Back in early December PlayStation Japan announced that the PS5 long-term supply issues were resolved. Or at least they were in a number of Asian countries, with consoles heading out ready for the end-of-year shopping season. Now Sony has declared that those supply issues have been resolved everywhere else.
This news comes straight from CES 2023, with Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan confirming the news during Sony’s CES presentation. “Everyone who wants a PS5 should have a much easier time finding one at retailers globally” Ryan said, “starting from this point forward”.
Ryan thanked gamers for their patience as Sony “managed unprecedented demand amid global challenges over the past two years.” Patience would be putting it lightly, though. A combination of supply constraints and massive amounts of scalping meant the PS5 was nearly-impossible to buy for a very long time.
Things have been easier over the past several months, with PS5 restocks selling out in hours rather than minutes, but the process of buying the console has been… challenging, to say the very least. Stock trackers proved to be invaluable for those refusing to pay outrageous aftermarket prices, but it still took a lot of time, effort and luck to get a PS5 of your very own.
Whether you’ll be able to see the results right away is another matter entirely. GameStop, Best Buy Walmart and Amazon appear to have various versions of the console available, both online and in-store at the time of writing.
Though it is worth noting that the God of War Ragnarök bundle seems to be more readily available than the standalone consoles. You can find a full list of retailers offering the PS5 over on our PS5 restock tracker page.
While that may not be ideal, it’s a significantly better situation than the early days of the PS5’s release. Back then if you couldn’t grab a console within a second or two, chances are you weren’t going to get one.
This news couldn’t come at a better time either. The PS VR2 is set to launch on February 22, and the headset would be absolutely worthless without a console to connect it to. Here’s just hoping that the PS VR2 stock situation plays out a little differently to the PS5 itself.
The last thing we need is another two years of restock tracking, just to get hold of the latest hardware. Fortunately PS VR2 pre-orders are still open, and you no longer need an invite to reserve a headset for yourself. Whether this is down to Sony’s efforts to satisfy demand, or the fact far fewer people are interested in the headset, isn’t clear.
Of course the PS VR 2 looks to be a major improvement over the original PS VR, complete with a new design, more powerful hardware, a slimmed-down cable and controller that aren’t glorified glow sticks with a few buttons. Sony also confirmed there will be 30 launch titles during its CES presentation, which includes a free VR-centric update to Gran Turismo 7.
But for those of you that have held off on buying a PS5 for whatever reason, now might be the time to finally head out and pick one up for yourself. Assuming, of course, you're not waiting in the hopes that a PS5 slim or PS5 Pro gets announced in the near future.
