Why Is It So Hard To Get Your Hands On A PS5?

Sony’s massively hyped next-gen console, the PS5, released on November 12, 2020. With exclusive games such as God of War 2, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Destruction AllStars, and Demon’s Souls available only on this next-gen console, it is by far the most popular console of 2020. However, if you were like many players and wanted to purchase one of the consoles, there were quite a few obstacles in your way that may have stopped you from being able to get your hands on one of them. If you were one of the people lucky enough to afford either the standard PS5 at $499, or the digital PS5 that forgoes a traditional disc-drive at $399, you had to also be quick enough to purchase your PS5 console before the hoards of console-scalping bots snagged them all. So what exactly happened with the launch of the console and why is it still so hard to get your hands on a PS5? Let’s talk about some of the issues that affected players’ abilities to purchase a PS5 and start playing some of their most anticipated games that the next-generation of consoles have to offer!

Scalper Bots

One of the biggest issues that have plagued the catastrophic launch of Sony’s PS5 is the lack of bot protection. Right now, there are hundreds – if not thousands – of PS5s available on third-party retailers for well over $1000 USD. More than twice the retail price set at $499 by Sony themselves. This is a huge issue that Sony has yet to solve completely, though I’m not entirely sure if it’s a problem that can really be solved. It’s not like these scalper bots are really breaking the law, they’re just purchasing a console like everyone else, but it feels like it should be illegal to buy these consoles just to turn around and sell them for a ridiculous price on eBay or another third-party site. If Sony could just implement a captcha system that would prevent scalper bots from being able to purchase these consoles, it would allow people who actually want or need a console to play and also review next-gen exclusive games (like maybe a certain games journalist writing for Unreality) though Sony may have actually implemented something like this to deter scalper bots, but by the time I’ve been able to check any sites, all of the restocked consoles are already sold out. Maybe next time.

Supply and Demand

Unfortunately, due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, production on Sony’s PS5 consoles have been extremely limited. This is what the PS5 store page has to say about the production quantities of the PS5:

LIMITED QUANTITIES AVAILABLE – unit not reserved until checkout is complete and you receive a confirmation email.”

It makes sense that production on the PS5 would be exceptionally low with the global pandemic going around and no one can really do anything about that. Unfortunately, this means that the demand for the console is at an all-time high as people are looking towards video games to pass the time and maintain some sort of sense of normality until life can adjust and return to a regular state. However, unlike the ever-increasing demand for the console, the supply has not followed suit. This is definitely one of the biggest reasons why you still aren’t able to get your hands on a PS5. I’m sure that Sony is working extremely hard to get even more consoles out to keep up with the demand that seems to constantly be growing, but I think it’ll be quite some time before everyone that would like to purchase a PS5 will have the ability to purchase their console. Hopefully we’ll have some more restocks in store (and online) for us in 2021 – I would love to get my hands on God of War 2 and Horizon Forbidden West! Speaking of restocks for the PS5….

Restocks

If you’re looking for any and every PS5 restock, you might want to start following a Twitter account that keeps track of PS5 stock (I follow PS5StockUpdates) and be sure to turn on the notifications to get the very best chance of getting your hands on a new PS5. There haven’t been a whole lot of restocks and with what little there have been, they sell out almost immediately. If you’re looking to get a hold of a PS5, you’re gonna have to be quick with it and stay prepared as there could be a restock at any retailer at any time. If just following a restock-alert account isn’t enough for you, you can always keep an eye on retailer websites such as Amazon, Target, GameStop, BestBuy, and even Costco, though Target seems to have been the best bet for many customers.

In time, I believe that the supply for PS5 consoles, standard and/or digital editions, will meet the crazy demand that we’ve seen – and continue to see – since the launch of the PS5 in November, 2020. It would be a real shame if players that are looking forward to upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusives like God of War 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, and the PS5 optimized Spider-Man: Miles Morales were completely unable to play these games that they have waited so long to play, simply because they were never able to obtain a PS5 console of their own. Maybe once everyone is able to get their hands on one, Cyberpunk 2077 may make its return to the PlayStation store, so that fans on PS5 can finally experience a semi-working version of the game! Are you one of the players that are anxiously waiting for PS5 restock alerts by stalking websites and searching across every retailer for any hint of news regarding the system? Do you even care about the console because you have a PC, Xbox, or another console of your choice, and aren’t interested in any of the PlayStation 5 exclusives that Sony has to offer? I know that I’ll be camping out all day awaiting my chance to purchase a brand new PS5 as soon as I can – I’ll even go to a physical GameStop store if I have to, though I hope it doesn’t come to that.

Image Credits: Inverse