Amazon PS5 restock was a complete mess — and Sony Direct was even worse

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PS5 restocks still aren't running smoothly even after a year

PS5 restock
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

This week Amazon held its second PS5 restock of the month, and it did not go well. A reasonable handful of customers did manage to come away having secured a PS5, but the majority of shoppers came away empty-handed. 

You don’t need to search far on social media to find a tidal wave of irritated posts — many of which are too full of expletives for us to share. The common theme is a feeling of frustration that once again many people wasted their morning trying and failing to buy a PS5.  

It was assumed this Amazon restock would run a little bit smoother as it was the first Amazon U.S. drop that was exclusively open to Prime members. However, once again customers trying to buy a console were greeted with error messages, website crashes and the all too familiar “failed to add this item to cart” popup. The whole thing was a complete mess. 

Not to be outdone, Sony Direct held its own PS5 restock later that same day which somehow managed to be more of a fiasco. The drop was originally promoted as invite-only, but after the email invite system seemed to fail the order queue was opened to the general public. After people without invites began flooding the site, the queue switched back to being open only for people with an invitation. 

This naturally created a huge amount of confusion and lead to even more vented frustration on social media. It didn’t help matters that Sony Direct was also telling customers who had received an invitation that they didn't have an invite whenever they tried to check out. If the Amazon PS5 restock had been bad, this one managed to be even worse. 

PS5 restocks: Surely, it doesn’t have to be this way?  

The first wave of PS5 preorders opened just over a year ago. That means the console has been on sale for twelve whole months at this point, and yet PS5 restocks are still a complete nightmare to navigate. 

In fairness to Sony, Amazon and other major retailers, when demand outstrips supply to this degree there will always be issues and satisfying everyone just isn’t possible. However, after a full year of restocks that excuse is starting to hold less water. 

Retailers have now had time to employ reliable systems that allow people to buy a PS5 when stock is available without needing to jump through so many hoops. We’ve seen retailers in the U.K. such as Currys PC World use a lottery system. 

These do involve a degree of luck but at least if you’re chosen you can check out without hassle or the need to refreshing a retail listing several hundred times beforehand. One of our staff writers even managed to buy his PS5 this way. 

At this point, any retailer that is still allowing its PS5 restocks to descending into complete shambles really doesn’t have any excuse. Unfortunately, as the holiday season approaches buying a PS5 will only get tougher so expect these issues to persist for a while yet. 

If you’re still willing to play the PS5 restock game, then make sure to bookmark PS5 restock hub. We can’t guarantee it will get you a console, but it’ll certainly make the task of securing a PS5 that little bit easier. 

PS5 restock tracker — stores to check

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Rory Mellon
Rory Mellon
Entertainment Editor (UK)

Rory is an Entertainment Editor at Tom’s Guide based in the UK. He covers a wide range of topics but with a particular focus on gaming and streaming. When he’s not reviewing the latest games, searching for hidden gems on Netflix, or writing hot takes on new gaming hardware, TV shows and movies, he can be found attending music festivals and getting far too emotionally invested in his favorite football team.