Kotaku: Sony Japan limits PS5 Pro sales to a lottery for accounts with 60 hours of play

Sony Japan will sell the PS5 Pro through its own Sony Store only by lottery, and only to accounts with at least 60 hours of play, Kotaku reported in a story published late on September 29, 2026, US time (02:32 UTC on September 30).

According to Kotaku, the Sony account must have logged 60 hours or more of confirmed play on PS4 or PS5 hardware between September 27, 2024 and September 27, 2026. Each customer can buy one console. Kotaku said applications ran until October 7, with results confirmed by October 26 and delivery in the first half of November, ahead of the game's November 19 launch.

Kotaku said standard PS5 models remained in stock, so the limit applies to the Pro. The outlet compared the system to the lotteries Japan used for Nintendo Switch 2 hardware, and noted that PlayStation sales in Japan have trailed Nintendo's for years, which it put down to Sony's higher hardware prices.

The link to GTA 6 comes from Kotaku, not from Sony. The outlet wrote that anticipation for the game may be driving a rush on new consoles before the November launch, and that supply chains were already strained by the AI race. As far as Kotaku's report shows, Sony did not say GTA 6 was the reason, and we did not read Sony's own notice.

Kotaku also noted that Sony has been promoting optimizations that only the PS5 Pro gets, which it suggested could be adding to demand for that model. Sony has not given stock figures in anything we read, so how many consoles are in the lottery is unknown.

The restriction covers Japan's Sony Store only. Kotaku did not report similar limits in other countries.