New console week continued unabated on Thursday, with Sony following Microsoft launching its Xbox Series X and Series S with a pair of PlayStation 5 consoles, one with an optical drive and a downloaded game-only model that was slightly slimmer. Those who managed to get a preorder of the console largely saw their console delivered and, like the Series X from Microsoft, had to figure out where to put it and how to make sure its fan has some room to work.
But many of those who missed the boat on preorders and were hoping launch day would be a fruitful one had a whale of a time actually ordering a console with any success. Online retailers like Walmart found themselves experiencing the wrath of a legion of gamers who missed out on ordering a PS5, sometimes with the console in their cart but finding themselves empty-handed once they got to the payment options on the site. The store’s initial excitement tweet about the console quickly became inundated with replies from frustrated customers sharing screenshots of the console disappearing from carts, or orders apparently placed that simply didn’t exist in the end.
Tomorrow is the day you’ve all been waiting for! Order the #PS5 online only on 11/12 during these four times throughout the day:
12 PM ET
3 PM ET
6 PM ET
9 PM ET— Walmart (@Walmart) November 11, 2020
And then came the frustrated tweets from some very angry gamers, who kept crashing the site and seeing errors all over the place.
the ps5 in my cart when i pressed checkout on walmart pic.twitter.com/aUFDqtQ9Ur
— Cedar/Cypress (@cowboy_cedar) November 12, 2020
i just went 12 rounds with a bot for a PS5 https://t.co/pzy3Zx8Oji
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) November 12, 2020
Even MLB players were freaking out about Walmart’s frustrating ordering system, among others who struggled with day-one orders.
HEY @Walmart FIGURE OUT YOUR DAMN SERVERS AND WEBSITE CHECK OUT SYSTEMS. IVE BEEN HITTING COMPLETE ORDER 2 MIN AFTER DROP TIME AND YOUR “Oh Deer, the whole North Pole is trying to save big” NO THE WHOLE WORLD WANTS A PS5 AND YOUR WEBSITE CRASHES
— Logan Allen (@Logan__Allen) November 13, 2020
Facts https://t.co/FxpRvzOD2h
— Logan Allen (@Logan__Allen) November 13, 2020
There was, uh, a lot of anti-Walmart sentiment.
ps5 got me feeling this pic.twitter.com/Uo7mxiiyIn
— jason (@j_xsonn) November 13, 2020
How @Walmart removes your ps5 from ya cart pic.twitter.com/IGQfVMdnbN
— ͏ ¯_(ツ)_/¯ (@lucilfersBurner) November 13, 2020
Walmart wasn’t the only retailer to see some inevitable struggles on launch day, but it quickly became a meme among the gaming community on what was both a day of celebration and frustration for some. Lucky for them, there will be plenty more consoles on the market in the coming months. And maybe by then there will be a truly massive game for the console that won’t also be available on the PS4 these same frustrated gamers are likely to currently have hooked up to their TVs.