PlayStation 5 consoles remain hard to find this holiday season. Here’s one more place to look.
the PlayStation 5 video game system to market, the PS5 is hard to find for shoppers.
Now there’s a new place to watch for console restocking: the Verizon website. If you are a wireless subscriber, you will find the PS5 system with a disc drive ($499.99) and PS5 digital edition ($399.99), if you search for Sony or PlayStation.
At the time the listing was reported by CNET, both models were out of stock and they remained so midday Wednesday. Verizon spokesman Chris Serico told CNET the company plans to sell “a very limited quantity” of PS5 systems online and “in a handful of pilot stores.”
Verizon did not respond to request for comment to USA TODAY.
If you want to attempt to buy a PS5 on the Verizon site, you need to be a Verizon wireless subscriber and log into your account online. Verizon told CNET you won’t need to be a Verizon customer to buy a console in a brick-and-mortar store, but the stores expected to have systems have not been identified.
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PS5s available from Verizon will be on a “first-come, first-serve basis,” the same as from other retailers including GameStop, Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, Target, Costco and Sam’s Club, along with others.
Sony is also letting shoppers sign up for a chance to buy a PS5 directly from the company on its website, with sales expected to begin this month, as Wired reported recently.
the PlayStation 2, which launched in 2000 and remains the top-seller ever at more than 155 million systems sold.
Demand for the PS5 – and the Microsoft Xbox Series X and S consoles, which also launched in November 2020 – was stoked by the pandemic, said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.
“I think that the pandemic definitely changed gaming habits/patterns, and also increased parental guilt that their kids weren’t able to participate as often in ‘normal’ activities (sports, school dances), so that guilt built up and a lot of consoles were promised by a lot of parents,” he said.
And the ensuing supply chain issues and semiconductor shortage has “contributed to the perception that consoles are ‘hard to get, highly sought after,’ and to some extent, that’s a self-fulfilling perception,” Pachter said.
With demand outstripping supply for the PS5, consumers often turn to Twitter to complain about the imbalance. And parents hoping to find a PS5 as part of their holiday shopping plans face a challenge.
“Finally gave in and decided to get the boys a PlayStation 5 for Christmas. Now I can’t find one,” one mother tweeted.
Another person on Twitter bemoaned getting pitched PS5 games and accessories “when I don’t own (one) and can’t find one to buy at retail anywhere.”
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.