Want to Play Video Games? The Price Tag is High.

It has been a year since the newest generation of gaming consoles was released. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s PlayStation 5 theoretically became available in early November 2020 but are still impossible to find on store shelves.

The reason why may not surprise you.

Microchip shortages have been the cause for a lot of currently hard-to-find products and many products use them. If you wanted to buy a phone, a laptop, a tablet, a smart speaker, color-changing light bulbs, a Ring doorbell, a car, or anything else that needs microchips, you have been affected by the chip shortage. The reason you can’t find a Chevrolet Silverado is the same reason you can’t find an Xbox.

Retailers are struggling to provide for their customers.

“Customers are losing a reason to come to us,” said John, a former store manager for a GameStop that closed earlier this year in Northvale, NJ. He didn’t want us to use his last name but said. “We can’t get them the consoles, and all the games are downloaded online, so no one even bothers coming into the stores anymore.”

He said some people have taken advantage of the shortage. “The problem is we only get a couple of consoles, and usually the staff buys them before the store even opens. Then we have to wait weeks before we get anymore. Some of my staff were buying them just to resell them to their friends.”

Console reselling has been an issue for consumers. Scalpers prey on stores and websites to quickly snatch any supply to resell for a profit.

Jaime, a scalper, also didn’t want to share his last name. He uses his skills to buy and sell anything from gaming consoles to “hypebeast” clothing brands such as Air Jordan and Supreme. He explained how he gets his hands on these items. “There are two ways to get this stuff online. One way is to use bots,” said Jaime. Bots are computer programs that automatically purchase items the moment they become in stock.

“They’re expensive, and they don’t guarantee you’ll get the item, so I created a Twitter account and followed a bunch of PS5 and Xbox drops [releases] and waited patiently and checked back constantly for news or rumors of predicted drops. I used two Chrome extensions, one that was able to put in all my checkout information automatically so I can checkout as quickly as possible, and another that refreshed my page constantly and had notifications sent to my phone when a change in stock would come up on the refreshed page. I had at least 10 different retailers’ websites open doing this at the same time throughout the day. I got them from Walmart, GameStop, BestBuy, Target, you name it.”

“I would be able to get a PS5 for $500 retail and resold them immediately for between $750 and $800 since there was such a huge, desperate market. There were others selling for $900 or over $1000, but I wanted to move mine quick. I usually used Facebook Marketplace and sold within a day of getting the console.”

Because of people like Jaime, regular buyers must be super motivated to get their hands on gadgets.

“You basically have to really want one and do what I did to get one at retail price, otherwise you’re going to be coughing up a bunch of money,” said Jaime.

Holiday shoppers are feeling this pain.

Perla Godinez of Newburgh NY went to five different stores during Thanksgiving weekend to find games and a console for her Christmas shopping.

“It’s ridiculous, I’m trying to get the PS5 for my siblings,” she said. “I’m getting to the point that I’m just going to have to get something else.”

Others are less bothered by the shortage.

Jonathan Guzman of Palisades says “I’m not going to stress about it or pay extra for one, if it’s not available, I’m just not getting one. When it’s here [at the store] I’ll pick one up.”

Brendan Flanagan of Nanuet already got one, “I overpaid for one online, but the other option is to get a $1000 or $2000 gaming computer, so either way I’m paying less.”