Absolute failure! It’s now May 2021 and the PlayStation 5 is still not available in stores here in Australia, and not all pre-orders have been fulfilled.
EB Games, JB-HiFi, and other Australian retailers still don’t have PlayStation 5 stock to sell 7 months after the next-gen Sony console launched. They remain tight-lipped on when you’ll be able to buy one in store.
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If you visit the official site to popular Australian retailers such as EB Games and JB-HiFi you will notice that they are still not listing any PlayStation 5 stock. When we spoke to a EB Games representative in October last year we were told that they had a backlog of orders all the way up until, at least, March 2021. Two months later and there’s still no PlayStation 5 stock.
It has gotten to the point where Australian retailers have removed all promotional gear for the PlayStation 5 and even scold you for asking them about the PlayStation 5; it is almost like the console never launched, and — to be quite frank — it never did.
The PlayStation 5 never made it to the shelves in Australia and retailers have still not fulfilled all pre-orders. Despite the EB Games employee saying that they expect to complete the third wave of pre-orders by March, some people who did manage to get their pre-orders are claiming that they have not received their consoles.
The lack of supply and high demand has created a massive PlayStation 5 scalping problem in Australia and the rest of the world. Scam artists are creating a business out of mass pre-ordering the entire stock and jacking up the price of the consoles to AUD$1200, that’s a AUD$400 mark up of the original price.
As long as scalpers and scammers keep buying out limited stock the console will maintain that high price and people are willing to pay the price to get their hands on the console since there is zero stock available on shelves in Australia.
There is still away gamers can enjoy a next-gen console experience, though. The Xbox Series S is readily available at most Australian retailers. The Xbox Series S even supports raytracing and only costs AUD$499 at JB HI-Fi. That’s AUD$200 cheaper than the PlayStation 5.
At this rate there probably won’t be any PlayStation 5 stock until Christmas 2021. Regardless, nobody — not even Sony — are willing to divulge more information on the actual release/launch date of the PlayStation 5.