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Are bots really to blame for the fact that there isn't a Playstation 5 anywhere?

2021-01-26T14:26:00.506Z


Electronics stores send some paid Playstation 5 only two months after the start of sales, newcomers cannot even pre-order. What's behind it?


Icon: enlarge

The Playstation 5 has had the most successful console sales start ever: it has been virtually impossible to get in stores for weeks

Photo: Neundorf / Kirchner-Media / imago images

A cheek, a shame, a scandal: under the Twitter hashtag # wobleibtmeinePS5, disgruntled Playstation 5 fans have been writing their hearts out for weeks.

Although some of them have ordered and paid for from well-known retailers such as Saturn and Media Markt long before sales start, some are still waiting for their next-gen game consoles to be delivered.

Insolvency is requested from the electronics markets.

In the meantime, however, more and more shipping confirmations are mixed in with the tense background noise.

So will there soon be supplies for everyone who hasn't even had the chance to place a pre-order?

Recent reports of a delivery to British retailer Game bode poorly.

Instead of individual interested parties, its fresh console contingent was reportedly bought up by a bot network at breakneck speed.

On Twitter, the so-called Carnagebot account boasted 2000 successful orders in less than ten minutes.

Scalping is not a new phenomenon

Offers like the Carnagebot are aimed at people who want to earn money with the buying interests of others.

So-called scalping, the massive purchase of rare or hard-to-find things and their resale at inflated prices, is not a new phenomenon; its influence on markets and online offers has been discussed for years.

In the excitement about the Playstation 5, it quickly goes down that not every automated click ultimately leads to a delivered console.

Game, for example, has announced that it will carefully review all orders placed and cancel multiple inquiries.

Many console buyers still have the feeling that bots are ruining our fun.

The actual market situation, however, speaks a different language.

Millions of consoles are already in the living rooms

Sony itself provides the first indications for this. According to an interview with Jim Ryan, the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the new console sold as often in the USA within the first twelve hours as the Playstation 4 did in the first twelve weeks far more than two million copies are involved.

If there were a massive scalping problem, there would have to be a flood of online offers based on this number alone.

On the US website StockX, a kind of Ebay for professional scalpers, the number of Playstation 5 consoles sold worldwide is less than 80,000 devices.

It hardly looks any different on Ebay itself.

According to US analyst Michael Driscoll, only 30,000 consoles changed hands there by the beginning of December.

So scalpers are certainly doing their part in the console shortage.

The story, however, that bots like grasshoppers attack the stocks and give normal buyers no chance is probably an exaggeration.

Millions of Playstation 5 owners are likely to have purchased their consoles without any technical tricks - through ordinary online orders at the right time.

Much of the botnets target product categories with larger profit margins.

The so-called cookgroups, i.e. communities that share release dates on their own platforms or Discord servers, rent out bots and discuss strategies, have their origins in the sneaker scene.

The largest and most popular groups still focus on the resale of limited-edition sneakers and streetwear from Nike, Supreme or Adidas.

Icon: enlarge

Buyer of the Playstation 5: The console officially costs 400 to 500 euros, depending on the equipment

Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / ANP

This business is worth it: A rare shoe model by rapper Travis Scott can sometimes be resold with a price increase of 800 to 900 percent.

A Playstation 5, which costs 400 or 500 euros depending on the equipment, can be bought for a maximum of twice the price.

Consoles do not have the home-made, deliberate shortage that defines the sneaker market: sooner or later, the supply will match the demand - at the latest then scalpers will migrate.

A scalper from England confirms to SPIEGEL that limited shoe collections are still doing best.

Because of the great competition in the segment without bots, sneaker scalping is no longer possible, he says: With certain online retailers such as Union Los Angeles, however, you have to continue to rely on your luck.

It would be difficult for bots to slip through the tightly knit safety net there.

Bots are more of a rarity

The large German electronics stores that sell the Playstation 5 do not want to comment on topics such as bots and scalping.

Inquiries by SPIEGEL at Media Markt, Saturn and Amazon on the subject of bulk orders remained unanswered, only an expert made a statement.

According to a spokeswoman, you are meticulous to only give out one console per customer and to cancel multiple orders.

There is no evidence that bot networks play a decisive role in the German market.

Even a random analysis of the Playstation 5 second-hand market in Germany does not provide any indications of a mass problem: the offers on Ebay and Ebay classified ads only land in the four-digit range.

Conversations that SPIEGEL was able to have with German-speaking scalpers also tend not to indicate online trickery.

In reseller groups you exchange news about delivery dates, it is said, but bots supposedly use very few scalpers.

They say they rely more on timing and luck just like real console fans.

There is another problem

Basically, it is remarkable that in online discussions scalpers and bots are blamed for the console bottleneck.

A more obvious explanation can be found at the beginning of the manufacturing process, with the chip manufacturers.

In the case of the Playstation 5, this is TSMC.

One of the Taiwanese company's best-known customers is AMD, which not only produces graphics cards and processors, but also equips Sony's latest console with the appropriate chips.

The resources for this are finite and the demand from other sectors is high.

Even AMD boss Lisa Su was surprised by the demand for current consoles.

The situation on the hardware market is likely to have significantly more influence on the console market than the attempt by scalpers to get involved.

At least there is some hope for Playstation fans: According to a recent report by a Taiwanese trade magazine, production of the semiconductors that are important for Sony has been ramped up.

According to this, around 17 million consoles should roll off the assembly line by the end of 2021.

Then the hashtag # wobleibtmeinePS5 will lose its importance.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-01-26

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