Sony PS5 buyers and owners (1 Viewer)

[TJPC]

 

[Morgan Jolley]

PS4 supports 3D movies, FWIW.

 

[Bryan^H]

The choice to only sell online was due to COVID. Remember, around 2000 people are dying every day from it and Sony doesn't want lines of people in front of stores overnight or people rushing into stores for their console during a pandemic.

I don't remember any announcement for store stock for PS4 when it launched. It was simply when they arrived at a retailer they were put on the shelf, and if you were lucky you had a chance to buy one. Buying a PS5 in a retail store would be no different than buying a pair of socks during the pandemic. Masks are still required to shop, and social distancing is still in effect.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Bryan - asking retail employees to maintain order, social distancing, and mask compliance while people are rushing to the electronics section to fight over PlayStation consoles is asking a bit much of someone who is barely clearing minimum wage. The pandemic excuse is what Sony said motivated their reasoning.

I think the plan to exclusively sell online was fine, but the implementation that allowed for so many bots was a problem. But really, the resale scalper market is always a problem at console launches. I remember it being a problem when the N64 came out.

 

[Edwin-S]

Bryan - asking retail employees to maintain order, social distancing, and mask compliance while people are rushing to the electronics section to fight over PlayStation consoles is asking a bit much of someone who is barely clearing minimum wage. The pandemic excuse is what Sony said motivated their reasoning.

I think the plan to exclusively sell online was fine, but the implementation that allowed for so many bots was a problem. But really, the resale scalper market is always a problem at console launches. I remember it being a problem when the N64 came out.

I can see their point after reading a news article about all of the clods that crowded a mall in Calgary for a Black Friday sale. Apparently, fights were breaking out and they had to call the Cops. I don't know if the fights were over people being asked to wear masks or a cheap pair of shoes. I shouldn't be surprised by the stupidity of the human species, but I still am.

 

[Bryan^H]

Bryan - asking retail employees to maintain order, social distancing, and mask compliance while people are rushing to the electronics section to fight over PlayStation consoles is asking a bit much of someone who is barely clearing minimum wage. The pandemic excuse is what Sony said motivated their reasoning.

I think the plan to exclusively sell online was fine, but the implementation that allowed for so many bots was a problem. But really, the resale scalper market is always a problem at console launches. I remember it being a problem when the N64 came out.

If online sites had a fair system to buy the PS5 consoles I would have been absolutely fine with the decision from Sony. But Sony should have known about the extreme high demand (especially online).

Having the console erased from peoples orders in the third step of purchasing (delivery options) is absurd, and cruel. It happened at Best Buy, and Wal-Mart mainly. I had the pleasure of experiencing that little slice of heaven three times. I'm glad you got yours, but you are indeed one of the very lucky ones.
And Sony boasting of their sales #'s rubs me the wrong way.

"We want to thank gamers everywhere for making the PS5 launch our biggest console launch ever. Demand for PS5 is unprecedented, so we wanted to confirm that more PS5 inventory will be coming to retailers before the end of the year - please stay in touch with your local retailers "


Yes, they are selling out instantly, but with so many going to scalpers, and the real gamers end up paying more than double the price to obtain one from E-Bay, I'm sure they are a bit sour on Sony also.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Honestly, I'm really curious how many PS5s ended up being snatched up by scalpers. 1% of sales? 10%?

The most disappointing mistake I made with the PS5 was not buying it through the Sony website when they opened it up for PSN members to preorder. It seemed like an unnecessary option at the time but ended up being the best one.

It's also interesting to see how little flack Microsoft is getting for the Xbox Series S/X launch, despite Microsoft having fewer of their consoles to go around and them being available less frequently.

 

[Bryan^H]

Honestly, I'm really curious how many PS5s ended up being snatched up by scalpers. 1% of sales? 10%?

I don't even know how you can gauge that. My 17 year old nephew said his best friend bought two of them (he had pre-orders in two places in case one fell through) but ended up getting both of them, and then seeing what they were going for online sold them, and made $1K. So even people that aren't typical re-sellers/ scalpers may end up selling them for good profit.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

I don't remember any announcement for store stock for PS4 when it launched. It was simply when they arrived at a retailer they were put on the shelf, and if you were lucky you had a chance to buy one. Buying a PS5 in a retail store would be no different than buying a pair of socks during the pandemic. Masks are still required to shop, and social distancing is still in effect.

Well the main difference there is that people don't line up for hours before hand and then swarm the clothing department to buy a pair of socks.

I would say that people who pre-ordered are the main ones who got their consoles, and that probably 90% of the ones on actual release day went to scalper bots. But even then the pre-order system was hosed and they all went up for order and sold out the night before Sony even said they would be up for order. So if you weren't tuned in to the twitters and such, you would have missed out.

 

[Bryan^H]

Well the main difference there is that people don't line up for hours before hand and then swarm the clothing department to buy a pair of socks.

Like I said with the rules of social distancing, and required masks in stores I don't see how it would be any different than the launch of the PS4. Especially with most of the stock being put out on a surprise basis. If a store puts out a time and date for when they are restocking the consoles in an AD...well, that is stupid, and completely on them. They will sell out regardless with or without an AD.

