You Need At Least 30 Hours On PlayStation To Buy A PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Edition In Japan

Summary

• In an attempt to prevent scalping, pre-orders for the PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Edition have a unique restriction in Japan.
• You need to have played at least 30 hours of PS4 or PS5 within the last ten years to purchase a console or bundle.
• This should prevent bots from sweeping up the pre-orders to sell them on third-party marketplaces.

Pre-orders for the PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Edition are finally live in Japan, but there's a unique restriction that other regions didn't have.

As reported by VGC, you need at least 30 hours logged on PS4 or PS5 over the last ten years with a registered PSN account.

Hopefully, This Will Curb Scalping In Japan

In other regions like the UK and US, scalping was a huge issue. Entire anniversary bundles were immediately listed on eBay for as much as $10,000 as pre-orders sold out within mere hours.

One user even posted a direct warning under the guise of selling such a bundle, threatening to steal consoles from scalpers before they're ever dispatched. Clearly, frustration around scalping is at a boiling point, but Japan might have a winning strategy on its hand.

The PlayStation 30th Anniversary Pre-Orders Shouldn't Have Been Such A Disaster

Yet another big product launch brought to its knees by scalpers.

By asking people to use a registered account to prove that they are genuine PlayStation users, Sony is putting a hurdle between idealistic buyers, who are interested only in turning a quick profit, and genuine customers. Of course, there will be scalpers who also play on the console, but it should prevent the swarm of bots from automatically sweeping up pre-orders.

Pre-orders are live for the next two weeks in Japan, ending on October 14, so we'll just have to wait and see how good a job this strategy does at stopping scalpers. Whatever the case, many are hoping to see this restriction applied elsewhere in future, given the extremely long queues and speed at which bundles sold out, only to resurface on third-party marketplaces at double the price.

PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Bundle

The headliner in PlayStation's 30th anniversary collection, the PS5 Pro bundle is the upgraded version of PlayStation's newest console with a PS1 makeover. The bundle includes the console, a matching DualSense Edge, a charging station, and a grey cover for your disc drive if you have one.