This has left the console out of stock for most customers.
Scalpers tend to make bulk purchases to make it unavailable for most users.
They then resell those at higher prices.
The launch of the new generation of consoles has been, ermmm… less than ideal (to put it mildly). Both Microsoft and Sony’s new consoles are pretty much ‘out of stock’ everywhere, but it seems like the latter has more bad luck. Following reports that Amazon’s delivery executives were stealing the new PlayStation 5 in the UK, a new report suggests that scalpers have managed to snag 3,500 units of the new console.
According to a post by Business Insider, reseller groups Discord with thousands of members organized to buy as many consoles as possible during launch. Unlike previous console launches, the launch of the Sony PS5 was online-only, as such, these groups used bots to snag up as many consoles as possible. The report mentions one such group called CrepChiefNotify, which told the publication that it managed to collect 2,472 PS5 consoles across all of its members. On top of that, they claim to have ‘just under 1,000” PS5 pre-orders from September.
For those who don’t know, scalpers are described as those individuals who tend to make bulk purchases of highly anticipated items with the intention of making it unavailable for many users. They then sell the same on unofficial channels at highly inflated prices. With the sheer number of hardware launching this year, scalpers have been quite busy this year. Not only have they been selling the next generation of consoles at inflated prices, but they also got their hands on Nvidia’s new 3000-series graphics cards. The only way for companies to thwart scalpers is by ensuring that there are more than enough units available at launch.
Meanwhile in India, we still have no clue when the PS5 will be launched. As such, scalpers are having a field day with PS5 units being sold for over a lakh. To recall, the PS5 is priced at Rs 49,990, while the Digital Edition is priced at Rs 39,990. However, there is a small silver lining here as hopefully, Sony would have ironed out all the bugs that have been affecting the initial PS5 units.
Follow Us
Digit NewsDesk
Digit News Desk writes news stories across a range of topics. Getting you news updates on the latest in the world of tech. View Full Profile
