Buy a Playstation 5 for Christmas: good luck!



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»Every single person I know wants one«, writes someone in the online forum »ResetEra«. “Everything is sold out. Hobby speculators sell them for over a thousand. It appears to be a global phenomenon. “We are not talking about a new miracle medicine or a vital resource, but a game console. “Is the Playstation 5 the most popular tech product of all time?” Asks the author of the forum entry.

Whether this circle of knowledge, in which “everyone” wants Sony’s latest game console, really exists is an open question. The rest of the wild thesis, however, cannot be contested. The Playstation 5 is currently de facto no longer available in Germany or other countries. Two weeks after the official release on November 19, people who already own the device can feel particularly good, especially since many pre-orderers are still waiting for delivery, sometimes weeks after paying.

Buy now a Playstation 5 for Christmas without spending double the normal price of 400 or 500 euros on portals such as Ebay ads? This requires strong nerves and, above all, luck. Sony did for this year though another console refueling announced. But when, where and how it is so far remains one of the great mysteries of this time of Advent for the moment.

Live blog on Playstation sales

In any case, forays into department stores are of little help. The Playstation 5 was and is sold almost exclusively on the net, also to avoid the crowds in the games department during the crown crisis. Until now, the device could only be bought online from tech resellers for a few days, basically it was more like minutes or seconds. It took decisive clicks at the right time in the right place, a nightmare for professionals. Sometimes even entire online stores have collapsed under the onslaught of the console. The specialized media now have small live blogs on the delivery situation.

The Playstation 5 is a marketing self-runner. However, the discussion is still more about mere ownership than the gaming experience: to have or not to have, to wait or not to wait, to be there or to be fed up.

126,000 comments on a deal

Fabian Spielberger, 37, has seen many console launches, but thinks this is the most sensational. He is the head of »mydealz«, a business hunting platform. On »mydealz«, founded by Spielberger in 2007, users post uncovered offers, others rate them. Each set “deal” reaches a certain temperature, according to the motto: the more a deal burns, the more remarkable. On Black Friday, for example, a contribution to discounted sex toys landed at over 4000 degrees, on Wednesday a robot vacuum broke 3000 degrees.

Both offers are therefore considered very good, but the »mydealz« contribution to the Playstation 5 easily surpasses this result. It reached 28,928 degrees, the second highest temperature ever. There were no savings opportunities when buying a console. The article essentially lists where and when a console at regular price can appear. However, the contribution set a record: to date, it has garnered over 126,000 user comments, far more than ever on a topic.

It’s a discussion full of willingness to buy and frustration, full of jokes and self-disclosure. A thread in which mostly younger and middle-aged men seem to have found a second family: that of the desperate hunters of Playstation 5, welded together by the desire to take over a console despite adverse circumstances. Motto: hunting is better than catching.

“The unusual thing is that you can’t even pre-order the Playstation anymore,” says Fabian Spielberger. “As with the launches of other consoles, we’re not talking about being able to play directly on the first day or not, but whether you will get a Playstation in a few weeks or months.”

The demand is great, despite the lack of exclusive games

How did this come about? There is a lot of suspicion about delivery or production difficulties due to Corona. Sony does not comment on this in detail. And yes, the pandemic probably plays an important role, but even more so in another aspect. Because this year of course many people just want to buy a new console.

According to information from Sony, despite the crown crisis, more devices were available at launch than at the start of the Playstation 4. But only in the US, there are said to have been as many pre-orders within twelve hours compared to the previous console in twelve weeks. .

For many, the Playstation 5 is apparently less of a luxury item than the right purchase for a time of crisis. The console table can be so white, huge and incompatible with many living room furnishings. It doesn’t matter that at first there are hardly any successful exclusive games, apart from the obscure “Demon’s Souls”.

In return, the console attracts with the fact that you can continue playing your Playstation 4 titles on a device that is far more powerful than its old-fashioned predecessor. 4K resolutions, shorter load times, a better controller – in a year when there’s not much else to do in your spare time, a noticeable leap forward is possible, at least when it comes to gaming at home.

The crown crisis with his arrests has led some people to just play or come back again. “Many of them may have saved money because they weren’t on vacation, for example, and then they said: now I’ll give myself a Playstation again,” says Fabian Spielberger. Also, the days around and after Christmas are traditionally a good opportunity to play, preferably on a new console.

Scarcity as a marketing turbo

The start of the Playstation 5 is reminiscent of business savvy Spielberger with far more demand than offering product launches in the fashion world, where some sneakers are deliberately produced in small numbers, which makes them even more popular. Artificial scarcity as a marketing turbo. Sony would certainly prefer to bring more consoles to market than too few. In any case, the company has created a »FOMO moment«, says Spielberger, a moment that makes you think: »shit, if I don’t understand it now, I don’t understand it for a long time«.

More than in previous console launches, people who clicked on the competition for early devices seem to have mixed in right now, wanting to sell the devices in the style of black market ticket resellers for a profit to true fans. It’s worth it, both on a small and large scale. Ebay ads currently automatically suggest a price of 600 to 900 euros if someone places an ad for a Playstation 5. This price range seems realistic. When asked, several private retailers report that the pain threshold for serious buyers is around $ 800 per console.

Most of the messages they receive on the platform are insults, according to the retailers: how dare they sell the console for 900 or 1000 or 1100 euros. However, some people are expecting chances of reaching four-figure amounts, especially ahead of Christmas. Because some people would give a lot to satisfy their partner or child’s dearest desire to give. This bet might work.

Icon: the mirror



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