Poll of the Day > Why is there still a PS5/Series X shortage after all this time?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I thought it would be easy to get one after February or so.
Is this really gonna continue for like 2 years?
I'm not gonna complain since I really need to save money, so not being tempted to get one is a good thing for me. I just find it weird. I don't think there has ever been a console shortage this bad in history

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dunno but it is going as planned. at least from what they said would happen. they should be easily available a little after the summer

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Because scalpers buy them all instantly

Duh

There is also high global demand for graphics cards rn

Is there a series X shortage? All I hear about is ps5

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Manufacturing is still down thanks to COVID and scalpers are still arbitraging things.

Ferarri619 posted...

I don't think there has ever been a console shortage this bad in history

Well, it's the first console that came out around a global health pandemic.

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Ferarri619 posted...

I don't think there has ever been a console shortage this bad in history

I mean there is still a pandemic going on...

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The 2021 crypto mining boom has caused manufacturing backups at TSMC.
We are going to see this with every GPU release going forward.

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They're trying to do another Wii.

no reason to. no real exclusives, and they will probably be a pro model. even base ps4 runs hitman 3 fine (hell, if tsushima looks good)

plus it looks ugly, and the controller looks like it was designed by playskool...
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jsb0714 posted...

They're trying to do another Wii.

Just like your mom.

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I heard it might clear up in July

Stimulus money flying around into the hands of people who feel like blowing free money on a console with no exclusives for the first time ever

it's a manufactured shortage. On purpose.

Millea posted...

it's a manufactured shortage. On purpose.

is there evidence of that

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teddy241 posted...

Stimulus money flying around into the hands of people who feel like blowing free money on a console with no exclusives for the first time ever

ReggieTheReckless posted...

Because scalpers buy them all instantly

I hope they keep buying them, and can't sell them. And then a ton are made that makes it hard for them to unload them even at MSRP price, and then have to sell them at a loss just to not lose all the money they have...
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Scalpers aside, there's also a massive semiconductor shortage all around right now.

Scalpers suck, but the problem is way bigger than that.

You know, there's still a worldwide pandemic and all going on and a lot of shit has to sit in quarantine before it gets thru customs. Production is down, shipping is down, manufacturing is down worldwide.

Scalpers exacerbate the problem for sure, but there's less of literally everything to go around right now.

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Millea posted...

it's a manufactured shortage. On purpose.

I wonder if ideas like these are related to the tinfoil shortage >_>

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They're doing what Nintendo did last year, throttling supply so there will be more than enough in the holiday season. Switch went from impossible-to-find to the most available console, and it ain't because sales slowed down.

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Veedrock- posted...

They're doing what Nintendo did last year, throttling supply so there will be more than enough in the holiday season. Switch went from impossible-to-find to the most available console.

I don't remember Nintendo doing this...
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

probably be a pro model

This is why I'm waiting on one. I did get one for my brother, though.

Here's a tip if you're looking: If you follow restock Twitter pages it's fairly easy to get one. Just gotta be quick. When they tweet out a restock you gotta drop what you're doing and try to buy one. I got one after a few days following like a half dozen Twitter accounts dedicated to restocks.

You could also probably program your own bot to scout for restocks (or even to buy a PS5 when they restock) but I'm too lazy for that and lack the programming knowledge to begin with

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Idk, TC, but they need to stop advertising it here on GameFAQS. Its like a taunt.

You want this PS5, dontcha, homeboy. Yeah... you cant have it.

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.. because reasons.

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Well, it doesn't matter since they don't have any games for them anyways.

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*laughs in Nintendo Wii*

If it's anything like the Wii, it'll be scarce for another year. I had to wait outside the store for 2 hours to get a Wii in early January 2007. I didn't passively see one in stores until early 2008.

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i'm trying to buy a friend a series x for his birthday, but it's been stupidly difficult to do, and probably won't make it before the day comes, ok?

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The pandemic excuse is lulzworthy by now just look outside do You see people hurting from sickness most people resume regular lives with just masks

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faramir77 posted...

*laughs in Nintendo Wii*

If it's anything like the Wii, it'll be scarce for another year. I had to wait outside the store for 2 hours to get a Wii in early January 2007. I didn't passively see one in stores until early 2008.

I actually got a launch Wii for Christmas when I was in high school. My parents got it from Walmart.
Scalping also wasn't really widespread because of how the internet was back then. Pretty sure PS5 shortage is way worse than Wii was...

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Veedrock- posted...

They're doing what Nintendo did last year, throttling supply so there will be more than enough in the holiday season. Switch went from impossible-to-find to the most available console, and it ain't because sales slowed down.

