I was lucky enough to snag a Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X on launch day 2020, which is pretty much the same as hitting the lottery. Between the scalpers who use bots to buy up all the stock before any human can input their credit card info, and the parents who just HAVE to have a PS5 for little Timmy for Christmas. Safe to say getting a new console was, and as of June 2021, still is a blood sport. The problem I have with scalpers is that they use bots, giving themselves an unfair advantage. They buy up all the systems, and then post them on eBay for twice, sometimes three times the price!

The day Sony announced the official release date of the PS5, the retailers ALL jumped the gun and made their pre-orders go live early, giving NONE of us a chance to prepare, and most struck out. I was locked in on the NowInStock site and someone (God bless them!) posted a back door link to amazon with the digital PS5 console, and I was able to secure one. But I didn’t want the digital. I’m a lover of physical media and the digital didn’t have a disc drive, so I promised that PS5 to my brother (who was infinitely grateful! I am my brother’s keeper what can I say). After what a debacle the first round of pre orders were, Sony promised that more would come, but more never came. On release day I was up until 2 A.M. fighting with bots and the buggy Best Buy site, but was able to secure a physical PS5. A LOT more work and worry than it should be for me to give a company my money, but hey nerds are gonna nerd. Microsoft poked fun at Sony’s disastrous way of handling their pre orders, and promised an official date and time for Xbox pre orders, and how NO retailer will jump the gun and go live early. This seemed all well and good, but an official date and time meant the scalpers knew when and where to direct their bots.

On release day I immediately struck out on Target, Walmart and Best Buy! For some reason it seemed harder to secure an Xbox than a PS5, even though demand for the PS5 is much higher. Maybe the ones who missed out on the PS5 wanted an Xbox instead? I missed out on every retailer, but after refreshing about a dozen times I scored a Series X on Microsoft’s website. After hours of anxiety and sore fingers I had to ask myself, was it all worth it? I opted for a store pickup of my PS5 and was super paranoid when picking it up. I felt like everyone in the store and parking lot was staring at me. I rushed to the car and sped home. I received my Xbox in the mail, and was “10 year old kid” excited to set them up! The problem is, I found myself playing PS4 games on my PS5, and… well no games on my Xbox Series X. I understand that a new console won’t have the library of games that a 7 year one would, but after all that hustle and bustle I found myself playing my Nintendo Switch more than anything!