Sony knows how many PS5 Pros have been pre-ordered, and we won’t get that data until the likes of Circana report it post-launch. Given the high price point, we’re not expecting the supercharged system to sell a crazy number of units, but it’s additive to the overall PS5 hardware ecosystem, and therefore it doesn’t really need to post extraordinary numbers to be a worthwhile release.

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[source x.com, via bsky.app, reddit.com]

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About Sammy Barker

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.

Comments 92

Thanks to the Nintendo Switch we have come to learn that when a game console sales out it doesn't mean high demand but company self induced shipment shortages as creating fake demand ultimately causes consumer anxiety in missing out.

I have no doubt Sony would do the same by just shipping a small amount every week and calling it "high demand"

We have no idea how many were for sale to start with. On the launch day, the Pros did sell out in the UK. So I guess they have moved some stock around or increased the number.

I struggle to see why anyone cares about this

If you want one, you can get one. Great. If you don't want one then it's just not for you. Move on.

The way PlayStation announced it suggested they don't particularly care how well it initially sells anyway tbh, which again is fine

@roe the relevance for the "it's too expensive" crowd is not hard to see. if this is a success, it sets a precedent. it's not just people being busy bodies or envious or bitter. it impacts what sony will likely do for the PS6.

EDIT: sorry, wrong word I just woke up

It's not a disaster , only about 15% of the player base bought the ps4 pro , I'm one of them. Same for ps5 pro

I am old. In my days it was normal that a product is available for people to buy.

If something was sold out, it meant that the company doing it messed something up.

Now it's the other way around? Strange world. No wonder the young generation has no motivation to do anything anymore, if you are considered a failure, if you are not breaking records or producing something that is not sold out immediately.

Who cares though? If you wanted one and got one then that's all you need to bother about. And having plenty of stock is better for anyone still to decide. Only clowns would take some kind of weird pleasure from thinking Sony is somehow 'hurt' by this.

And as for talk about the PS6, it'll be priced however it'll be priced, and it's probably four years away anyway, so why spend the next four years being 'concerned' about something like that?

We all know the real underlying reasons behind the negative comments, but no point going there.

That makes me a happy customer. Hopefully it will also not be sold out in 5 minutes when preorders go up on Amazon.

@zupertramp I suppose but I don't really see it that way. Sony have been setting PlayStation up as a premium, expensive console for a while now. Just look at how they're selling controllers for £200 and Until Dawn for 60. I think we may be past the precedent for that now

It was sold out at one point. So this means they either had more stock or they just let people preorder to have a number for consoles they need to produce. Anyway: this is actually how it should be. More than enough stock so people can preorder or buy a console whenever they want. Done with the stupid mass queue line on a website that crashes and done with the scalpers who thought the Pro would be scarce just like the base PS5. I think the launch for PS6 will be different again, because it's technically a new console.

I’m not surprised it hasn’t sold out. It’s an expensive piece of machinery and frankly economic conditions are a little off for the Pro. Also, this is good news that the scalpers weren’t able to disrupt the market this time.

It really needs better marketing videos by Sony.
We dont even have confirmed specs....

(I have pre ordered, but did so after watching the DF video - i was on the fence before this. Surely they cant be relying on DF to sell their console?)

Pretty sure ai is going to be on all of the upcoming next gen consoles.

@Major_Player I think you mean thanks to Sony - they used that tactic back when the PS2 launched. Nintendo were coming off of the Wii U underperforming and so were wary of producing too many consoles too early in case it happened again.

@Pranwell why be concerned about a future purchase? it's possible I may not have quite the Buddhist, que sera sera attitude that others have but imo, that's part of being an adult honestly - planning for future purchases. Seriously no disrespect intended but I think some people are being way too unconcerned about how much things cost.

@Dragon83 it’s going to be way less than that this time. Saying that as a PS4 Pro owner,zero interest in this.

@Americansamurai1 most likely; DLSS upscaling, frame gen and ray reconstruction are incredible.

It's not going to sell bucketloads though is it? It's a mid-gen upgrade aimed at those who put a lot of stock in graphics. The average consumer is hardly going to be tripping over themselves to grab one in Asda.

I'm one of those Pro naysayers, but I don't think slow sales necessarily reflect badly on it. For me, the verdict will be at the end of this console gen. If there has been enough new releases (not just remasters) to fully show off what it can do, then it will have been worthwhile for those who get one.

