If the limited edition model sells out in the first second before I can get one my fallback isn’t the 1TB model, my fallback is the 512GB model and the aftermarket 1TB SSD from my old Steam Deck. And if I’m in a particularly bad mood my fallback might just be to hold off on an OLED model altogether and wait for them to go on sale next year, maybe instead I’ll do something stupid like buy a PlayStation Portal.

Please don’t make the mistake that every company makes these days with stupid artificial scarcity nonsense. There is going to be a huge number of people, not just on launch day but forever, who will see the smoke-and-red colorway (or other future colorways) as being totally worth the $30 upcharge, and there will be people like me who will use it as justification to buy the higher-end model when they don’t really need it, or to upgrade when their LCD model is still doing just fine. In the world of dull utilitarian electronics neat-looking color options can make people make bad financial decisions, use that knowledge wisely and you can print money, but use it poorly and you’ll just make potential customers upset while leaving money on the table. Missing out on a limited launch can make people hold a grudge, sometimes even abandon plans to buy anything that day rather than accepting the loss and buying a model they hadn’t been planning on.

Just make sure there’s enough for everybody, please. Don’t do what iam8bit did this morning when the Outer Wilds vinyl repress sold out to scalpers in one minute and left everybody mad. I just can’t take this artificial scarcity fad any more, it’s just so bleak and dystopian. The Steam Deck had the best launch rollout of any console thanks to the waiting list system, so I’m hoping Valve is overestimating rather than underestimating demand, but that “highly limited quantities” on the store page has me worried.