As we approach the Holiday season yet again, we see the release of the next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft, with Microsoft releasing the Xbox X and Sony with their PS5. As the consoles got to their release date, it was almost impossible for people to get one if you did not pre-order. On top of that, scalpers would assign bots to do their work for them and buy multiple consoles at once and sell them for absurd amounts. With all these factors the PS5 has become the most sought out thing at the moment.

As we see almost every 4 or so years, there has been another console release. However this year it is not as balanced as we usually see. The PS5 has sold double the amount that the Xbox Series X has sold and it is mainly due to one particular game. The long-awaited Spider-Man Miles Morales game was released at the same time as the console which was a driving factor in people’s choice of console. Even long-time Xbox owners like myself are switching over to the Playstation 5. This year Sony has gone past Microsoft in improvements in their console. With haptic feedback triggers on the controller and the new abilities of ray-tracing and 60 FPS, Sony has redesigned the Playstation is to be a more successful and superior console.

The issue with all this high demand is the inevitable scalpers. Scalpers are the ones assigning bots to buy consoles right when they come back in stock, leaving no time for others to get the console. Once these people acquire their consoles, they sell them for double or even triple the retail cost, and sadly people actually pay these prices. Recently, however, companies have been canceling orders that have been purchased by bots, helping actual people to get what they want. Sony has also come out and said that this week and the next they are pushing out a large number of consoles, which does not include the ones that will be pushed out during Christmas time. This leaves many fans optimistic that they could get their hands on a console before 2021 arrives.

With the PS5 doing as well as it is, people have to wonder, what’s up with Microsoft? What is Sony doing so well that Microsoft cannot seem to do? With the improvements on Sony’s side, Xbox fans could begin to question their company and may want to switch. To keep “The Console Wars” going, Microsoft is going to need to do something drastic to keep their fanbase from switching teams.