@roe But there's an elasticity to it at the moment. Some of y'all (not necessarily you but just in general) are absolutely ensuring Sony prices this thing out of reach of people who kinda just like to have a console kicking around. I mean that's Sony's prerogative of course, if they wanna be Apple okay I guess but as consumers we do have a say in that.

Nobody except the most zealot fans will buy this. $700 to play a bunch of games anyone that has really cared about already bought and played and multiplats.

If you have a regular ps5 you already spent $500 minimum. $1200 dollars on console hardware with nothing to really show for it besides a handful of games that will all be on pc anyway.

@zupertramp The Pro is a model aimed at a particularly engaged and weatlhy segment of PlayStation consumer. It's less than 10% of all people playing PlayStation. Do you really think PS will alienate 90% of their audience with PS6? Nobody knows for sure, but I don't think being able to sell a console at twice the price to 10% of people beats selling it at normal price to 90%... we'll know soon enough ^_^

People are strange and will always find something to complain about, if the console wasn’t selling out it’s a massive failure and is doing terribly, and if it is selling out then Sony have massive stock issues or this is the impending doomsday for consoles as we know them.

You really can’t win.

The price is extortionate and that first showing from Cerny was pitiful, you can find my comments mocking the system. But since that initial announcement I’ve grown to see the value of the unit and it is worth the buy for me.

It won’t be for everyone but if it’s not for you then leave it at that and stop making it your daily business to moan constantly into the void online.

@Shad361 that fair. For the ray tracing upscaling is a big plus for me + 2tb nvme . Sold my launch ps5 so isn't quite a hit. Not to mention it's nearly 4 years old do for it's worth it. Suppose it depends on individual circumstances.

@Kalime78 I really don't know what Sony will do. But you do have people even in this very comments thread resigning themselves to playstations being luxury items. That attitude is relevant. The price point for the "premium" model in 2024 is relevant to the price for the more powerful and newer gen model in 20XX.

It is more likely an indication that they learned their lesson from the original PS5 launch.
This time they want to meet customer demand for pre-orders, and I would hope.. post-launch too.

They did sell out. The demand continued, so they manufacture more.

That sounds like good business practice, definitely not indicative of a flop.

Surely this a good thing , we don't wanna see pros going for £1800 on ebay over Xmas, people are only ever happy when they're moaning about something.

@Americansamurai1 I agree with @SilentBluntman. Being able to play Black Myth Wukong at 1440p and between 80 - 90 fps at Very High Preset with Full ray tracing set to Very High setting thanks to DLSS and Frame Gen (with very playable input latency, for that matter) makes the game shine.

AI is a game changer there. Though, one could argue that the fact the game uses Unreal Engine 5.0 makes it heavier than it needs to be, but AI is there to save the day!

Alan Wake 2 averages in the 90-100s (in pretty much every place other than Cauldron Lake) at Max Settings thanks to AI, too!

People will sit there and argue that it's all "fake", but when the final image looks and plays like it's native, who cares?!

On topic: whatever the reason the Pro isn't selling out - whether due to low interest or high manufacturing - it's good that people who want to get one can get one and scalpers aren't sucking them up to rip people off.

@zupertramp gaming is a luxury hobby is it not , most hobbys are to be fair ,a friend of mine spent £1500 on a set of golf clubs,he isn't even that good 😂

A typical non-article.

The whole COVID/Chip shortage/Scalpers has caused some sort of reasoning i don’t understand. Why are we worried when there are actually enough PS5 Pro’s?

Aside from not knowing how many units were available, surely part of the point of Sony doing direct preorders is so they can base retailer supply on the remaining stock?

What Sony don’t sell will go to retailers for people who want to buy the thing when they have money, not everyone has money set aside for short notice pre order dates.

Additionally topping up pre order stock as you go along seems like a good way to make things available to people rather than scalpers.

We don’t need articles for every meme or random hot take. The machine doesn’t launch until mid November, Sony planning their stock allocations isn’t the problem.

Good. Hopefully they don't meet expectations. This practice needs to end. We don't need a "Pro" model in a generation that's STILL catering to last gen! We still have yet to come anywhere close to the base PS5 being maxed out!

@Hypoman because clicks basically

At least the scalpers will have a hard time lining their pockets. Hopefully those individuals intending to make money from the scarcity of the pro end up losing money.

"The price point for the "premium" model in 2024 is relevant to the price for the more powerful and newer gen model in 20XX."

