The PS5 reservation system is really revolutionary and a bit scary

One thing is pretty much for sure: there will be more people wanting a PS5 pre-order than there are pre-orders available. This is true for pretty much every console release, and there’s no reason to assume it won’t be this time – it’s the main idea behind the PS5 pre-order page, where you can sign up for your PSN and put your name in the ring. . for being one of the first to get a “pre-order reservation”. There will be competition and Sony knows it. The question arises of who, exactly, will get these pre-order reservations, and the answer to that question could be much more interesting than it seems at first glance.

On the first page, the company seems to offer a more traditional view of who is going to buy these consoles:

“Pre-order reservations will be made on a first-come, first-served basis, so once you receive an email invitation, we recommend that you follow the instructions and act quickly.”

However, if you read the FAQ, Sony offers a different interpretation of who gets a console:

“Our selection is based on past interests and activities of PlayStation.”

Actually, this is a fantastically interesting little phrase, especially since Sony sells PS5 directly from its own store and the level of information gathering that always online consoles, digital storefronts and trophies offer. Remember, you are signing up with your PSN, so Sony has full access to everything you have made and purchased on your PlayStation. And the ramifications of how you could use that information to distribute pre-order bookings are fascinating, in a dystopian way.

From the outside I’d dare to guess that Sony would like to make as much money as possible here, which is of course shocking. But, in theory, you would have tools available to try to allow people who are likely to spend the most money on your new console. You could see the total number of games installed, the number of months subscribed to PS +, the total amount of money spent on add-ons, anything. Investors and analysts are interested in the connection rate of consoles – how many games the average console owner buys. Theoretically, Sony could try to maximize the connection rate by sending pre-order invitations to the people most likely to buy the most games.

The company could be more granular if it wanted to. For example, the first major games to come out seem to be Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart, followed by Horizon: Forbidden West. Could Sony prioritize pre-orders based on who has extensive experience with those franchises, and the bet is that they don’t just want to maximize sales, but to maximize sales of those games specifically?

Or maybe you could prioritize digital customers, more likely to buy games directly from Sony and avoid retailers like Best Buy’s GameStop. You could divide the difference between the two and estimate exactly how many dollars a given customer has turned over to Sony throughout their PSN career.

I recently got the platinum trophy in Bloodborne. Could Sony prioritize those who have seen the terrible truth, those who have gained eyes from within and found sight through madness? I hope so.

It’s a corporate dystopian vision brought to life, an example of the ways your data can be used beyond ad serving. The bottom line here, I’d say, is pretty benign: Sony will try to get people who played PS4 a lot to be the first to get a PS5. But it’s also not hard to get a little suspicious about the types of data collection and vertical integration shown here.