PS5 restock cancelled in Japan after chaos and violence

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PS5 restocks are getting intense in Japan

PS5 restocks Japan
(Image credit: @gttae63/Twitter)

There was PS5 pandemonium at a Japanese electronics retailer this past weekend, so much so a restock had to be cancelled and the authorities called. 

At the Yodobashi Camera store in the Akihabara district in Tokyo, people were fighting through crowds — social distancing be damned — in an attempt to procure a coveted PS5  console. Clearly finding where to buy the PS5 is a challenge across the globe. 

According to Push Square, the Akihabara branch of Yodobashi Camera doesn't require buyers to use its black credit card, designed to prevent scalpers from buying up hardware. But the store did give out tickets to those in line on a first-come-first-serve basis. Clearly, that didn't work. 

At the moment, the PS5 launch in Japan was the smallest for a PlayStation console, minus the PSP. And it's not for lack of demand.

It seems that Sony is prioritizing other markets ahead of its home one, causing much frustration for Japanese gamers. Given that the Japanese market is smaller than other territories, Sony has shifted its focus to the American market, per a report by Bloomberg. 

CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, has fought back against these claims, saying the "commentary is inaccurate" and that "we have not been as excited about the engagement of the Japanese game development community as we are now for many years," when speaking to Edge Magazine.

The demand simply cannot be satiated due to manufacturing gaps caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. AMD CEO Lisa Su said there's going to be "tightness" for the foreseeable future as it cannot make enough chips. 

AMD's inability to manufacture parts could go down to other areas in the supply chain that have been hindered by the pandemic. The trade war between the U.S. and China has not made things any easier. 

In short, it looks like it'll be sometime before PS5 stock is at a level where retailers don't sell out in mere moments. Of course, you could always try and find where to buy an Xbox Series X instead. 

Imad Khan
Imad Khan

Imad is currently Senior Google and Internet Culture reporter for CNET, but until recently was News Editor at Tom's Guide. Hailing from Texas, Imad started his journalism career in 2013 and has amassed bylines with the New York Times, the Washington Post, ESPN, Wired and Men's Health Magazine, among others. Outside of work, you can find him sitting blankly in front of a Word document trying desperately to write the first pages of a new book.

1 Comment Comment from the forums
  • AngryChainsaw
    How Tom's Guide journalist said in the last article about #PS5 restocking and PS5 equivalent value for the same specs PC (around 1500€), but that's not correct because PS5 is not possible to find beneath the 1000€ in my country, for digital edition, and 1100€ for standard PS5 edition, but many gaming journalists and influence YouTuber's do not mention the fact that 4K TV with HFR (120Hz) is a rarity in every household and only 1% may have this PS5 TV's of the whole gaming scene worldwide, and in total that's only only 0.01% population worldwide who was bought LG OLED C9, CX, Samsung QLED (if we take out movie fans and movie fans as well as big fans of IT and HiFi technology) and that 'PS5 fine work TV' s' cheapest 4K TV with HFR, VRR, VRS, ALLM and other gaming functions costs a minimum of 1500€ (e.g. LG OLED B9PLA 55"), which brings us to the amount of 2000€, without any gadgets, without any gaming subscription, without any PS5 games - this provided that we can find our copy of the console at MSRP price, and for 2000€, plus PS+ subscription and PS5 gadgets, as well as an additional 'external ultra speed SSD for PS5 with 2Tb free space - almost reaches 2600-2700€ without' new wireless PSVR 2, plus PS+ subscription and the rest of the PS5 gadgets (PS5 camera which are not included in the PSVR set, PS5 headset, PS5 remote etc., as well as an additional external USB 3.1 HDD for the storage of PS4 games = brings us to the (finally next gen console gaming full setup) to 3000€ to 4500€ depending on the size of the external SSD for PS5, as well as the brand of new 4K HFR TV model's for 'next gen' which loyal console gamers choose by their will and their financial possibilities; that's all provided that we can buy HIGH GAMING PC,
    if we look at it MSRP price that will be something like
    new gaming PC (CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 5800 with Cooler Master Liquid ML360R 3x120 or NZXT X73 CPU AiO Cooler , MoBo: ASUS ROG STRIX X570 or Gigabyte Aourus X570 Prime or AsRock Taichi X570 , GPU: RTX3070, or RTX3060Ti, or RX6800XT by ASUS, MSI or EVGA, RAM: 2x16Gb G SKILL TRIDENT Z NEO 3600MHZ or Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 3600MHZ 2x16Gb etc., STORAGE: 1Tb nVME SSD SAMSUNG 970 plus 4Tb of HDD like Seagate or Toshiba or WD, PSU: ASUS ROG 850W GOLD or Corsair 1000W full modular, CASE: ASUS TUF GAMING GT501 and, of course, MONITOR 4K, 144Hz, 27", or 32" 2K with 144Hz or even 200Hz - for same amount - of course everything at MSRP prices), so it's too much and pointless to compare these two things because everyone who's been in the PS ecosystem for a long time, lika I was been, They know very well what SONY did to us by releasing at the end of 2017th the 'stronger' PS4PRO console, like as PSVR bundle set and all other stupid things, like PS movement from PS3 Era, only change the stickers on it, and similar PS accessories, such as PS PLATINUM HEADSET, PS CAM V2, better DS4 from some third party manufacturer like Nacon or Razer etc.

    Of course: CONSOLE GAMING is just casual gaming and nothing more... Isn't it? We have the next gen console?

    So why does 80% of triple A games still work in useless 30fps and we have only 750Gb storage for next gen gaming install?!
    Reply