PlayStation Direct store finally appears to be coming to Europe
It looks like the PlayStation Direct store will be heading to Europe soon, offering players outside the US the opportunity to buy PS5 consoles directly from Sony, without having to go through a third-party retailer.
A new job listing has been posted online that reveals Sony is looking for a director for a PlayStation Direct Europe store. The direct-to-consumer store has been a popular destination for eager customers looking to get their hands on the infamously hard-to-acquire new generation consoles, and the popularity of the store in the US has no doubt inspired Sony to start up similar operations on the other side of the Atlantic.
"[...] We are looking to build on the successful launch of the new direct-to-consumer business in the US with the launch in Europe," reads the job description. "[...] this role will be responsible for the European sales strategy and delivering the sales targets of the direct to consumer hardware business in Europe."
The US PlayStation Direct store opened its virtual doors in September 2019 and has been a pretty popular shopping vehicle for gamers since. "The PlayStation Store & Services (PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Now,..) businesses have continued to deliver substantial growth and represents a significant proportion of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s overall revenues as well as approximately 15% of Sony’s revenues," explains the job listing.
This shows that the storefront is a key earner in the overall Sony portfolio, and sheds some light on precisely why Sony would want to have a D2C store operating out of Europe, as well as North America.
Sony casued something of a stir when the PS5 pre-order system was announced, inviting only a select number of people to pre-order the console via the PlayStation Direct store earlier this year.
Typically, when we've seen PlayStation 5 stock refreshes, Sony's own store has always appeared to get more stock in, suggesting it's the first place the company is willing to allocate fresh PS5 units to.
Hopefully, that means in 2021 Europe will see the dire stock situation alleviated somewhat. Maybe that'll stop the likes of SNL parodying the less-than-ideal shortage of PS5s in the new year.