We are a day away from the launch of PlayStation 5, but unless you arranged for in-store pick-up, it’s looking unlikely that many players who pre-ordered online will be getting theirs on launch day. But with one retailer, Target, there’s something else to watch out for in particular.
For a long while now, my “shipping window” has been between November 13 and November 18 at Target, which is not ideal in and of itself, especially now that they appear to have landed on a delivery date of November 18, six full days after the system comes out. I’m not sure the second, digital PS5 I’ve pre-ordered at GameStop will fare any better, but we’ll see.
But the problem isn’t just the date, it’s how this might be delivered. Wario64 on Twitter clued me in about this, and I went to check my order to see that I do in fact have the following warning:
“Because this item ships in its original packaging, there is no way to hide what it is.”
So, this could mean one of two things, one of which is horrible, the other of which is still not great and worth nothing.
It does not seem likely that Target is just slapping on a shipping sticker to the outside of a PS5 box and sending it out that way, although that’s what the wording of this might indicate.
But the second option we’ve seen for some retailers and some units before, that it may indeed be in a cardboard box, but one that has pretty clear “PlayStation 5” labeling somewhere on the outside, so people will be able to tell what it is perhaps not at a distance, but if they were snooping around your porch. This is opposed to most packages which…obviously don’t literally list their contents inside on the outside packaging. Target has said it will ship in a “traditional brown box,” but it’s unclear how that is labeled. If it’s just a normal Target box, I’m not sure why they’re issuing this warning.
So the warning is that you just need to be extra vigilant and careful for your delivery day if you ordered from Target, though it’s possible they’re not the only retailer doing this, just the only one with a warning. Some orders may require you to sign for the package, eliminating this problem, but no one made me sign for my Xbox Series X which I just found sitting on my porch in its huge box yesterday, so who knows. But check often for your PS5 so it’s not sitting outside in whatever form, either fully or partially exposed.
In general, PlayStation 5 shipping seems to be going a bit rougher than Xbox Series X shipping, and most people I know who are not picking their units up in stores either have delayed delivery dates or no date at all yet. We’ll see how this all shakes out tomorrow, and maybe Target or GameStop will surprise me.
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