PlayStation 5 pre-orders may be late, Amazon warns

With retailers royally jumping gun On PlayStation 5 pre-orders, consider yourself lucky if you got one before it sold out everywhere. Unless you have yours on Amazon. In which case, he may still be screwed.

An email Amazon sent to numerous pre-order customers on Friday warns that your console may not arrive before the launch date (November 12 in the US). Various customers shared the message on social media and claims that deliveries may be delayed “due to high demand.”

“We will do our best to deliver the article to you as soon as possible after it is published,” the message continues.

The email from Amazon goes on to say that customers can track the status of their order on its website and cancel un-shipped items if they choose, though it notably doesn’t mention anything about an alternative delivery date for backorders. It’s unclear if Amazon sent this email to everyone who pre-ordered a PS5 or just those in certain regions. We reached out to Amazon for additional information and will update this article with your response.

Sony has rumors previously denied which could face a shortage of stocks next month. Earlier this week, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told the Washington Post that while the coronavirus pandemic initially caused distribution problems when it first hit, Sony would have “more PlayStation 5 units ready for sale than PlayStation 4 units in 2013” when it launches. To add some context to that, Sony sold a little more than 2 million PS4s worldwide in the first two weeks after their release.

However, Amazon’s warning doesn’t inspire much confidence in that promise. Of course, it could be that Amazon is simply publishing this email as a precautionary measure. As Polygon points out, the e-commerce giant has a history of ruining high-profile game releases, as we saw with the Nintendo Switch launch in 2017 and the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the beginning of this year.

Unfortunately, it’s apparently not the only retailer breaking the bad news to PS5 pre-orders this week. According to Tom’s GuideHong Kong-based retailer Play-Asia also sent an email to buyers on Friday encouraging them to cancel their pre-order due to “production constraints and allocation of distribution networks for the console.” He warned that PS5 stocks are “incredibly low in all regions,” which only seems to confirm fears about a possible shortage in November.