PlayStation 5 pre-orders haven’t gone smoothly for most people so far with supplies going out of stock pretty much as soon as they’re available, but some people will soon have their best chance yet at getting a PlayStation 5 or a PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. PlayStation Direct will open its invite-only pre-orders at 10 a.m. PT on September 18th, so if you haven’t been checking your email lately to see if you got one of the golden tickets, now is the time to check.
The PlayStation Direct store itself is the marketplace that Sony launched around a year ago that allowed people to purchase PlayStation games and hardware from Sony for the first time. A few weeks ago, Sony opened up a registration page via PlayStation Direct where people could register with their PSN IDs for the chance at a PlayStation 5. Invites would be sent out, and if you were one of the ones picked, you’d get an opportunity to purchase a console before the rush of people without invites flooded the store.
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Getting these invites isn’t a guarantee that you’ll get a PlayStation 5 though. Sony warned that the supplies will be limited, so you’ll still have to move quickly to get the consoles. Some other restrictions like the limiting of one console per person and the invite-only system in place will hopefully prevent the stock from being depleted immediately by resellers, but past pre-orders for PlayStation 5 consoles haven’t inspired much confidence in the process.
It’s unclear exactly how many invites went out and how many consoles will be available for people to pre-order once the invite stage is over. Sony’s FAQ for the process already has answers for questions about what will happen if an invite holder sees “sold out” when they’re trying to buy, so it looks like this wave of PlayStation 5 pre-orders will follow the trend of the others and sell out pretty quickly.
For those wondering why they weren’t picked for an invite, Sony has a sort-of answer for that as well. The choosing of who got invites and who didn’t was “based on previous interests and PlayStation activities,” Sony said, which doesn’t tell much but essentially suggests that if you’re active on your PlayStation 4 and in various PlayStation services often, you probably got an invite.
These invites have expirations attached to them, so on the off chance that supplies stick around, you’ll want to act on your invite before it’s useless. Pre-orders go live at 10 a.m. PT through PlayStation Direct, so check your emails and spam folders to see if you’re eligible.
