Syphon Filter
Member
The drive has drm, no point in getting it.
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The PS5 disc drive stock situation is embarrassing
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Mibu no ookami
Banned
OP thought the PS5 Price was insanity and thought it would flop so they didn't buy a disc drive. Then they saw Sony deliver and decided they wanted one, but the disc drives are sold out.
Lots of people were buying disc drives in the lead up to the Pro, it was the best selling accessory on Amazon for quite some time. Once the inventory gets small enough, you'll see scalpers enter, which is what happened. Sony isn't good to reflood the market early and give these scalpers a chance to return disc drives en masse. We'll probably see the disc drive come back in stock in December or January and you can still find it at local retailers pretty easily.
Lots of people were buying disc drives in the lead up to the Pro, it was the best selling accessory on Amazon for quite some time. Once the inventory gets small enough, you'll see scalpers enter, which is what happened. Sony isn't good to reflood the market early and give these scalpers a chance to return disc drives en masse. We'll probably see the disc drive come back in stock in December or January and you can still find it at local retailers pretty easily.
Mibu no ookami
Banned
https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ps5-disc-drive-already-trending-high-demand-for-pro.1674805/
6 page thread on the spiking demand of disc drives... guess some people weren't paying attention because it had nothing to do with gender or pronouns lol
6 page thread on the spiking demand of disc drives... guess some people weren't paying attention because it had nothing to do with gender or pronouns lol
Tams
Member
It's a relatively easy fix for non-essential products (so not their main sellers like their consoles):
- Temporarily only sell on their own website
- Require an account to buy them
- Require a local address with PO boxes not allowed
- Limit sales to only a few or even only one per address and even per credit/debit card
Fabieter
Member
Sony aren't that great in predicting demand in general as their history with other PS5 accessories show (Ones you don't have a conspiracy theory for I'm guessing). I think this is due to risk aversion driven by their prior low margins if I were to guess. If you haven't been paying attention though this is made a lot worse by scalpers buying up stock intended for the consumer. Scalpers are charging 80% margins on these products by buying up all stock and creating scarcity with them as the only supplier. They are playing the market and PS doesn't benefit from it.
So you think they're giving up a 90% margin, £90 profit, from selling a disc drive to drive profits from where for just 3-4 months of this supply/demand deficit? A very small amount of people switching from physical to digital?
What percentage of physical software sales would pro users who can't get a drive in that short period make with them buying digital vs physical? You think this outweighs the existing owners who are looking to upgrade to pro? On the contrary, if anything it would prevent existing PS5 owners with a physical library from buying higher margin products from them like the PS5 Pro or the disc drive itself during a more important product launch. Then supply and demand would be back to normal anyway and they can buy physical again and you're back to whatever you think it is they're making prior to this evil gnome underpants plan.
Many people have already defended Sony's decision to drop the disc drive for the PS5 Pro, saying, "I'm mostly digital anyway." People are creatures of habit, and if some of those who buy the Pro think they’ll just purchase the drive later, some might end up sticking with digital-only. It's not as if Sony, in full profit mode, cares. To them, it’s "go digital or tough luck" for their customers. It’s incredibly anti-consumer for such a high-demand product to be out of stock for half a year. I don’t believe for a second that a hardware company like Sony is genuinely this bad at restocking its supply chains. It’s complete and utter nonsense.
Rocco Schiavone
Member
Forces more people to switch into PC gaming or Nintendo.
Solarstrike
Member
TheRedRiders
Member
Agreed, brought my PS5 this morning from Argos and they had no disc drives in stock, and they’re sold out everywhere.
I reckon Sony want more back on their investment for the PS5 Pro, one way to schedule that is through increased digital purchases.
Bunch of dickheads.
I reckon Sony want more back on their investment for the PS5 Pro, one way to schedule that is through increased digital purchases.
Bunch of dickheads.
Mibu no ookami
Banned
You were in the thread that showed it was selling out. You're not a consumer here so I'm not sure where your obsession in this lies.
In that thread you were trying to convince people to buy PC instead and now you're in this thread complaining that Sony doesn't have enough stock.
That's what's so funny about the known PC regulars coming out of the woodworks to start some concern trolling about this sold out stock situation being a drive to digital rather than an accessory simply selling out. Sony is out here supporting a disc drive option on all SKU now (which is actually better than the PS5 DE release console having no options after the fact) and almost every game they release has had a physical version but somehow they're trying to kill digital for profits in the most bizarre way imaginable. By making people wait a short time for sold out disc drives to come back into stock at retailers!PCMR win again, I hear that you can get disc drives for PC at very reasonable prices, just no games come on them
and of course this short supply constrained period for converting people from physical to digital is a multimillion dollar plan worth risking Pro sales for those who have physical libraries! /s
But gamers are also patient enough to wait 2 years too so they're doomed as well according to the same people since that other real digital only business plan doesn't work!
Meanwhile the reality is digital only PCs, new xbox's with no disc drives, and other publishers releasing only digital or delaying physical releases. They're not getting worked up about that, they're getting worked up and concerned by an out of stock disc drive instead.
