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Liz Kreutz/ABC7 News
Even during a pandemic, people are going to great lengths to secure the hottest item of the holiday season.
Gamers hoping to land a PlayStation 5 have had their work cut out for them since the console’s launch on Nov. 12.
Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy are frequently selling out of Sony’s new console (often within seconds of releasing new inventory), and the machine — priced between $400 and $500 — can be found on eBay selling for nearly $2,000.
If potential buyers can’t land an order online or purchase one from a reseller for three times the price, the next option is trying their luck camping outside of a store. But places like GameStop, a leading video game retailer, are only getting a handful of the consoles at a time.
One GameStop in Dublin, California, only received two new PlayStations on Black Friday — the biggest shopping day of the year. That’s why 20-year-old Tyler Lopez spent 36 hours outside of the location to get one.
“Definitely relieving,” Lopez told Liz Kreutz of KGO-TV after getting his hands on one of the two consoles. “The console itself was already good enough, but now I get to be on the news. Even better!”
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Sony PlayStation 5
Lopez and the other PS5 hopefuls in line even received the sympathy of local police officers, who brought them snacks and hot chocolate to bear the cold weather.
“That was above and beyond,” Tyler’s father told KGO-TV. “We were pretty cold and pretty tired at that point, but it was really nice of them to do it.”
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While the PS5 has been wildly popular, it isn’t the only new gaming console on the market.
Last month, Microsoft released the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. The Xbox Series X is the larger, more powerful console between the two and retails for $499. It comes in black and allows for 4K gaming, and gamers can purchase physical games from retailers or buy them digitally.
The Series S, on the other hand, retails at $299. The console is slimmer, outputs 1440p instead of 4K, and does not come with a disk drive, so players will have to buy their games digitally. It only comes in white.
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The Dublin GameStop received four of the new Xbox consoles on Black Friday, which sold out immediately. To the chagrin of others in line, one of the buyers admitted to the news station they were simply going to sell their purchase online.
“Just planning on selling it,” buyer Morgan Swanger told KGO-TV. “[Make] a quick 300 dollars.”