Sony has opened its PlayStation Direct site to several European countries, allowing customers to buy a PlayStation 5 straight from the manufacturer.
The PS5 launched in November 2020, but thanks to a mixture of high demand – exacerbated by the COVID pandemic giving many people the need for stay-at-home entertainment – and a shortage of components in the global technology supply chain, many would-be owners have been unable to source a console. In October 2021, Sony opened up direct sales, though initially only to customers based in the US.
The direct purchase scheme has been expanded to buyers based in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. However, it’s not as simple as loading up your online shopping cart and hitting ‘buy’ – as with the initial American rollout, the opportunity to purchase will be operating on something of a lottery system.
Buyers can register on Sony’s official site for “an opportunity to purchase a PS5 console from PlayStation”. Sony notes it “will have a limited amount of PS5 Consoles available for customers to purchase direct”, and “if selected, we will contact you via email with instructions and details”.
The manufacturer also notes that hopeful buyers should ensure their email address “is the one associated with your PSN ID and that you are opted in to receive PlayStation emails”. It also states in the FAQs that even if selected, the “purchase window is open for a limited time only and while supplies last”.
Still, given the PS5 remains in high demand, is subject to repeated stock shortages, and is all too often sold at vastly inflated prices by scalpers, a shot at buying directly from Sony is probably better than none at all.
Other manufacturers in the gaming and technology industries, such as NVIDIA, expect supply issues to ease later in 2022. While much of that discussion has focused on graphics cards, fingers crossed, wider supply chain improvements will mean new-gen consoles such as PS5 will also become easier to source as the year goes by.
