While PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Edition preorders sparked a flurry of eBay listings with huge mark-ups in the West, in Japan Sony has an actual plan to beat the scapers.
As spotted by Automaton, the Japanese PlayStation homepage confirms that anyone who wants to preorder the PS5 Pro 30th anniversary edition in Japan has to meet the following conditions: have a PSN account registered in Japan, and have at least 30 hours of PS4 or PS5 runtime on the account between February 2014 and September 19, 2024.
On these shores, the PS5 Pro – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition BundIe sold out in seconds, and scalpers were quick to upload their listings with enormous mark-ups in price.
Preorders for the PS5 Pro – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition BundIe went live on September 26 via PlayStation Direct only priced $999.99 / £959.99 / €1,099.99. This special version of the PS5 Pro console and accompanying accessories feature throwback design elements and a legacy color scheme that pays homage to the original PlayStation console. Frustrating many PlayStation fans, Sony is making just 12,300 of these numbered consoles available for customers to buy globally.
According to Automaton, Japanese users are thankful to see at least some measures in place, but still many think that more could have been done. While employing a similar PS4 or PS5 runtime requirement in the West wouldn’t have made it impossible for scalpers to take advantage of the scarcity of the PS5 Pro – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition BundIe, it would have certainly made it harder.
"Good for the Japanaese customers," said Redditor NxtDoc1851. "That would have been nice to implement that for all the PS fans worldwide, though." "That's pretty great," added Jmask5. "Wish they did that here."
The PS5 Pro Console - 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle is now sold out from the PlayStation Direct website, with other retailers launching their preorders on October 10. The console itself launches Novermber 21, with the standard PS5 Pro coming out November 7.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
