PS5 game news: Scalpers at an impasse after two years of financial orgy
Published on 04/21/2023 at 20:35
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When the release of a next-gen console takes place in the midst of a pandemic, when demand explodes and factories cannot produce enough consoles, scalpers rub their hands. After two years of taking advantage of the situation, they are finally starting to look gloomy.
The new generation facing the shortage
It’s November 2020, and the next-generation consoles Xbox Series and PS5 are officially hitting the shelves. Officially only, because it is then almost impossible to find them at the normal price if you have not managed to pre-order. We could hope that the situation would quickly return to normal, but it was not. Every stock that appeared on the internet was immediately sold out, and very few consoles were seen on the shelves. The main reason behind these stock shortages is the shortage of semiconductors resulting from the closure of foundries, mainly based in Asia.
Every sector in need of these components attempted to secure stocks, with some given priority when others were asked to wait as demand remained very strong. The situation has had an impact on the automotive market, on smartphones, televisions and even video games, to the point of encouraging the United States and the European Union to invest so that components are more often manufactured on their territory. .
We were therefore faced with enormous demand and manufacturers who could not keep up, only delivering machines in dribs and drabs. During this time, a big parallel market has been set up, with unscrupulous dealers. Using bots or various well-honed techniques, they raided a number of consoles to resell them at exorbitant prices, particularly targeting the PS5. The shortage having lasted two good years, it is quite easy to imagine that they filled their pockets.
Consoles are now easy to find, scalpers forced to sell off their stocks
Things have evolved smoothly, but a real break took place a few weeks ago. After having battled, the manufacturers announced that they were able to supply the stores in quantity and regularly. It is no longer rare at all to see PS5s or Xbox Series Xs at FNAC, Micromania, Cultura or in supermarkets. However, the Sony console remains the star in our region, being widely highlighted.
The main consequence of the end of the shortage is the huge drop in consoles resold by scalpers. The latter can no longer sell their PS5 or their graphics cards above the market price, and therefore find themselves with stock to sell. Last year again, there were PS5s offered and purchased around €800 without a problem.
Today, scalpers are drastically lowering their prices, sometimes finding themselves below the classic market price (€550 for a PS5, €500 for a Series X and €300 for a Series S) because the stock has to be sold off. On various forums such as Reddit, gamers seem happy to see the situation improving, although many of them are urging dealers to introduce even more limits to prevent scalpers from affording entire stocks of consoles.
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