After Sony unveiled its stunning PlayStation 30th Anniversary collection and preorders went live, the limited edition PS5 Pro bundle sold out almost immediately – and unsurprisingly, this sparked a slew of listings from scalpers online.
While it was previously revealed that there would be a “highly limited supply” of the special edition consoles, there were essentially no purchase requirements put in place to prevent scalping – in the West, anyway. Things look a little bit different overseas in Japan, where Sony has gone as far as implementing a strict set of requirements that all buyers must first adhere to before purchasing the retro-themed special edition PlayStation 5 Pro bundle.
Sony’s Japanese PlayStation website for 30th Anniversary PS5 Pro preorders showcases as much – and boy, could other countries use some of these purchase conditions. Buyers must have a PlayStation Network account registered within Japan and at least 30 hours of playtime in any game(s) on a PS4 or PS5 clocked between February of 2014 and September 19, 2024. It certainly sounds like a system that regions outside of Japan would’ve benefited from.
As of now, scalpers’ eBay listings in the United Kingdom and the United States alone feature eye-watering prices ranging in the higher thousands – because who doesn’t want to spend a whopping $5,000 or even $10,000 on the PS5 Pro bundle? It’s moments like these that I’m especially thankful to be a Nintendo Switch and PC enthusiast myself – although I do hope that Sony protects its fans’ wallets better in the future globally, as they are doing in Japan.
PS5 vs PS5 Pro specs compared: how does the next console match up?
