Sony is making an attempt to combat scalpers with a new method of selling its 30th Anniversary PS5 Pro bundle. This past week, pre-orders for PlayStation’s slew of 30th Anniversary items went live across North America and Europe and resulted in a chaotic mess, to say the least. Not only was the purchasing process confusing, but most of the 30th Anniversary Collection had sold out on PlayStation Direct before fans were ever able to attempt buying anything. Now, with sales beginning in Japan, Sony is trying to limit who can obtain the PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary bundle just a bit.
Reported first by Automaton, a message on the Japanese PlayStation website has revealed that Sony is doing pre-orders for the PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary console differently in its home nation. Rather than opening up pre-orders to anyone and everyone, Sony has placed conditions on this sale that any potential buyers have to have an active PlayStation Network account that has seen at least 30 hours of activity across PS5 and PS4 consoles from February 2014 to September 2024. While this might not seem like a very high bar to clear, it’s a way for Sony to ensure that those who acquire the 30th Anniversary PS5 Pro are actual PlayStation fans, rather than someone who wants the hardware for no other reason than to sell it.
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Sony also notes on the page that it will be doing the pre-order process for the PS5 Pro in Japan much differently than what was seen in the West. Rather than having potential buyers all hop on the PS Direct website at a single time to wait in a virtual line, Sony will be taking open orders for the PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary bundle from anyone who wants it. If these orders then exceed the number of units that Sony is selling (which will almost certainly happen), it will then use a raffle system to determine who gets their purchase fulfilled. There’s still a major element of randomness to this, but it’s almost certainly a better process than before.
How do you feel about these changes that Sony made when selling its PlayStation 30th Anniversary items in Japan? And do you wish that these same restrictions would have been made in other regions? Let me know your own thoughts over on social media at @MooreMan12.
