The Sony PlayStation 5 family of products.
Don’t bother emailing your local PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X dealer about when the next drop is because they don’t know either.
Despite Sony selling 10 million next-generation consoles since last November’s launch, the PS5 and Xbox Series X remain difficult to buy – with new drops continuing to sell out instantly. Buyers are either reduced to battling it out with skilled scalpers using bots when new stock is released, or turning to those same scalpers on Ebay and paying an inflated price.
The scarcity of both consoles will likely continue and retailers don’t know when it will ease up. When asked when expectant buyers can ready their credit cards for the next drop, Kevin Chandler, marketing manager at Simply Games, said “I couldn’t even guess. I can say we are hopeful they will be readily available for the Christmas period, but we really have no idea.”
A source at a major U.S. retailer said “frankly, we do not know or have an estimate. Our buyers speak with Sony frequently as we do any supplier….the general conversation does not revolve on why, just on when.”
Several other retailers didn’t respond to a request for comment, but the widely reported chip shortage that’s causing delays for technology from home goods to cars remains a problem. Smartphones have been largely insulated from production slowdowns of semiconductors, but analysts say that may be about to change as supply levels drop.
Console scalpers continue to exacerbate a problem of already limited stock, but the scarcity of PS5s has also launched several alternative industries. Sami Mehmed runs restock account UK stock alerts on Twitter, which delivers updates on which retailers have available stock via Facebook, Twitter and Telegram. Mehmed has built a community of console hunters, which he estimates has helped roughly 10,000 people purchase an Xbox Series X or PS5. He profits from this via Amazon affiliate links, which Mehmed says has has earned him just under £1000 so far.
Less scrupulous people are making thousands from buying consoles in bulk – using bots – that can check out purchases in under three seconds, according to receipts a reseller shared with me.
But retailers tell me they are fighting back against scalpers, as Chandler explained. “We have introduced a queue-based system. To explain it quickly, the customer would register interest in the PlayStation 5, which would put them on a list. We then go through the list, offering the opportunity to order a PlayStation 5, as and when we have stock, in order of when they registered interest.
“The page allowing them to purchase the console only loads for those with an email in that part of the queue and on the registered interest list. So the link can’t do the rounds on social media, as it’ll only work with certain registered accounts. We also sell the consoles in bundles with other products, which also tends to deter scalpers.” Chandler said.
For the other major U.S. retailer, buyers can only purchase the console if they had previously clicked on the “notify when available” button and entered their email address. When stock lands they are emailed a link to buy the PS5. My source said “I cannot say the system is perfect but so far it has been effective.”
It does seem that scalpers target certain stores that are easier to game. Several resellers have explained me to that UK retailer Argos is their main target because it has previously released new stock early in the morning between 1am and 3am. For scalpers this means there’s less competition from genuine buyers at that time and therefore the website isn’t slow to load. One of the methods scalpers use is an “Add To Card” request, which makes a request to Argos’ non-public basket API to check stock for certain products. This gives users instant stock updates and adds the product directly to the cart.
When stock will become more available isn’t exactly clear. Both the PS5 an Xbox Series X will be hard to come by as long as the semiconductor shortage lasts, but in an interview with Reuters, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said the company had “built more PlayStations faster than we ever have before which makes me happy. But on the other hand, we’re some time from being able to meet all the demand that’s out there, which makes me feel bad”. Continuing, “our partners are performing really well for us, but the chip shortage is definitely a challenge that we are all navigating”.
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