News Sony Fights Scalpers in Japan By Demanding PS5, PS4 Playtime

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Inevitably, pre-orders for the limited edition 30th Anniversary PS5 Pro are being flogged for a huge markup on auction sites like eBay. But in Japan specifically Sony is fighting back by requiring 30 hours of PS5 and PS4 playtime since 14th February, 2014. If you haven't logged that amount of time on your account, then you won't be eligible to complete the transaction.

While it's a fairly low bar, it will prevent scalpers from creating new PSN accounts to purchase the platform. If it's successful, we could potentially see a similar system rolled out for future high-demand products in the West.

Japanese players have generally been receptive to the idea, although some believe more could be done. Still, this is superior to the process in the UK and US, where players joined a virtual queue and simply had to pray they got access to PlayStation Direct quick enough to pull the trigger.

As we alluded to earlier, some profiteers have already been flogging their 30th Anniversary PS5 Pro pre-orders for up to $10,000, although disgruntled fans have been fighting back by reporting the auctions to eBay.

There's probably never going to be a perfect solution to this problem, but ensuring pre-orders are purchased by actual fans makes sense. Japan seems to be on the right path by mandating 30 hours of playtime, so we're hopeful to see this approach eventually applied overseas.