No they're not. It's a global manufacturing shortage. Please read the thread.

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Aculo posted...

i'm trying to buy a friend a series x for his birthday, but it's been stupidly difficult to do, and probably won't make it before the day comes, ok?

Those restock Twitter accounts do series X, too ;)

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@Far-Queue

Those restock Twitter accounts do series X, too ;)

any suggestions? i'm bad at twittering, ok?

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Ferarri619 posted...

I actually got a launch Wii for Christmas when I was in high school. My parents got it from Walmart.
Scalping also wasn't really widespread because of how the internet was back then. Pretty sure PS5 shortage is way worse than Wii was...

What the hell is this bullshit?

Aculo posted...

@Far-Queue
any suggestions? i'm bad at twittering, ok?

Find some restock accounts (I followed Supply Ninja, King of Restock, Target PS5 Alerts, PlayStation 5 Restock and Rumors, and a couple others) and follow them, and make sure you turn on notifications for ALL notifications.

It's kinda annoying, especially because some of them tweet restocks for sneakers and fad toys that no one gives a shit about, but you gotta enable full notifications or you risk missing out.

Then just wait for the tweets and have your credit card ready. Supply Ninja and King of Restock were really good about giving people tips. They say it's good if you set up Apple Pay if you have an iPhone (speeds up the checkout process), they recommend having multiple browser windows for Playstation Direct (not sure if Xbox has something similar).

But basically you just need to be quick. Try to get it in your cart and check out as fast as possible. More than once I had a PS5 in my cart and it would "disappear" before I could finish checking out. But I didn't get discouraged. I knew what I was up against. Took me about a week but I managed to get one from Target.

Also, Newegg does these "shuffle" raffles occasionally and it's sort of a free lottery where you can put in for a chance to get a console (or graphics card, etc) and if you "win" its basically a guaranteed purchase.

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Kind of sad for the gaming industry that like half this topic is "Bah! Those bums are just jerking us around with fake scarcity. Those bums do it every time!" and not acute awareness of how utterly annihilated the global market for semi-conductors is due to covid. Game companies are greedy penny pinchers but this isn't their fault.

SomeUsername529 posted...

Kind of sad for the gaming industry that like half this topic is "Bah! Those bums are just jerking us around with fake scarcity. Those bums do it every time!" and not acute awareness of how utterly annihilated the global market for semi-conductors is due to covid. Game companies are greedy penny pinchers but this isn't their fault.

Bingo.

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SomeUsername529 posted...

Kind of sad for the gaming industry that like half this topic is "Bah! Those bums are just jerking us around with fake scarcity. Those bums do it every time!" and not acute awareness of how utterly annihilated the global market for semi-conductors is due to covid. Game companies are greedy penny pinchers but this isn't their fault.

Even sadder that people are such sheep lining up to buy something just b/c it's new an shiny despite having no actual reason to own the damn thing.

"I checked twitter every day for 2 months and needed 6 failed attempts before I was finally granted the incredible honor of spending $500 for exclusive access to a remaster of a 10 year old game."

streamofthesky posted...

Even sadder that people are such sheep lining up to buy something just b/c it's new an shiny despite having no actual reason to own the damn thing.

"I checked twitter every day for 2 months and needed 6 failed attempts before I was finally granted the incredible honor of spending $500 for exclusive access to a remaster of a 10 year old game."

Meanwhile, I'm playing yakuza remasters on a middling laptop in 30fps at best and happier than a pig in shit. And that's not counting emus of older titles on a pc the size of a cupcake on a projector...

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I understand wanting to get a system when they come out. If everyone waited for the new games, it would literally be the same thing as what's going on now. We'd have shortage because all the people buying now that decided to wait would be trying to buy them. Like how when the pandemic started at the same time that Animal Crossing came out, everyone and their moms wanted a switch. It became crazy hard to find one when shelves were basically full a few weeks ago. So, if you know you are going to want games for a system, might as well get it early so when the game you want comes out in July, you don't have to wait until November to play it...
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streamofthesky posted...

Even sadder that people are such sheep lining up to buy something just b/c it's new an shiny despite having no actual reason to own the damn thing.

"I checked twitter every day for 2 months and needed 6 failed attempts before I was finally granted the incredible honor of spending $500 for exclusive access to a remaster of a 10 year old game."

If this is directed at me, I bought mine for my brother who is a combat veteran with severe PTSD, and video games is one of the few things that bring him any joy. He lost his father in December and both of his dogs shortly after that and has been in a pretty terrible state. I was adamant about not buying from a scalper, so I used the method listed above to get one as soon as possible. Was hoping for Christmas but I didn't get one until a few weeks after Christmas.

