Why is the PS5 always out of stock?

 

If you've ever tried to wait for a PS5 resupply, or even gone to a store to see if it's in stock, you'll probably have seen the dreaded, but now expected three words, "Out of Stock." It's now basically impossible to find a PS5 at retail prices since the only ones available to buy are at ridiculous prices offered by people, but why is this?

Let's start with the production of PS5s with the first big reason, a shortage in parts due to the pandemic. The most notable part is the semiconductor, which has a global shortage due to the coronavirus. Semiconductors are an essential piece in every electronic, and the world's largest semiconductor company is TSMC, in Taiwan, which makes semiconductors for tons of companies, Sony included. Therefore when a drought happened in Taiwan and the pandemic started, TSMC couldn't keep up with orders for semiconductors causing a low supply of electronics, from Playstations to Teslas. As well as the semiconductor shortage, PC gamers and cryptocurrency miners are buying up most of the chips and graphics cards, leaving even fewer parts for the PlayStation 5.

The second reason and the one more widely known and talked about is bots, scalpers and scammers. Whenever a store does have PS5s or new graphics cards (really, anything that is in limited supplies), you won’t even get a chance to put in your credit card details because it will have already sold out within mere minutes, if not seconds. Even if you're literally the Flash, they’ll be gone you know it, thanks to scalpers who use special software and bots to buy as many as possible as quickly as possible. These people then go on to sell their products for extremely high prices since lots of people will have missed the restock and are desperate to get it. While these scalpers may make excuses like that they are trying to, “provide for their families," these are often lies to excuse the fact that they are selfish people that put making money over other people and probably make enough money anyways. If you are thinking about buying from a scalper, my advice is DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! You will only be helping and supporting these people and it is always better to be patient and buy at retail price. The worst part is that some scalpers go the extra mile and scam their customers by not sending them anything, or sending a piece of paper like they're mocking the poor customer.

In conclusion, I advise everyone who is waiting for a PS5 to hold out till the semiconductor shortage is over and prices return to normal, invalidating scalpers. There are a couple of other issues affecting PS5 supply like shipping issues and trade bans, but semiconductors are the biggest problem.