For those that may have missed it, Walmart is taking a different approach to launch day PS5 orders than other retailers, opting to release their stock in four separate bursts throughout the day. This was done in an effort to create a sense of calm for consumers about the preorder but most likely the preeminent reason for the strategy was to help the website handle the influx of shoppers.
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Today, prospective PS5 owners can shop on Walmart.com for a console at 12 PM, 3 PM, 6 PM, and 9 PM Eastern time. At the time of writing, the 12 PM time is already past and the 3 PM time will be going live in under an hour. Unfortunately, these precautions weren’t enough, as the site is still crashing for many.
This is particularly disappointing as Walmart was being hailed as the only retailer to share its PS5 launch day plans online ahead of time. Most other retailers are taking a similar approach, for example BestBuy was releasing new stock every few minutes this morning, but weren’t up front with customers about how things would work until the day of. This ended up causing a lot of confusion about where the best place to order a PS5 was, and many opted to go with Walmart thanks to the certainty of its announcement.
Walmart’s approach to this was likely informed by its PS5 pre-order blunder, in which it made PS5 pre-orders available a day ahead of Sony’s intended date. As a result, other retailers followed suit and many players woke up the next day to find the entire stock depleted. It’s best precautions weren’t enough, though, as many players reported the site crashing around 12 PM eastern time and then coming back online at 12:04 completely sold out.
The issue is fixed at the moment and Walmart’s website is accessible, but there’s no telling if it will happen again. When the next instance of PS5 orders go live in just a few minutes, fans may end up having the same experiences. Walmart IT is no doubt scrambling to address the issue.
The PS5 is available now.
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