Japanese hardware chain instantly regrets use of lottery system for RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 launch

The day has finally arrived: The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 are now available for purchase…I know, I make it sound so easy. We’ve known for a while now that launch day supplies will be extremely limited, and so retailers have tried to manage expectations accordingly. Unfortunately, even the best-laid plans frequently don’t survive contact with the general public.

As is not uncommon for in-demand hardware launches, Japanese hardware chain PC Koubou attempted to deploy a lottery system to manage demand for the 50-series cards and discourage scalping. However, a number of locations are rethinking this strategy after chaos erupted at the Akihabara store during an earlier lottery (via Videocardz).

At about 15:00 local time on January 30, a raucous line crowded the Chiyoda city location and nearby streets, with customers queuing in the hopes of even getting a chance to buy one of the new 50-series cards. People were also allegedly seen climbing the fence of a nearby elementary school, defacing the establishment’s sign in the process.

According to a now-deleted post on X, the Nagoya Osu location had originally planned to enter customers present in-store at 10:20 AM on January 31 into a lottery draw for the chance to buy one of the vanishingly few graphics cards (also via Videocardz). More recent posts from the Nagoya Osu store as well as the Osaka Nihonbashi location have announced a change of plans, instead shifting lottery applications online.

Most interestingly though, these statements reveal just how few of the 50-series cards would be in stock. For those hoping to buy a card from PC Koubou, there’ll be 15 units of the 5090 and 113 units of the 5080 graphics card available to purchase for customers selected via the online lottery.

These numbers are in line with what retailers across the globe have been claiming in the run-up to the launch. For instance, Overclockers UK said they had a ‘single digit’ amount of 5090 cards a week before launch, and MSI more recently stated they’d received a small number of GPUs directly from Nvidia.

This limited supply has in turn seen a rise in folks camping outside of Micro Center stores across the US, and plenty of chancing scalpers attempting to sell cards they do not have for as much as $7,000. The hope is that supply issues will ease as we get further into February and beyond, though by that time US-based PC gamers may be staring down a tariff that makes picking up a new 50-series card especially dear.

None of the above represents especially good odds if you’re still hoping to pick up a 5090 or 5080 card in the very near future. If you’d like to take a tour of the stockists—and an assorted roster of ‘sold out’ signs—you can check out our curated lists of 5090 and 5080 sellers in the US and UK.