At a retailer in Tokyo, there was an absolute interruption overnight as fresh stock of the under-supplied PlayStation 5 arrived. Since its launch in November last year, the new Sony console has been impossible to find anywhere in the world, but Japan has been extremely short, and hardware sales lag behind even with the Nintendo Wii U launch.
Kotaku reports, however, that the electronics megastore Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara has sold a bunch of new systems today – and all the hell has been unleashed. We don’t even need to describe the scenes, because you can see them for yourself, courtesy of the video embedded below:
Eventually, things got so bad that the police were called and the system’s sales were stopped. So what happened? Well, obviously, as already pointed out, the stock is thin. But this has been exacerbated by the fact that the Akihabara subsidiary of the Yodobashi Chamber in question does not require the use of the retailer’s black credit card to buy hardware – a regulation implemented to help counter scalpers.
In addition, the store distributed numbered tickets on first come, first served, to potential buyers. In the past, raffles have been offered, where those with their phone number then have the opportunity to purchase a system. Obviously, all of these circumstances contributed to the scenes you see above.
It is noteworthy that all this took place at a time when the Japanese government has implemented a state of emergency due to the ongoing pandemic, and Tokyo is, surprisingly, the most affected city in the country.