Almost a year after launch, GameStop will begin stocking PlayStation 5 consoles in-store at select locations in major US cities. The console has been almost exclusively sold online since November 2020 because of pandemic-driven supply shortages, but it seems like the production tide is changing. Major gaming retailers like GameStop slowly starting to roll out PS5 units in-store could mean the console will be easier to purchase at retail price as Holiday 2021 approaches.
In September, Best Buy began selling PS5s in-store, but the store has been selling out rather quickly, as likely expected. It's uncertain how often these stores are receiving new console inventory, but there appears to be a greater effort to get PS5s onto a physical shelves rather than shipping them directly to customers from a warehouses. GameStop will soon follow suit and began offering PS5 consoles to customers in-store as opposed to online.
According to a new online GameStop ad, the retailer will be offering PlayStation 5 units in-store in select Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Phoenix, and San Antonio locations on October 22 (via Wario64). Whether or not GameStop will require prospective customers to purchase a more expensive bundle with games and/or accessories is presently unknown, but that is a tactic it and other retailers have employed in the past.
Although Sony's new-gen console is a hot holiday shopping season item in most countries, the PS5's allegedly easiest to buy in China. A report earlier in the year indicated the console is frequently found on store shelves like any other system in the country. That said, there are regional restrictions on the machine and Chinese gamers largely skew toward PC and mobile games. In most other countries, it has been incredibly difficult to secure a console without putting forth a great deal of effort. Perhaps this newfound level of availability for the console in the US indicates the PS5 shortage could be growing less severe.
PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles will likely be one of the most in-demand tech products this holiday season, but that spike in demand may continue to make the difficult to find as an even more widespread microchip shortage continues. Despite the headaches involved in purchasing the console, the PS5 outsold the Nintendo Switch in September, breaking the Nintendo console's nearly three-year streak as the US's top-selling console. This heavily suggests more and more people are able to procure Sony's system, hopefully at retail price. Although PlayStation doesn't have any substantial first-party releases for Holiday 2021, the PS5's future looks potentially bright. PlayStation will have God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West in 2022, with other highly-anticipated games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 slated for 2023.