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TheNobleWoodApe posted...

Bingo.

Yeah, the scalper theory never made any sense. Why would Sony/Microsoft want to appease scalpers? These companies are in the market to make money, not make money for a couple thousand Ebay sellers.

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DragonClaw01 posted...

Yeah, the scalper theory never made any sense. Why would Sony/Microsoft want to appease scalpers? These companies are in the market to make money, not make money for a couple thousand Ebay sellers.

I think scalpers were a problem, but I don't think Sony/Microsoft were trying to sell to scalpers. I figured that both companies were already low on supplies, so they could only make so many. And the scalpers decided to buy a bunch. I believe scalpers are part of the problem. But I never though that they were in cahoots with the gaming companies. That's just sounds like a conspiracy theory. I can't say for sure, but I don't think many people thought Sony/Microsoft were trying to sell to only scalpers, or trying to appease them...
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LinkPizza posted...

I think scalpers were a problem, but I don't think Sony/Microsoft were trying to sell to scalpers. I figured that both companies were already low on supplies, so they could only make so many. And the scalpers decided to buy a bunch. I believe scalpers are part of the problem. But I never though that they were in cahoots with the gaming companies. That's just sounds like a conspiracy theory. I can't say for sure, but I don't think many people thought Sony/Microsoft were trying to sell to only scalpers, or trying to appease them...

I mean, Microsoft makes the same $600 on a console whether a bot buys it or Joe Sixpack does. They don't really have a dog in the fight. Their only issue is the fact that they can't crank out as many as the market wants to buy right now regardless of who is buying them.

If they cared one bit about the scalping after they get their retail price, they'd just charge scalper prices themselves under the same "whatever the market will bear" logic the scalpers are using.

If they could actually make more consoles faster, they would be doing so. That's just math.

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TheNobleWoodApe posted...

Microsoft makes the same $600 on a console whether a bot buys it or Joe Sixpack does. They don't really have a dog in the fight.

dont they make most of their money off of software sales though?

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DirtBasedSoap posted...

dont they make most of their money off of software sales though?

But does it matter to them if the guy buying that software paid them $600 for the console or a scalper $1200 since the thing is a paperweight without the software?

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Shortage of supplies and scalpers who need jailed taking the supply that does exist off the shelves.

Its probably on purpose, like nintendo, once they realized that it drums up demand

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BlackScythe0 posted...

Shortage of supplies and scalpers who need jailed taking the supply that does exist off the shelves.

it's not a necessity, scalping should be legal for random things. you don't have to buy from them
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Far-Queue posted...

Find some restock accounts (I followed Supply Ninja, King of Restock, Target PS5 Alerts, PlayStation 5 Restock and Rumors, and a couple others) and follow them, and make sure you turn on notifications for ALL notifications.

It's kinda annoying, especially because some of them tweet restocks for sneakers and fad toys that no one gives a shit about, but you gotta enable full notifications or you risk missing out.

Then just wait for the tweets and have your credit card ready. Supply Ninja and King of Restock were really good about giving people tips. They say it's good if you set up Apple Pay if you have an iPhone (speeds up the checkout process), they recommend having multiple browser windows for Playstation Direct (not sure if Xbox has something similar).

But basically you just need to be quick. Try to get it in your cart and check out as fast as possible. More than once I had a PS5 in my cart and it would "disappear" before I could finish checking out. But I didn't get discouraged. I knew what I was up against. Took me about a week but I managed to get one from Target.

Also, Newegg does these "shuffle" raffles occasionally and it's sort of a free lottery where you can put in for a chance to get a console (or graphics card, etc) and if you "win" its basically a guaranteed purchase.

thanks man!

Muscles posted...

Its probably on purpose, like nintendo, once they realized that it drums up demand

potd's basic bitch strikes again. a tiny, insignificant bit of research would have told you otherwise, ok?

amd has confirmed the chips that are used by both ps5 and xbox series s/x are in short supply, and won't be more available until later this year. amd can't keep up with supply demand without new consoles, so they have literally no reason to lie, ok?

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TheNobleWoodApe posted...

I mean, Microsoft makes the same $600 on a console whether a bot buys it or Joe Sixpack does. They don't really have a dog in the fight. Their only issue is the fact that they can't crank out as many as the market wants to buy right now regardless of who is buying them.

Exactly. Hence why I don't think they are working with scalpers. I think some scalpers are just taking advantage of the situation. And I don't think there's much Sony or Microsoft can do...

Just because lots of scalpers are buying the consoles doesn't mean Sony and Microsoft are trying to appease them. It's just what's happening...
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