As of early November, gamers all across the world have been on the hunt to get their hands on one of the new next-gen consoles, whether it be Sony’s PlayStation 5 or Microsoft’s Xbox Series X. However, very few of them were able to purchase one because of the outrageous demand.

There are numerous causes for this high demand. The main reason is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted supply chains and caused companies like Sony and Microsoft to struggle to meet the demand of their devoted customers. Also retailers are primarily selling the consoles online which has further diminished the supply of consoles, but this may not have as much impact as expected because online shopping is where most people currently purchase items. Additionally, there has been an explosion in the amount of players because many turned to video games as a primary source of entertainment during self-quarantining, which was also contributed to the massive demand for these next-generation consoles.  

Despite the difficulty of obtaining the new consoles, a group of people called scalpers have successfully used bots to buy consoles online and resell them for a substantial profit. The significant increase in online console purchases have made their lives easier, as there are far more units to available for them to purchase than there would have had the consoles been primarily stocked in stores.

A non-Covid related aspect to the demand for the new Xbox and PlayStation is the new features on both consoles. They are both next-gen consoles. which means that they will have many new features. The new consoles are able to run games at 4k resolution and 120 frames per second(fps) which is a huge upgrade from the previous generation of consoles which ran most games at 60 fps. This new feature allows games to run and look much smoother. This is a big part of the hype that surrounds the new consoles.

The PlayStation 5 retails for $499 and can be purchased online at sony-direct-playstation.com. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X also retails for $499 and has limited availability locally for purchase.🔳