The fact some were already mostly digital meant they didn't pay for a disc drive they wouldn't use. like buying the DE PS5, except at least they now always have the option later to do either one they like. If it was "go digital or tough luck" they simply wouldn't publish their games on disc and they would push digital only consoles with no disc options like the new Series X, S or launch PS5 DE. They wouldn't devise a dumb plan to very temporarily run out of stock for a disc drive in the hope you will forget to buy physical. And the disc drive has not been out of stock for half a year. It started some time September with the Pro announcement and it has been coming in stock and selling out again often. It's even back in stock at gamestop right now but I guess the digital only master plan has been cancelled in the USA for today?
Why don't you get this riled up about publishers on PC instead where physical is near nonexistent bar a few releases here and there by CDPR that even chart well when given the choice. You're fighting somebody who has been relatively good in providing physical options instead.
Fabieter
Member
Do you believe one of the biggest hardware companies in the world are unable to restock fast enough and go after scalpers? For real?
I wouldnt care for Sony go digital if I could buy digital only games on all key sites likes its possible on pc. Having a monopol on the digital store and actively working against physical gaming is disgusting. They can't do it outright because they know the shitstorm would be bigger.
Yes because it happened for the PS5 itself, the PSVR adaptor, the charging dock, the portal and countless other PS products. What's the conspiracy for those?
What's the made up reason why the biggest hardware company couldn't supply those to meet demand because there must be a reason right? The answer is obviously general logistics. Supplier contracts providing hardware, shipping, that sort of thing.
Mibu no ookami
Banned
It's pretty simple and you never want to restock before scalpers are locked into owning their product. Sony made ample supply available ahead of launch and people chose to wait it out and are now complaining about availability. They can just wait a month or two for more stock, but that's a conspiracy because they think they're being forced into buying digital games in the time period. You could also just wait to buy the pro until the disc drives are back in stock.
Scalpers are fairly smart. They understand that if they sell an 80 dollar disc drive for 140, they generate 60 dollars in profit for each drive sold. Sell 4 of them and you can take a total loss on 3 units and still break even (minus tax), but the reality is they have two options for those 3 units. They can return them if its within the return period (which fucks sony) or they can sell them at cost and they still bank 240 dollars of profit (less taxes and shipping). You sell 20 of them and you're at 1,200 dollars profit (minus taxes and shipping).
Sony is smart to wait out their return period so there isn't a massive influx of inventory on the market that ends up needing to be discounted at retail. Getting the timing right so that you can help consumers while not getting screwed yourself is difficult across multiple regions.
There are fewer than 1200 listings on ebay, although each listing can have multiple units for sale.
Rocco Schiavone
Member
I've ordered one drive on 30th of september.
Retailer couldn't even provide it for release with shipping date now sometime in november.
They just don't give a shit. The normal PS5 was sometimes delivered by plane. The disc drives are most likely shipping by ship from china.
If they are that competend by restocking drives why the hell are the disc drives sold for 299€ on eBay and no retailer sold them since september??
HogIsland
Member
Playstation is stagnating as a platform, even removing some of the few new features they tried out with PS5. Steam is practically caught up, and in some ways more advanced. Package Steam up in a box under the TV and there's no reason for a dedicated console anymore.
FoxMcChief
Gold Member
For the players.
Mister Wolf
Member
Figured this would happen.
Mibu no ookami
Banned
PS5 Slim used is still going to run you at least 400 dollars and the trade in value of that unit sans disc is 240. So you're looking at 160.
But you're forgetting something. Gamestop isn't going to take that trade in at full value without the drive cover. Maybe you could convince them to let you take the cover off the pro, but you're still spending 160 dollars on an 80 dollar disc drive.
Venom Snake
Member
Completely agree. I don't mind selling the drive separately rather than producing two different versions of the console, but this is a royal fuck up.
I mean, it's obvious that a good number of buyers will need this thing, not ensuring stock for the pro launch is pathetic. Especially since it was so easy (at least in my case) to buy the console itself.
FrankWza
Gold Member
It's also compatible with ith another console so it's not just Pro owners buying it. It's a new kind of anger... PROutrage
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Mibu no ookami
Banned
Both were easy, you just waited for the most difficult time to buy the disc drive, which was after legitimate and illegitimate demand had taken the market.
You could have purchased it before the Pro came out as many others did, but the logic in your mind was that you had to buy the two products at the same time, despite one product being significantly easier to scalp than the other.
Mibu no ookami
Banned
I don't think anyone suggests that physical games are dead, but many of the people buying physical games are core gamers and that is much of the audience who will be buying the ps5 pro.
That people waited makes it look like there is more demand for drives than there actually is.
dreamstation
Member
Completely sold out in Australia. No major retailers even have an ETA and vast majority aren't taking orders either. It seems to change from store to store.
FingerBang
Member
Same situation here, in the UK. I ordered the pro and didn't get a disc drive on the same day because they were available at several retailers and I didn't want to have one of those drives around for no reason.
