Sony is making shoppers in Japan prove they actually play games before they can even enter a draw to buy a PlayStation 5 Pro. The PS5 Pro lottery, which opened on Sony’s Japanese store in late September 2026, only accepts accounts that logged at least 60 hours of playtime on a PS5 or PS4 over the past two years, and applications close on October 7.
The console itself costs 137,980 yen including tax. Winning the draw does not mean a free console; it only earns the right to buy one at Sony’s suggested retail price instead of paying a scalper’s markup.
How the PS5 Pro lottery works
According to Sony’s official application page, PlayStation Japan has opened purchase applications for the PS5 Pro through its Sony Store, and says a lottery will be held if eligible applications exceed the number of units it plans to sell. The rules are specific:
- The applicant’s Sony account must be registered in Japan and used for PlayStation online services.
- That account must show a combined 60 hours of playtime on PS5, PS4 or both between September 27, 2024 and 11:59 p.m. on September 27, 2026.
- The account’s My Sony ID and PlayStation sign-in ID must be unified.
- Applicants must live in Japan, and delivery is limited to addresses inside the country.
- Each Sony account can apply for one console.
The playtime window already closed on September 27, the day before applications opened. That means nobody can leave a game idling overnight to qualify now. As TechPowerUp put it, the cutoff “marks a hard stop that Sony will track, preventing anyone from artificially increasing their playtime.”
Key dates for applicants
- October 7, 2026, 11:59 p.m.: application deadline.
- Around October 26, 2026: Sony begins notifying winners by email, in sequence.
- November 2, 2026, 11:59 a.m.: deadline for winners to complete their purchase.
Any units winners fail to buy by the deadline will not go to waste. Sony’s page says that from November onward it will run a second draw for those leftover units among applicants who met the conditions but lost the first round.
Sony’s own wording on resellers
Sony’s Japanese notice does not use the word “scalper,” but its intent is plain. The page tells applicants, in Japanese:
転売目的でのご応募・ご購入はご遠慮ください
That translates to a request that people refrain from applying or buying for resale purposes. The terms also separately address cases in which resale intent becomes clear. On the reason for the draw itself, Sony’s announcement says applications are subject to a lottery if they exceed the planned sales volume, and asks customers to understand this in advance.
The 60-hour requirement is the real filter. Bots and resellers can create fresh accounts in minutes, but they cannot fake two years of logged play on an account after the cutoff date has passed. No PlayStation Plus subscription is listed as a condition.
A DRAM shortage behind the empty shelves
The lottery is a response to a supply problem rather than a sudden surge of new fans. TechPowerUp opened its report bluntly: “No one is exempt from the global DRAM shortage.” The outlet said DRAM shortages “have been depleting Sony’s stock for manufacturing new consoles,” and reported that Sony has worked with the three big memory makers, Samsung, SK hynix and Micron, to secure supply ahead of the expected rush.
The memory squeeze shows no sign of ending soon. On October 1, TechPowerUp ran a separate headline reporting that Micron’s CEO says memory supply will be much tighter in 2027 and 2028 than in 2026.
GamesRadar+, which also covered the Japanese draw, noted that the console shortages are “more about missing parts” than about players alone, and pointed to an earlier spike in demand: “The latest GTA 6 reveal in August decimated PS5 Pro stock here in the US.” NarwhalTV covered that moment when PS5 Pro stock vanished and resale prices climbed to $1,300.
Grand Theft Auto VI raises the pressure
Rockstar’s upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI is the demand driver hanging over all of this. TechPowerUp described it as one of the most anticipated AAA titles of the year, the kind of release that triggers “a whole ecosystem of purchases” as players upgrade their hardware. For many PS4 owners in Japan who have logged their hours, the PS5 Pro lottery is the most direct path to a console at list price before the game arrives.
The design also explains why a two-year playtime window makes sense from Sony’s side. Someone still gaming on a PS4 easily clears 60 hours across two years, while a reseller account created last week shows none. Even a casual player who spent about 36 minutes a day on games would hit the threshold in roughly 100 days.
Gamers react to buying a console by raffle
Reaction has been mixed. TechPowerUp called it “perhaps one of the strangest ways to purchase a console,” though the site acknowledged it at least rewards people who play. Some commenters compared it with the GPU shortage years, when certain retailers ran draws for the right to buy graphics cards at MSRP. Others questioned why a console that launched in 2024 is harder to buy now than it was at release.
One Reddit user quoted by GamesRadar+ welcomed the approach: “I hope this is what they do for the eventual PS6 release.” Sony has not said whether the playtime-gated model will be used outside Japan or for future hardware. For context on how much Sony’s hardware has cost over the years, see our look at PlayStation console prices at launch versus six years later.
For now, the rules apply only to Japan, and only to the Sony Store sale described on PlayStation Japan’s page. Shoppers in the US and Europe still face the open market, where the same DRAM shortage and GTA VI demand continue to shape what they pay.
