At long last, Sony let its eager fans breathe easy on Wednesday when it revealed the price and release date for the PlayStation 5. After months of playing chicken with Microsoft, Sony announced that their next-gen console would drop on Nov. 12 in the U.S. for $499, or $399 for the digital-only version.

What Sony didn’t reveal straight away was the exact date and time when fans would be able to preorder the new system, something hardcore gamers very much wanted to hear. A little while after the event, Sony promised on Twitter that preorders would start "as early as" Thursday. In July, Sony even went so far as to promise fans that preorders would not go live without ample notice.

But that’s not what went down.

As noted by The Verge, almost immediately after the PS5 Showcase ended on Wednesday, fans began scouring online stores and racing off to physical stores like GameStop, Best Buy, and Target to if any outlets would start issuing preorders early. Many did, with fans posting photos of their receipts on social media as proof. Others trying to buy the systems online found error pages, time outs, and out of stock notifications on preorder links that seemed to be live.

Brick-and-mortar retailers are believed to have broken the preorder street date in response to the massive surge of demand. Walmart, for one, actively boasted about not making customers wait on Twitter.

Despite availability being confirmed online by stores like GameStop, customers attempting to make their web purchases faced numerous errors, with stock appearing and disappearing. Customers reported items even vanishing from digital carts in the middle of transactions.

With Sony's flub in the rearview, Microsoft has the potential to launch preorders for the Xbox Series X smoothly. The company has set the date of Sept. 22 for preorders, but no specific time. Still, with nearly several days still to go, the company should have plenty of time to coordinate a preorder drop and get the word out ahead of time.

PlayStation 5 console
Sony released this picture on June 11 of its upcoming PlayStation 5 console, without revealing pricing or a launch date. Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
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