Console shortage continues, Bots rule market

Chloe Ward, Reporter

    It is no surprise that the new PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X are in extremely high demand, it happens every time there is a new console for people to pour their money into. However, this generation has a darker reasoning behind the scenes, one may keep the market corrupted until 2022. 

     There are several reasons behind the infamous shortage that’s plagued gamers for the past year. The first and most alarming is the scalpers buying and reselling the supply every time sites like Amazon and Best Buy restock. Scalpers are people that seek quick and easy profit, and they consist surprisingly of teens and young adults. 

     One of the people doing this is a girl  (last name unknown) from the United Kingdom who earns about £2,000 ($2,750) per month. All she does is use bots to buy up the stocks as soon as they are announced, and resell for “easy pocket money” as she says. 

     While it may sound like a simple, easy way to earn money, it is still preventing loyal console lovers from getting the systems for a decent price. The only available options for buying right now can range from $800 to over $1,500, whereas the original price is a mere $400. Since many aren’t aware of the situation, they can easily fall victim to these scams.

     Of course, that is not the only reason why the supply is so low. The pandemic is undeniably the biggest reason, since manufacturing is difficult with a shorter supply of silicon chips. This specifically is affecting not only consoles, but the manufacturing of vehicles and PC parts like graphics cards and processors (cnbc.com). The demand for personal computers has risen because of the pandemic, since people want to work from home, play online games, and mine for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum. Without as many chips, the restocks of the PlayStation and Xbox are small, worsening the scamming and price inflation. The shortage of these chips is going to carry into 2022 according to gtplanet.net, so unless buyers can work around scammers, the problem will likely persist until then. 

     However, there are available work-arounds for people who want to get their hands on consoles now. Using Amazon is not the best option for buying, due to the lack of bot protection. However, Best Buy has sustainable protection that makes it so you have to verify your purchase, destroying the cycle of automatic “out of stock” messages on their site after restocks. You can also be put on lists to reserve a system when they are available. While the lists are very long and it may take months to get a hold of one, you are not limited to giving scammers three times the market value of these systems.