The Next Generation Of Gaming And The Issues It Comes With.
By: Draki' Ballard
January 26th, 2021In November, the next generation of gaming was released. The playstation 5 was released all around the world. However, it has had its issues due to the worldwide pandemic.
In August of 2020, Sony announced something that everybody was excited to hear. After 7 years, the next generation of gaming was announced. This was great news for gamers all around the world. They announced that there were two different versions of the console, so that many more could afford it. Blogs such as the Playstation Blog have been keeping us updated on all Playstation news.
"Starting on November 12, PS5 will be available in seven key markets: the U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. The global rollout will continue on November 19 with launches throughout the rest of the world, including Europe, Middle East, South America, Asia and South Africa. PS5 Digital Edition will be available for a recommended retail price of $399.99 USD/, and PS5 with an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive will be available for an RRP of $499.99 USD.”
However, the release of the Playstation 5 was made a lot more difficult. The world was faced with a problem that nobody was ready for. A worldwide pandemic hit the world. This made the production of the Playstation 5 a lot harder. There was only a limited supply of consoles with such high demand to get one. Also, the consoles could only be purchased online. This made the Playstation 5 harder to get. 9th grader Anthony Brown complained of having these issues while trying to purchase his new gaming system.
"Trying to purchase a Playstation 5 was a struggle," Anthony said. It caused a lot of tiredness and constant hours of watching Youtube and checking Twitter. All I did was check Youtube and Twitter 24/7.”
WIth the demand being so high to get a new console, people were willing to do whatever to get their hands on the console. The day after the first online release, people were reselling the console for prices up to $2000. People still wanted one so bad that they paid the outrages prices. People like 8th grader Christian Turner paid higher prices than normal to get a Playstation 5 during the holiday season.
"Finding the Playstation 5 and getting it for a regular price was very rare," Christian said. This being the case, I spent $1500 on a Playstation 5. I didn't even buy it from a website. I bought it off of someone in the barbershop.”
The main problem with trying to get the Playstation 5 was the websites. Since everything had to be done online, a load of problems occurred. The first Playstation 5 launch on retail websites was very unorganized. Websites were crashing left and right. People were using “bot” which basically confirms that they can get multiple consoles before anyone else. Even when people managed to successfully order one, their order was cancelled. Gamers like Jevon Wright who actually was able to successfully buy a Playstation never even recieved their order. Also, Anothony complaned about the "bot" system which rigged the chances of getting the console.
“The most frustrating thing about getting the PlayStation 5 is that when I firsted Pre-Ordered the game the delivery kept getting delayed and delayed until they finally canceled my order and gave me my money back," Anthony explained. "And then several weeks later I got the PS5 from GameStop Online. They could’ve made the websites bot resistant because they were selling out so fast. The bots definitely ruined the online releases.”
Even with all of the complications due to the worldwide pandemic, there were millions of Playstation 5’s sold. This being because of the holiday season and how many people were excited for the next generation of gaming. Even after the inicial release, the Playstation 5 is still selling worldwide in huge numbers. According to My Smart Price, "Sony has managed to sell 3.4 million units in 2020. It has no plans to slow down now, as the new-gen gaming console aims to hit up to 18 million units in sales in 2021."
All in all, the Playstation 5 is a great product. However, the release could’ve been better. Blaming it all on Sony would be wrong because it's not 100% their fault, In the future, they could improve the release by improving their system. Playstation customers such as Tariq Mack expressed things very similar to this.
”The people at Sony could’ve made better times and actually had shipments out when they released it instead of making everything chaotic.”
