Gaming fans who wanted to get their hands on a PlayStation 5following yesterday’s price reveal livestreamhad a chaotic night, as piecemealpre-orders for Sony’s upcoming consoleleft many scrambling.

The problems started shortly after the stream ended, when Sony tweeted thatpre-orders would start the following day.

That plan quickly went out the window when pre-orders began on Walmart’s website hours later. The console was sold out within minutes.

As the night went on, several other retailers followed suit without warning. Retailers like Target and Best Buy put listings up, only to take them down just as quickly. To make matters more complicated, users experienced a host of problems when trying to order from these sites. Many reported that they were able to get the console into their cart, but were unable to checkout.

Things were even worse for those trying to buy from GameStop. People who went to the site’s PS5 page were greeted by an error message saying that users were “blocked” and unable to access the website.

Wow, you didn't have to take it that personally.pic.twitter.com/pEpBoDPHEA

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley)June 17, 2025

Earlier this summer, Sony insisted that it would give fans a fair warning before pre-orders began. In an interview with Geoff Keighley during Summer Game Fest, PlayStation’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Eric Lempel assured fans that the company had a plan in place.

“I think it’s safe to say, we’ll let you know when pre-order will happen. It’s not going to happen with a minute’s notice. We’re going to at some point let you know when you’re able to pre-order a PlayStation 5 so don’t feel like you have to run out and line up anywhere until you receive official notice on how that’ll work.”

Microsoft took the opportunity to add insult to injury bytweeting out the September 22 pre-order datefor the Xbox Series X and Series X and adding, “Don’t worry – we’ll let you know the exact time pre-orders start for you soon.”

Digital Trends reached out to Sony and GameStop for comment and will update this story with responses.