While the Covid-19 pandemic severely affected multiple different industries throughout 2020, video games ended up thriving in several key areas. Franchises like Animal Crossing, Call of Duty, and more sold record millions of games sold. Nintendo Switch consoles continued to skyrocket through consecutive sales records, lifetime sales records, and more. Even at the end of 2020, Microsoft and Sony launched next-gen consoles to great sales, though it’s not all positive news. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have been in huge demand since last November, but the supply has been severely hampered by the pandemic and a huge scalping problem.
Even in 2021, getting a next-gen console is going to continue to be a hassle for budding consumers. Obviously Sony and Microsoft will want to ramp up production and manufacturing of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, but consistent scalping/reselling of both consoles keeps holding consoles hostage. Pair that with the fact that sheltering-in-place, quarantining, and working-from-home in the face of the pandemic will still be mainstays throughout 2021 as well. Unless a concerted effort to combat scalpers is made, by both console makers and retailers who are selling them, the scarcity of next-gen consoles could very well continue for the next few months of this year as well.
In the beginning of 2021, there’s been quite a few next-gen consoles restocks, but it’s still the same story as what happened late last year. Scalpers and resellers continue to reap the benefits of setting up infrastructure to snag all stock from online retailers, as soon as it goes live. It is steadily getting easier for consumers to find PS5/Xbox Series X consoles, which will undoubtedly continue to improve as the year goes on, but it may not be for a while. Much like Nvidia graphics cards, PS5 consoles may continue to sell out until spring 2021. So long as scalping groups like “Carnage” exist, who recently “acquired” 2000 PS5 consoles, this problem isn’t going to disappear any time soon.
Scalpers and resellers working unchecked continue to profit off of private selling income, and unfortunately, people are falling prey to it. It’s gotten to the point where game sales themselves are nominally affected by purchased consoles without any purchased games. Even the most recent restocks at retailers like Walmart have sold out instantly, despite blocking millions of bot accounts attempting to buy up consoles. This week may even yield a more recent example, as Target is rumored to be planning a restock of consoles this week. Trying to purchase a PS5/Xbox Series X throughout the next month or two is still going to be very difficult.
It’s going to take a serious, proactive effort on behalf of the retailers to feasibly deal with bots/scalpers/resellers/etc. Even though they are technically selling the consoles and making profits, that doesn’t necessarily equate to long-term success of consoles aren’t yielding additional game or accessory sales as well. To be fair, retailers aren’t required to do anything about the problem, but it’s theoretically in each company’s best interest to find a way. Sales have slowed down significantly compared to November/December 2020, mostly because of the notoriety of scalping/reselling, and why scarcity is still pushing reseller prices anywhere between $800 to $1800.
So long as demand is high, and the demand is not met, scalpers will continue to interfere. What makes matters worse is fans can’t just call up their nearest Walmart, GameStop, or Best Buy to check for stock. All major retailers have stuck to online-only sales, which is keeping consumers safe from the pandemic, but is also unintentionally further exacerbating resale issues. To put it into perspective from another side of the gaming industry, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress has stated that the delays for Nvidia’s latest 30 Series graphics cards will “probably” not meet demand until next quarter, meaning April 2021.
That’s an unthinkable timeframe to deduct from January alone, however the same may be likely for PS5 and Xbox Series X as well. Given how sales have been affected thus far, it’s hard not to look at the track record of the last few months and believe that could be possible. Target’s restock this week may be a better gauge of the situation, and while this scarcity may not necessarily last until April 2021, consoles sales are still going to be relatively difficult for the beginning of this year.
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