Gaming consoles are slowly dying out

In a global pandemic, shipping out the console the world has been waiting for in the kind of numbers that would satisfy demand was never going to be a straightforward task.

This being the case, perhaps some people were happy to forgive Sony to some extent when it began to run into problems meeting deadlines with its brand new PS5. But this is a tale that has gone from the odd minor misfortune to a full-blown shambles. In fact, some observers are saying the gaming giant has “completely bungled” the PS5 pre-order launch. It’s some eight years since the fourth iteration of the PlayStation was released, and the PS4 has certainly stood the test of time quite smartly.

But eight years is still eight years and gamers have been itching for the new version for some time. By the way, the day inked into diaries for the big launch was 12 November 2020 in the US, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, and 19 November everywhere else. Crucially, the 12 November is two days AFTER the scheduled launch of the Xbox X — and there’s going to be a fierce battle between Nintendo and Sony all the way to a Christmas in which parents are going to be feeling considerably less flush than they have in a long time.

When it was finally in the position to go ahead with the launch, Sony assured fans that it would give plenty of notice ahead of pre-orders going live. In reality, it offered a measly 12 hours or so for interested retailers and customers to get their orders sorted, and it did this with a single tweet instead of a synchronized all-channels announcement that would have been the more obvious way to build excitement.

Perhaps there was a method behind this tactic. Was Sony deliberately plotting a soft launch? Whatever it was thinking, it didn’t work. Numerous retailers jumped the gun and launched pre-orders early, triggering a massive free-for-all as millions scrambled to secure a PS5 for launch day. It sold out in a matter of hours.

As the dust settled, some of those lucky enough to have landed a confirmed pre-order began receiving emails from the likes of Amazon warning of potential delays. The retailer says it cannot guarantee the console will arrive on day one for all. So even if you did manage to get on the pre-order list, you won’t necessarily be getting your PS5 on official launch day. But there’s no good news in sight, only further delays, and uncertainty.

Sony reportedly began advising European retailers of their launch day allocations, prompting many, such as ShopTo in the UK, to follow Amazon’s lead and inform swathes of customers that they won’t be receiving their PS5 pre-orders on release day. In Ireland, GameStop emailed some customers with the disappointing news that pre-orders won’t be fulfilled until next year, citing ‘circumstances out of our control.’

Waiting until 2021 renders the whole point of pre-ordering obsolete, something that won’t be lost on many recipients of GameStop’s warning.

At SuperOne, we can’t help but feel the golden age of console gaming is drawing to a close. Many of us grew up with consoles like Atari, Vectrex (a bit niche, that one), and of course Sega. Xbox and the various PlayStations have bombed all the other brands and are beginning to hit difficult pain points in terms of their cost being a real barrier to purchase.

Many teenagers are preferring to build their own gaming systems from scratch with computing parts and graphics cards bought off eBay. And of course, the mobile phone is fulfilling many of the gaming needs of people from all generations.

This is why SuperOne is comfortable with concentrating on the mobile gaming space. The community knows that people will never give up on their attachment to their phones, while the prospect of claiming big cash prizes is too tempting for many to resist.

Consoles, on the other hand, may have gone as far as they can already.

SuperOne — Welcome to the future today!