Just a week or two later, the situation went crazy, and now they go on eBay for twice as much. At the same time, there has been almost no restocking on PS Direct and many other retailers. I pre-ordered one on Shopto a few weeks ago when the preorders became available and got another preorder from Very.co.uk a few days ago. They seem to have been in stock on Very and EE, but they disappear in seconds because scalpers have bots set up to buy this shit for them.
Still crazy to me that retailers don't do absolutely anything for this kind of situation, and it's ok and entirely legal to fuck up with consumers this way. I don't think there's any actual shortage, it's been created by the goddamn scalpers that are buying all the stock. At the same time, I doubt this will last. I'll wait, they can go fuck themselves.
Just a week or two later, the situation went crazy, and now they go on eBay for twice as much. At the same time, there has been almost no restocking on PS Direct and many other retailers. I pre-ordered one on Shopto a few weeks ago when the preorders became available and got another preorder from Very.co.uk a few days ago. They seem to have been in stock on Very and EE, but they disappear in seconds because scalpers have bots set up to buy this shit for them.
Still crazy to me that retailers don't do absolutely anything for this kind of situation, and it's ok and entirely legal to fuck up with consumers this way. I don't think there's any actual shortage, it's been created by the goddamn scalpers that are buying all the stock. At the same time, I doubt this will last. I'll wait, they can go fuck themselves.
sainraja
Member
Hmm. That's a bummer. They should have expected more sales and should have planned accordingly. Really odd.
asdasdasdbb
Member
It's in stock at Gamestop.
Venom Snake
Member
But that shouldn't be my problem. Many stores had bundle offers with a drive/stand, which were canceled only after a few weeks. There weren't that many drives avaliable before the PS5 Pro was presented in detail, and a moment later there were none.
It's not fair that a customer is forced to hastily order components for hardware that has not yet been reviewed or even properly presented by the manufacturer. Most of what we know about pro is from last week.
It is obvious that this is not how it should be, blaming buyers for not purchasing the drive within one day of finding out that it would be sold separately is a bit of an exaggeration, i think. After all, they're just drives, it's not like they're made from unicorn dicks, there should be plenty of them.
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StereoVsn
Gold Member
I will just go all digital then but on PC where there would be actual store competition.
Rocco Schiavone
Member
Rockondevil
Member
They'll give up forever? Oh Jesus best buy is out of stock I guess I'm stuck with digital? Or in a month or two they'll see it's back in stock and get a drive?
metareferential
Member
Fake low supply (through planning or incompetence) > clear stock > people buy ps5 slim to swap the drive to a pro > slim and pro sale skyrocket.
This is marketing 101.
Bravo Sony, and fuck you.
(And I might even do it, if the disc plate can go back to the slim so that I can resell it xD).
This is marketing 101.
Bravo Sony, and fuck you.
(And I might even do it, if the disc plate can go back to the slim so that I can resell it xD).
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Sony deliberately held off on stocking the disk drive so they could reap the sweet bounty of digital only purchases for one month for PS5 pro owners? Truly 4D chess
DaleinCalgary
Member
Lies!
Barakov
Member
They've surreptitiously been trying for a while.
Rockondevil
Member
I see you didn't read the entire thing. SOME will give up.
If you think every single soul who wants a disc drive will want one in months when they finally get stock that's your prerogative.
Some will still get one and some won't and then there's others who will just accept that's it's a digital console and not even bother.
It's much like when phones started losing the headphone jacks, now it's the norm. This is just a slow transition to the inevitable future... sadly.
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Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
It does surprise me people still can't see it coming. Like, say the PS6 has an optional disc drive. No one thinks the PS7 will. Everything you buy will stop working on current consoles in 10 years.
Edgelord79
Gold Member
At this point why is this even a surprise anymore. As a consumer you should know by now these things will be out of stock pretty much immediately. It’s the way it is now.
SenkiDala
Member
We're living such a weird time for gaming, consoles prices rising (except in USA, you lucky motherfuckers), PS5Pro costing THE DOUBLE of the normal PS5 (if you include a disc drive), 240€ controllers (DualSense Edge), and now disc drives out of stock... That's so dumb. Wtf are you doing Sony ? Is that to push people to go full digital like "hey, that's ok, downloading the games aren't so bad after all, I'll stop searching for a disc drive as I don't find one anyway" ?
Love Sony but damn it's their worst generation so far... PS1 is my fav console EVER (followed by the Dreamcast and SNES, see I'm such a Xbox fanboy as people like to say). I disliked them at 2 moments, the release of the PS3 (shit price, bad 1st parties, no arcade games, no voice chat, etc), and since 2022, all their GaaS shit, or trying to be the Apple of video games but for no reason... I don't like this.
Love Sony but damn it's their worst generation so far... PS1 is my fav console EVER (followed by the Dreamcast and SNES, see I'm such a Xbox fanboy as people like to say). I disliked them at 2 moments, the release of the PS3 (shit price, bad 1st parties, no arcade games, no voice chat, etc), and since 2022, all their GaaS shit, or trying to be the Apple of video games but for no reason... I don't like this.
Sooner
Member
Enjoy your library of discs that serve no purpose because consoles no longer have disc drives.