Today Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara had a sizeable shipment of new PS5 units for sale, but the situation unfolded in a much less orderly way than expected by the retailer.
As reported by user yonepo665 on Matome, the retailer opened sales in the morning, resulting in an unforeseen situation in which many customers pretty literally assaulted the counter.
You can see what happened below, courtesy of Twitter user Tabata. He mentions that police had to come and check out the situation to restore order.
According to the user, at least part of the crowd included resellers, due to the fact that the store did not have the usual scalper-prevention measures in place.
Incidentally, this happened despite the fact that Yodobashi used a system with limited tickets to prevent overcrowding.
The PS5 is very difficult to find in Japan at the moment, prompting many retailers to sell the console only via lottery (basically, you need to apply beforehand and you can purchase a PS5 only if you get lucky). This system was not used in this case, and the result was certainly uncommon for Japan.
Incidentally, Yodobashi Akiba in Akihabara is a very popular location for locals to purchase new consoles and games.
If you saw pictures of long lines waiting for a new release from pre-COVID times, there’s a high chance those were from Yodobashi Akiba. Unfortunately, the same did not happen this time.
