Now GameStop.IE is telling some PS5 pre-order customers they’ll have to wait until 2021

Ireland’s GameStop chain has contacted some PS5 pre-order customers to tell them not to expect their consoles to arrive before 2021.

Multiple VGC readers have received notice from the retailer, claiming that it recently received confirmation that it “won’t be able to fulfil your pre-order until 2021.”

The message claims that the delay is “due to circumstances out of our control” and offers the option to remain in the pre-order queue or cancel entirely.

The Irish retailer’s message to customers comes less than 24 hours after Sony started informing European retailers of their PlayStation 5 launch day allocation.

On Monday, UK’s ShopTo claimed it had received PS5 allocation details from Sony, which meant it would not be able to fulfil all of its pre-orders.

ShopTo has emailed its PlayStation 5 pre-order customers to either tell them their pre-order is safe for launch, or that they won’t receive the console in time for the November 19 release date.

Amazon has also warned some PS5 pre-order customers that they may not receive their console on the day of release.

Sony confirmed the PlayStation 5 release date of November 12 in the US, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia and South Korea earlier this month. The rest of the world will get the console a week later on November 19, including Europe.

Multiple retailers sold out of PS5 pre-orders just hours after launch details were announced on September 16, despite Sony telling fans that pre-sales for the console would begin the following day.

PlayStation subsequently apologised for the troubled PS5 pre-order launch and promised to release more consoles to retailers imminently. Selected retailers opened a second wave of PS5 pre-orders on September 25 which also sold out quickly.

Further PS5 pre-order stock may yet appear between now and the console’s November launch date, but otherwise much of PlayStation’s launch inventory appears to have been claimed.

Earlier this month Sony denied it was lowering its PlayStation 5 shipping estimates due to alleged production issues. According to Bloomberg, the company expects to ship 11 million PS5 consoles by March 31, 2021.

Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at Niko Partners, told VGC he expects supply issues for both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X this year.

“While production is ramping up and component scarcity is less of an issue than before, we believe that logistics issues will be a barrier for both platform holders to overcome this holiday, with the impact from Covid-19 leading to long shipping times and shortages on store shelves during the launch period.

“We expect Sony and Microsoft to utilise air shipments, which will cost more, to meet demand this year.”

Further reading

68

The most up-close PS5 controller images yet show previously unseen detail

Peripheral firm shares snaps of the DualSense pad