All purpose Sales and Sales Rumours and Anecdotes [2020 Edition]

I have had notify me in american amazon for ps5 since last fall. I have only seen ps5 been stock once and I missed it. I don't have high hopes of getting ps5 this year. I kind of have given up on it. I'll buy one when it's easily available. Maybe by that time there is new hw revision out fixing whatever issues might be present in launch ps5 design.

 

I think the Covid19 restrictions hurt production more than Sony let on. The first 7 weeks of sales netted them 4.5 million units sold. The demand for the PS5 seems as good as PS4 was, but the supply chain was better with PS4 and thus it sold around 20 million units in its first year. If the supply chain isn't able to significantly ramp up soon the PS5 shortage will continue throughout 2021. If PS5 were to only sell 15 million units in its first year on sale, it will be because of supply. The stock situation with the Xbox Series X and S doesn't seem as bad, mostly because demand isn't as high, but could Microsoft see an uptick in demand from those frustrated consumers who wanted a PS5 but have now decided to purchase a Xbox Series console instead because its available?

 

This might be based on region.
In UK XSX is never in stock, one retailer may get it in once in a month but sold out in under 5 min.
XSS sells out just as quick but stock comes in more often.
Lots of places haven't seen XSX since Dec, some places couple times this year for XSS.

Be nice to hear impression of what other people from UK is, as I've not been following religiously.

 

I just checked Best Buy here in the states, and I could go pick up a Series S today if I would like, the X model is out. I have seen stock for the Xbox Series models from time to time, its still very limited in supply, but PS5 sells out in seconds every time it shows back in stock.

 

Regarding the very limited supply in Japan, I think the strategy for Sony is to win global market share. They probably prioritize countries where there is more potential for conversion, where the consumer will buy Xbox if PS is not available (or vice versa). This is not the case in Japan, thus currently they can safely undersupply Japan by a lot because they know MS is hardly a competition in Japan.

 

The demand isn’t as high as resale value is lower.

 

That actually makes a lot of sense. Scalpers are likely far more interested in buying and reselling XBS-X and PS5 which would net them a higher profit than they are in buying and reselling XBS-S.

Enthusiast gamers are willing to pay through the nose for a PS5 and even the XBS-X to a lesser extent, but would be highly unlikely to want to pay a huge premium to get a XBS-S.

Which is sort of good for more casual gamers where it keeps the XBS-S affordable for the intended market. BTW - this isn't saying scalpers are a good thing ... they should all die.

Regards,
SB

 

I actually meant more in relation to PS5 - but yes, that too. Generally people are making more money off the back of PS5 and we know last month in the UK PS5 legitimately sold more than XSX, which means there was more stock available.

As such it’s pretty simple as both have the same RRP, one is reselling for more and has more availability...so is higher in demand.