Sony is well known for selling direct, now the business who is still hosing down a sex scandal, at their Sony Music division in Australia, has moved to openly compete with retailers in an effort to sell their PS5 PlayStation and accessories direct.
The Japanese Company, whose Australian web site already sells a multitude of products direct, has set up a business called Sony Direct to sell their sought after PS5 PlayStation.
Sony Direct allows gamers to register for its invite only PS5 restock events.
Currently Australian retailers such as Harvey Norman, JB Hi Fi, Bing Lee and The Good Guys are hanging out for PS5 stock.
Now it appears that in several markets, Sony is moving to cut out retailers and the giving away of margin or having to invest in store promotions by selling direct.
The big catch is that signing up doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a PS5 — nor does it guarantee you’ll get an invite.
Retailers in Australia who were banking on supply of PS5 stock in late 2020 for their peak buying period are still waiting for stock for peak period 2021 with many former PlayStation consumers now switching to PC gaming.
How the Sony direct marketing program operates, is that gamers with a PlayStation Online ID can register as of today for Sony’s invite only PS5 drops via this link.
According to the Sony website, those who register will begin receiving invitations starting November 2021.
The Sony website states that “selection is based on previous interests and PlayStation activities.”
If selected, you’ll receive an email with the date, time, and instructions for purchasing a PS5 console.
If you don’t receive anything, that means you weren’t selected.
The move to sell consoles direct comes as former Xbox and PlayStation console users invest in PC gaming gear.
A recent report claims that 48 percent of all gaming now happens on PCs, with a whopping 3.1B gamers worldwide.
The data from DFC Intelligence claims that only 8 percent of gamers identify exclusively as console gamers, meaning most gamers play across multiple devices.
The study does not say if console gamers who only play ported console titles on mobile devices, such as Fortnite, would be considered console-plus-mobile gamers or strictly console gamers.
PC gaming has had a turbulent history.
It gained popularity following the video game crash of 1983, an event caused by an overabundance of consoles and poor-quality games, and despite losing popularity again in the 1990’s thanks to a console comeback from the likes of the original Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64, PC gaming has successfully regained a stable place in the global market.
This was due to the emergence of new PC gaming hardware from the likes of Dell with their Alienware and Acer with their Predator gaming PC’s.
Also helping is that games that were originally designed for console gaming have now been redesigned for PC gaming with both Google, Microsoft and Netflix now offering PC and mobile gaming services.
