Console scalping: What are the bots buying and reselling PS5 and Xbox?

Have you been struggling to get the latest PS5 or Xbox Series X?

Well, the bad news is bots and resellers could be making the battle to buy consoles harder than ever.

In November Sony launched the PS5 battling against Microsoft's Xbox Series S and X and demand for them has been incredibly high.

The consoles are already in short supply, thanks in part to things like the semiconductor shortage, but many believe the struggle to buy a new machine is being made worse by scalping.

But what is scalping? Read on to find out more.

What is console scalping?

Scalping, also known as the secondary resale market, is when bots are used to buy gaming products and then resell them at a higher price.

The bots are much more successful than us humans at buying limited products as they're able to monitor websites for the moment stock is available and immediately complete the ordering process. This is why you may have seen websites asking customers to spot something in a picture, or read some jumbled up letters. These are simple questions for a human, but tricky for a bot to answer.

The bots are so quick that a previous BBC investigation into bots buying in-demand Christmas gifts, found one group moved their computer running a bot physically closer to where a store's website server was so that it would be slightly faster than other bots. Humans will find it hard to beat these bot-buyers.

With console scalping, big sellers use bots to buy gaming kit, which they then resell. It is a business worth millions.

The PS5 price starts at £449 but a quick glance on reseller sites will find consoles going for thousands of pounds.

Why is it a problem?

Console scalping means that products sell out quickly because big sellers are using bots to buy up a lot of the products.

It also makes it harder for the consumer, the person who is buying the products, to get access to the consoles and it can mean you pay a lot more for it too.

What is being done?

Ministers are calling out for more to be done to stop scalping.

Douglas Chapman, SNP MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, has raised the matter in parliament.

Douglas Chapman said: "It is the consumers who suffers, made to pay over the odds for their desired goods, or to go without an eagerly anticipated next generation console."

Douglas Chapman added bot activity has increased during the pandemic and the UK government need to step in and help consumers.

Bringing in a would be similar to the legislation that was brought in to tackle ticket fraud in 2018.

This law tackled people buying up tickets for concerts and events and reselling them on websites for more money. This legislation does not currently include game consoles.

In January when gaming shop Game made a new batch of PS5's available they sold out in under 10 minutes. Reports on social media suggested that people used bots to buy multiple consoles.

Game have said that they will be checking pre-orders to make sure that only one PS5 is sold per customers, so that as many individual customers can buy one as possible.

Other retailers also have the same measures in place, such as Argos who limit PS5's to one per customer.

What do you think about scalping? Let us know in the comments below.