I never saw one line form for the PS4 when I was out hunting for one at launch.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

While the big issue for the online sales was bots, who says the issue of scalpers wouldn't still be an issue with in-store sales? I remember for the PS4 and a lot of big Black Friday deals, stores would hand out tickets the night before to whoever was in line so that those people were gauranteed their item, didn't have to rush the store or fight, and could even go home instead of camping out. If they did something similar with the PS5 then that would certainly be better than a free-for-all, but that doesn't mean it eliminates the issue of scalpers.

The Sony website route was great because it required people to have an active PSN account to preorder, which most likely minimized the re-sale situation. But the only way to completely eliminate scalpers is to just have tens of millions of consoles available at launch. Considering Sony had more PS5s available and sold at launch than any console before...I'm not sure what more they could have realistically done.

 

[John_Bilbrey]

I somehow missed the pre-order window for PSN members. I signed up, but never got a notification that I was eligible to pre-order. That being said, I was burned at WM online sales multiple times, and gave up. My local GameStop had (2) consoles available. I'll get one at some point, but right now I'm done wasting time trying to score one.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Man the PS5 is just awful as a UHD movie player. Not only is their 'official' media remote missing the stop, chapter forward and back buttons, but it's completely unable to do HDR in my situation.

I am using a projector that can only do HDR for frame rates of 30hz or less. Not a problem at all for my standalone uhd player because it's does 24hz, and enables HDR just fine.

However, while the PS5 does output 24hz while watching a movie, the actual settings part where you turn HDR on and off runs at 60+Hz. So when I'm trying to enable HDR, it detects that I'm running in over 30hz and says it's unsupported so I can't turn HDR on. When watching the movie at 24Hz, there's no way to access this system menu to get it to turn HDR on when it's actually supported.

Just trash. Why Sony dropped the ball so hard with the PS4 and PS5 as a media player after the stellar PS3 I have no idea.

 

[MattBradley]

I wonder if that's something they can fix with an update?

 

[Ruz-El]

Man the PS5 is just awful as a UHD movie player. Not only is their 'official' media remote missing the stop, chapter forward and back buttons, but it's completely unable to do HDR in my situation.

I am using a projector that can only do HDR for frame rates of 30hz or less. Not a problem at all for my standalone uhd player because it's does 24hz, and enables HDR just fine.

However, while the PS5 does output 24hz while watching a movie, the actual settings part where you turn HDR on and off runs at 60+Hz. So when I'm trying to enable HDR, it detects that I'm running in over 30hz and says it's unsupported so I can't turn HDR on. When watching the movie at 24Hz, there's no way to access this system menu to get it to turn HDR on when it's actually supported.

Just trash. Why Sony dropped the ball so hard with the PS4 and PS5 as a media player after the stellar PS3 I have no idea.

Maybe I won't need to get a ps5 after all. Maybe the PS6 will be a better media player lol.

 

[Edwin-S]

It sounds like I may just be able to go with the cheaper digital only version when it becomes available, since I have only been buying digital downloads of games for some time now. The only reason to opt for the 4K player version was for movies. Seems like SONY has handicapped the PS5 in that department.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Man the PS5 is just awful as a UHD movie player. Not only is their 'official' media remote missing the stop, chapter forward and back buttons, but it's completely unable to do HDR in my situation.

I am using a projector that can only do HDR for frame rates of 30hz or less. Not a problem at all for my standalone uhd player because it's does 24hz, and enables HDR just fine.

However, while the PS5 does output 24hz while watching a movie, the actual settings part where you turn HDR on and off runs at 60+Hz. So when I'm trying to enable HDR, it detects that I'm running in over 30hz and says it's unsupported so I can't turn HDR on. When watching the movie at 24Hz, there's no way to access this system menu to get it to turn HDR on when it's actually supported.

Just trash. Why Sony dropped the ball so hard with the PS4 and PS5 as a media player after the stellar PS3 I have no idea.

This sounds really bizarre, like there should be some way to manually change the setting to be what you need. The PS5 should even say that it's supporting HDR at a variety of framerates, including 24 Hz.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

I wonder if that's something they can fix with an update?

I would certainly assume so. The standalone player does it just fine, so there should be absolutely no reason why this can't.

This sounds really bizarre, like there should be some way to manually change the setting to be what you need. The PS5 should even say that it's supporting HDR at a variety of framerates, including 24 Hz.

If there is a way, I have no idea how to do it. The current place where you enable HDR is the system menu, in the display options. This menu runs at 60+hz, and when I click 'Turn on HDR' it pops up a warning saying "your display does not support HDR at 4k at this frame rate" (which is true). "If you continue to enable HDR, your resolution will be set to 1080p". If I select yes, it starts outputting 1080p only with HDR on. If I say no, then it stays at 4k, but forces HDR to be off. Those are my only two options.

When I put in a disc and start playing it and it's actually outputting 24hz, that system menu where you set the display options is completely inaccessible. The only way to get to it is to exit out of the media player, and I'm back at square one. Completely lame.

 

[Steve Y]

When I put in a disc and start playing it and it's actually outputting 24hz, that system menu where you set the display options is completely inaccessible. The only way to get to it is to exit out of the media player, and I'm back at square one. Completely lame.

I see the conundrum there. Unfortunately, many people have been having issues with 4K/HDR on the PS5. I hope they patch the system settings to let people have more control over output, because AFAIK there aren't any hardware limitations preventing this from being possible.

 

[Sam Posten]

Our long world wide disaster is finally over.

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