There was a ton of hype and anticipation for the video game industry this year. We knew before 2020 that this would be the year that both Microsoft and Sony would bring out their next-generation video game consoles. Unfortunately, what we didn’t anticipate was a worldwide health pandemic outbreak. We’re forced into socially distancing ourselves from one another and it’s caused markets to quarantine. Despite all this, both Microsoft and Sony were able to meet the release dates for their video game consoles.
Of course, every video game console launch is a bit difficult for consumers. There is the hype of the next-generation consoles and that can lead to an influx of consumers purchasing the hardware at launch. However, this year was incredibly difficult as most retailers forced consumers to purchase consoles online. This along with the fact that we’re in the holiday season and during a time where we’re quarantining, consumers are starved for entertainment. As you can have guessed, picking up a new console is nearly impossible.
This also has to do with resellers that purchase stock up and flip online. While there are several different aspects to why a console is struggling to stay in stock, those that pre-ordered units to secure a console at launch have found their orders missing or simply shipped with the wrong item. For instance, we found several reports online from consumers ordering through Amazon UK which secured nothing but random items in their package instead of the PlayStation 5.
Now it looks like Amazon UK is trying to make things right by pre-ordering another PlayStation 5 console. Amazon UK has since refunded those affected by this launch fiasco. In a new email that has gone out by Amazon, consumers that were refunded can secure another pre-order for the console which would charge the card tied to your account once again. Of course, this is something that would at least, in theory, secure another unit to your account, but there’s no telling if we’ll see the same issue pop up once again from the online retailer.