I don't think the price of a premium item determines the price of future mainstream items. What you are saying is that people expect something more powerful with PS6 and less expensive. That of course might prove difficult, because performance has a cost. I do however believe Sony will figure something out to ensure they do not alienate the vast majority of their audience ^_^

@GamingFan4Lyf definitely glad the scalpers won't be able to profit this time. It's a premium product and there for anyone who wants it

I hate to say it but I did say this wouldn't get scalped due to price and target audience and that appears to be the case which is excellent as I intend to pre-order at another retailer next week when they go live rather than use Sony direct

In addition to my previous comment.. the reason they couldn't meet demand for pre and post launch PS5's was a shortage of chips due to covid. Once that was over and supply chains got back to normal, PS5 supply has been able to meet demand.

PS5 Pro has not had the same supply chain issues, so its really not surprising they are manufacturing enough units to meet demand.

Being sold out and not supplying the numbers sold is stupid.
Person 1 - I've sold 80% of my new game, that's 800,000 out of a million.
Person 2 - I've sold out, 100% world wide, Whoopi me.
Person 1 - how many games did you make.
Person 2 - Oh I made a lot of game, I made them in Indian, Japan, Europe and America too.
Person 1 - OK, but how many.
Person 2 - umm, 25000.
Person 1 - That's per country, right ?
Person 2 - No, that's world wide.
Selling out without the numbers mean northing.

@roe thank you for that rarest of commodities, a sane comment

@SilentBluntman : Both Sony and Nintendo are no strangers to scummy sales tactics, as you can't deny Nintendo kept their Switch fake shortages for years when they realized their "precaution strategy" turning into high profits while causing consumer anxiety.

The pleasure we can take from this is that scalpers are going to be out of pocket if they snapped some up hoping to make money.

Let's be honest, Tom Warren should be a professional but he doesn't behave like one. He is a shill with a salaried job.

It’s shows one thing the scalpers don’t want it.
Which is good for gamers.
As for sales, it’s a niche product really.

I have seen online a lot of people canceled their pre order. Not sure how true all that is. I am keeping mine. I really love Pro consoles. Both the PS4 Pro and One X were awesome. Looking forward to the PS5 Pro. That was my birthday gift to myself. Sell my base PS5 and the upgrade will be complete until the next Xbox and PS6 come out. Of course I’ll sell my Switch for a Switch 2 also

Fomo is a culprit to buying patterns

Personally I only see this as a good thing. If anyone decides they want one they may actually have a chance, unlike with the PS5 for about a year after launch.

As for whether it's been a success... until Sony provides actual sales numbers vs units made AND what their expectation were NOBODY else knows. Topics like this are just a mirror for people projecting their own views.

This is such a nonsense debate. Sorry, but it's true. The PS5 Pro has not sold out and that is absolutely 100% bad news for Sony.

Anyone arguing otherwise needs to lift their head up and take a good look around at the state of the games industry and the wider economy - UK or US, same story.

There is a 0% chance Sony made loads of Pro consoles to exceed demand... that's nonsense!

Is it a disaster? No, of course not. Is it bad? Yes, it's a negative thing that will have a negative impact.

GTA6 and a £100 price cut will quickly resolve any problems. If you are price sensitive OR, maybe just don't feel the software is there to justify the Pro(!) then just wait for GTA6. You know it makes sense...!

Have not pre-ordered but will do when it hits retailers. Only reason I have not purchased from PS Direct is that it won't recongise my work address but Amazon for example will...

People just love to see things fail. Everyone was writing off the portal before it even released and now they're doing the same with the Pro!

Oh boy, here we go again. I guess its a weird take, cause we dont know how many sold. Stock(or lack thereof) isnt always a good gauge on how succesful a product is

100% getting one. Even Digital Foundry was impressed. However, I'm waiting until the 2nd or 3rd hardware revision comes out.

Why does everyone always have to have some sort of conspiratorial take on these things? The most obvious explanation is that PS Direct is pulling in batches to match demand. Once one consignment's worth of PS Pro's is completely pre-ordered, they're checking in with the supply chain before adding more availability. They've obviously got a few millions of the things in a warehouse in China somewhere and they're assigning consignments to USA/UK/EU, etc, as the pre-orders come in. I doubt it will ever go off pre-order, but we might see the delivery date get pushed out if those that are built and ready to go sell-through and they're having to rely on the production pipeline.

