Scalpers for PS5 and Xbox Series X have caught the attention of the UK government and things may not end well for the reseller market. Since the PS5 and Xbox Series X have increased pre-orders, scalpers and resellers have gobbled up stock with advanced bots to bring in thousands of orders in minutes. As a result, the PS5 and Xbox Series X were incredibly hard to get, which in turn has drawn a lot of anger from PlayStation and Xbox fans, and this has caught the attention of many who don’t normally care much about the video. game industry, including the UK government.
The situation has gotten so bad that a scalper recently publicly bragged on Twitter that they’ve landed 2,000 PS5 orders from GAME in the latest addition. That said, while resellers have no control over the PS5 and Xbox Series X, their reign of terror could soon come to an end, at least in the UK.
Across the sea, the UK government is beginning to take note of the situation and it looks like it will take action soon. This week, Scottish National Party MP Douglas Chapman revealed that he plans to introduce a bill to address this issue. According to Chapman, the average consumer does not currently have fair access to the market, which is a problem.
“It’s just not in the consumer’s interest to have a lot of stock for high-demand, very exciting new products that are just being bought in droves. It doesn’t give the common consumer fair access to the market … It’s just so unfair to the ordinary person who just wants to play his game or give his child a present for Christmas. This situation is only getting worse and worse. “
At the time of publication, no law has yet been proposed, let alone passed, but six members of the Scottish National Party have filed an Early Day Motion calling for legislative proposals regarding resellers selling game consoles at exorbitant prices. Is anything coming of this? Who knows, but it’s safe to say the reseller market could run into trouble if the PS5 and Xbox Series X don’t become more readily available in 2021, and at this point, it doesn’t look like they will. The former was finally available today at Target, and despite the stock being released very early in the morning, it sold out in minutes.
H / T, BBC AND Gaming Bible.