The PlayStation 5 had a complicated start to its reign, polluted by stock-outs and scalpers who didn’t hesitate to buy Sony’s console to give it back at a high price. What about today?
The PS5 is released on November 19, 2020and everyone remembers the excitement that surrounded the launch of the new console from Sony. And for good reason, it was not necessary to be late for the pre-order or risk waiting weeks, even months before acquiring the precious white monolith. More than a year and a half after its releasethe situation hasn’t really changed and the PS5 has reached more than 20 million units sold, which is a good number but lower than those reached by the PS4 in its time.
PS5 production slowed down by Covid and…. the war in Ukraine
The Japanese manufacturer surely imagined another destiny for its new generation model. A momentum broken from the start by a exceptional context which combines two phenomena which are still fully present today.
The Covid-19 pandemicfollowed by the war in Ukraine, have greatly destabilized world markets, seemingly paralyzed by uncontrollable and difficult to predict events that have impacted the productivity of many small and large businesses, to the point of lack of raw materials and components essential to the manufacture of certain products. The video game industry has unfortunately not escaped this. One thinks in particular of the semiconductors, which supply a large part of the current electronic equipment. Sony hopes to bring a solution by having launched the construction of its own factory on its ground.
These shortages are surely not unrelated to the rapid emergence of new models of PS5 (CFI-1100B), which embarked a composition a little different than the launch model. One thinks in particular of a smaller cooling system and less loaded in copper.
When the scalpers make the law
The perverse effect of this lower supply than demand is that it has created a new type of consumers that we call scalpers. These last ones who, with patience and/or bots, have to resell the PS5 at a high price.
Sony even went so far as to create a seal system to be affixed to the PS5 box to ensure that they would not fall into the hands of one of its famous “merchants”.
At the height of this phenomenon, it was not uncommon to find PS5s at more than 2,000 euros, even though the recommended retail price did not exceed 499 euros. If the situation seems to calm down little by little, with prices becoming “reasonable” again and a restock becoming more and more frequent, it is still very difficult to get the last born from PlayStation.
Fortunately, gamers can count on serious sites like Dealabs, Station of Playto name but a few, or our own in-house comparator on VideoGamesRepublic. The latter do not hesitate to keep you regularly informed of the state of the stocks to help the most eager among us to upgrade to the new generation of console.
However, and despite all the problems exposed, the Japanese firm intends to start the second one, and plans, or at least hopes, a return to normal for during 2024 by drastically increasing the production of machines, before (the release of the PS5 pro)? Who knows. Only the future will tell.
In any case, this is the opportunity for us to make a small point with our dear readers, and to count who has a PS5, and who is still looking to get one. Tell us in the comments by sharing your opinions, or your anecdotes.