Someone needs to tell the guys on ebay trying to flog their 'guaranteed ps5 pro pre-orders' for ludicrous money, lol 🤭

@Major_Player Yeah, I am pretty sure they did the same thing for the Wii Fit. At the time of its release, I ran a videogame shop and I was so tired of repeatedly answering the same questions to every other customer that we don't have any in stock and we don't know when we'll have more stock, that I wrote it down on card and cellotaped it to the counter.

@Major_Player it is deniable though, as all evidence shows demand vastly outpaced supply — you can only make so many consoles at a time, and IIRC, they were using a more trusted manufacturer to ensure consistency and quality. You underestimate just how successful the Switch is.

I feel like consoles should be available when they 'launch' if the companies are doing everything right. Especially mid-gen upgrades.

Why do we have to preorder everything we want months ahead of time just to get it on release?

@Major_Player Yep, clearly Nintendo needed to generate "artificial demand" for the console that's about the lap the PS2 in all-time sales in a fraction of the time, lol.

That conspiracy theory was stupid then, and it's still stupid now.

Console warring is the worst

@Ralizah Sony are the new Apple. Everything is now ‘premium’ minus the build quality.

Jesus, ALL Warren said is that the pro might be readily available for Christmas, and people who don't work for Sony or anything are immediately angry for no real reason. Fanboys are so weird.

Why is this casual point of view even considered so relevant that it merits making article headlines ?
The situation can very easily change tomorrow or next week...
Nothing better worth reporting on right now ?

@Cambrius they're still trying to flog the regular Pro's for anything from £899 upwards, bless them.

I've trolled a few, it's fun. Message and ask them if they'll take an offer close to their price. They'll reply in seconds and try to bite your hand off. Then you say 'nah it's ok just found out they are available at RRP via Sony and the big retailers will have loads and loads more next week.'

One even offered me one for £700 'as a special price offer'. Good to see them struggling!

What on earth. Anyone who knows anything about last gen knows it was a 80/20 ratio in favour of standard ps4/Pro. It’s not going to be any different this time around. 👍 get a job or something else to do. The enthusiasts like me will buy one and that’s what they are aiming for im sure

I'm more surprised that Sony hasn't released PlayStation five pro covers yet.

Who really cares? I pre-ordered one, but I get that $700 does not sit right with a lot of gamers. That's why they are still available.

I'd rather it not sell out because if it does, it means:
A) Sony cannot keep up with demand, which is bad for business and consumers
B) Scalpers will have more power.

@SilentBluntman MMM... Nope....it was highly reported that Nintendo created the Switch shortages as a way to control their yearly profits.... something we already saw Sony doing by creating just 12,000 PS5 Pro limited editions for the ENTIRE world.

If that's not causing consumer anxiety then you don't know the meaning of the word.

No matter how you try and twist this...the fact is... if you can still order 1 the demand is not high. This mid gen console never felt right, like they spiked the ps5 just to sell this over priced upgrade

Not available for sale doesn't mean 'sold out'.

You couldn't add them to cart on PS Direct UK for two hours late Thursday afternoon/early evening that happened to coincide with the US anniversary preorders going live. They may have just wanted to let their worldwide payment servers catch up after the earlier frenzy/whilst US side was still in full swing, and put sales on pause.

Even if they did, and it's the case that the first batch "sold out", the fact that they've been continuously on sale for 72 hours now can absolutely be taken to mean demand is simply not there for this £700 machine.

@Ralizah : It's not a conspiracy when it's a well known fact, Nintendo's plan worked flawlessly outselling absolutely everyone.

@mountain_spider They're the same covers as on the current standard (but not launch) PS5s, the ones with the single stripe down the middle.

@Neither_scene Scalpers, at least here, have found a way for now - the disc drives :/

Anything could sell out quickly if there is more demand than stock but as we have no idea how much 'stock' is allocated for each region, no-one knows whether its selling out (or not) because of stock or demand.

What I mean is that if Sony only makes 50 units for the UK market (before launch), and 100 people want to buy it, it will sell out but if they allocated 1000 units but only 500 'pre-order', it would look like its not that popular with multiple stores likely having stock and still taking pre-orders - but in reality, its actually more popular than the first scenario (50 units but 100 people trying to buy) as it has 5x the number of people trying to buy. This is only meant to illustrate the situation - more demand than stock vs more stock than demand.

We don't know whether Sony are drip feeding 'stock' so demand seems high (if pre-orders are selling out). If they don't have many in stock or won't have by release, then it doesn't take much 'demand' to sell out. Only 50 units mean that if 60+ want to buy, it will sell out but with 2000units, if only 1500 want to buy, they'll still have 500 in stock to accept more orders.

