The PlayStation 5 is almost easy to buy

Throughout the pandemic, it has brought me immense joy to write articles celebrating that hard-to-find technology is easier to buy at retail cost. First it was the Xbox Series S and Nintendo Switch OLED, then the Series X, and a few months later almost all Nvidia and AMD GPUs followed. We’re getting very close to being able to say that the PS5 will be joining the club soon.

Yesterday we wrote that Sony had launched another of its once-rare (but increasingly frequent) PS5 restocks, and the $549.99 Console Bundle that includes the PS5 with a disc drive along with Horizon Forbidden West is still in stock about 19 hours later. Even after everyone has had a chance to run through the queue and make a purchase, there is still stock left, chilling. You can probably take a nap now, come back, and buy one later if you want.

That kind of luxury – buying a gadget whenever you want just because the thought occurred to you – is something that many people (including many of us on The edge) are learning again. And it’s great. Those early days when we had the big responsibility of telling readers when they had minutes – no, seconds – to score a console felt special, but I think we’re all ready to move on.

In February, Sony was still struggling to get PS5s on the shelves (the PS4 had sold more in its post-launch life). Recent sales data from the NPD Group states that the PlayStation 5, along with the Xbox Series X, had much higher year-over-year sales in July 2022 than in July 2021, suggesting that consoles have become much more readily available.

I wouldn’t say definitively yet that the PS5 is “easy” to buy, because if it were, it would be in stock and ready to ship immediately from the likes of Amazon, Best Buy, and more. You can currently request an invite to buy one from Amazon, but that only counts for half because you have to wait to see if you actually receive the invite. You can also Fill out this form for a chance to be invited by Sony to buy a PS5.

With this PS5 replenishment going all night and right now well beyond, I hope it’s an encouraging sign that stock for the 2022 holiday season won’t be as big of a deal as it was last year.