Yep, scalpers are back.

Last week, I covered Sony’s press release about the pricing and locations of the PS5 pre-orders, taking place in Singapore the day after. Being an avid gamer with a soft spot for PlayStations, I had intended to get a pre-order for myself as well, to play Demon’s Souls on the launch day.

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get a hold of a pre-order the following day, but I wasn’t too worried. Seeing as Sony Singapore would be releasing a limited number of PS5 consoles daily for the next five days, I was still optimistic about my chances.

Today is the final day, and I’m quite positive that I’m not optimistic anymore.

Scalpers are striking at PS5 and Xbox Series consoles!

That’s right; out of the five days, I didn’t get a single pre-order of the PS5 console thanks to scalpers. And even Sal wouldn’t have gotten one if he hadn’t been checking Sony’s website constantly with his browser auto-filling his purchase information. It got so bad to the point where the webpage even crashed.

As for the pre-orders that the scalpers grabbed, you can find them readily available on Carousell at an increased mark-up price, ranging from a couple of hundred bucks. The most annoying part of this situation is that most of these sellers do not even seem to be gamers in general, it’s just a horrible business practice of earning more cash while ruining the chances of actual gamers.

The fact that this sort of practice still goes on in this era is just baffling. And what’s more unusual is why hasn’t Carousell done anything about scalpers until now? Luckily the Xbox Series consoles haven’t faced this issue as of yet. But there are already a few scalpers listing the products online, so it’s only a matter of time before it picks up.

As for the rest of us who missed out on the pre-order of PlayStation 5, it’s better to wait for the next batch after release, rather than giving in to the crazy demands of scalpers.

Ibrahim's a hardcore gamer and Star Wars fan. He's obsessed with Obi-Wan Kenobi, even claiming that he's a descendant of the fictional Jedi Master. Other than that delusion, Ibrahim's pretty down to earth, collecting figures and buying games he'll never finish.