We really don't know whether selling out is down to low stock or very high demand - just like you can't say not selling out is a 'bad' sign - it maybe they were able to manufacture enough stock to meet the demand - expect to get 2m pre-orders but only sell 1.95m - it won't 'sell out'.

@nessisonett It's a really jarring shift away from the down to earth and accessible vibe of early Playstation. Heck, from early-mid PS4, even.

I desperately want a modern equivalent to the "we want people to work more hours to buy PS3" line that almost sank the brand back then, lol.

Although it wouldn't now without real competition in the same space.

@Major_Player If it's a well-known fact, you have a source for that assertion, right?

I was one click away from pre-ordering mine, but decided against it in the end because it didn't have a disk drive. I will hold out for now and see if Sony release pro version with one installed.

@mountain_spider @StrickenBiged
I may be wrong, or more accurately what I read was wrong, but I know i read somewhere the covers were different sizes. (I think it had to do with the Pro coming with a disk drive cover).

@Rich33 @StrickenBiged yeah I read the exact same thing too that the pro model is taller, but it has the slimness of the slim model which means that the disc drive portion would work, but the back and the top cover would be different height.

@Oram77
Very unlikely - im pretty sure all Sony consoles going forward will be without drives, but with add on drives available seperately. You may well get an offer of console + seperate drive for £xx off the total though, particularly from somewhere like game in the uk (providing drive stock has returned to normal).

Did psvr2 sell out when it was first available for pre order? I ordered one, and don’t remember having any difficulty. (I did return it for a full refund a few days later). That sold pretty well at launch and obviously then fell away massively. I wonder if the pro will follow the same trajectory? I don’t see it being difficult to buy at Christmas tbh

@mountain_spider
The black centre strip is wider but i cant see that being enough - i could be wrong here again. Sadly we just dont have a lot of info from Sony atm.

I'm glad it's not selling out, simply for the fact that scalpers will have to go get a real job instead of being able to victimize people with it. So in that sense, I see it as a good thing.

@tangyzesty I think the term scalper is offensive to native Indians they would never do this.

@Shalooda I would never consider gaming and golf anywhere near each other in terms of their affordability and accessibility to the every day consumer to be honest. I mean I get that some regular joes buy golf clubs but at the end of the day it's an extremely elitist sport. Never saw gaming to be that way. I grew up in a trailer house and still had a Nintendo. There definitely wasn't any golfing going on however.

But really my point was just trying to get others to see why people who didn't plan on getting this console might still care how it sells. Wasn't really my intention to get into a debate as to whether this is luxury or not. It's kinda all relative anyway.

You mean Sony isn't doing a Nintendo trick by intentionally releasing low stock products to create a 'fake' buzz?
I don't think there are a ton of people racing out to buy a $700 'upgrade'. If this was the original release of the PS5, I'm sure there'd be a lot more demand.

This is how it should be. Things shouldn't be sold out like the PS5 was for so long.

@mountain_spider I think it's the three stripes on the Pro and the single stripe on the Standard that allow for the small difference in height, while the panels stay the same size.

@mountain_spider @StrickenBiged
Ok, so i was interested so had a quick look about. Apparently:

Tech Radar (I havent seen the article just mentions of it) reported that the slim covers fit the pro, with the wider centre strip covering the size difference.

Sony support have told at least a couple of people who have posted on reddit the covers do not match.

So b#####ed if i know!

@Rich33 I wouldn't put it past Sony to have a whole new set of covers for the Pro to sell you - gotta make that dollar dollar after all. We'll know soon enough!

@Major_Player Nintendo Switch sales numbers wouldn't be what they are if Nintendo did self-induced shortages to make it look popular and drum up demand. Sometimes, and I know this may shock some people, but sometimes things sell out because they actually are popular.

@roe It's mad how mad it is to read a reasonable comment. Thanks for restoring some faith.

I'm pleased to hear that, cause I'll only be able to preorder on October 10th, at my local shop.

And I do not want to be told on that day "Sorry, we don't have any stock for you".

So, good.

It seems the scalpers just got rad about the anniversary model, and let the normal one for us regular buyers.

@Major_Player evidence? Because Nintendo were competing with phone manufacturers and such for LCD screens, too. Your view on this is so heavily biased that I doubt the truth matters to you.

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