Store Bans PS5 Sales To Suspected Scalpers After Police Called To Incident
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Featured Image Credit: NBC News, Sony
After attempting a first-come, first-served policy to sell PlayStation 5 consoles to customers, this major Japanese retailer has had to make new arrangements against scalpers, in order to avoid creating chaos and endangering lives.
This might sound a little overblown, but the photos and videos taken on January 30th of Yodobashi Camera in Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district are that of pure mayhem. The store was one of the only places in the city that wouldn't require customers to possess a credit account to buy high-value products like the PlayStation 5, and its first-come, first-served policy caused people to rush in and flood the building. Only 300 tickets to buy a PS5 were available, and due to the scarcity of stocks, you're able to imagine what happened next. Staff were shoved by the crowds and cash registers were toppled, all the while customers pushed further and further into the store until they reached the back rooms.
"They cancelled the sale due to people being insane," said one bystander on Twitter. "[They] pushed so hard even the cash registers and staff went backwards. I've never seen that kind of insanity in [Japan] before..." It's also pertinent to point out that Tokyo is currently subject to a state of emergency following a rise in positive cases of coronavirus. As a result, employees are encouraged to work from home and the public should only leave their house for essential trips. Though everyone seen in the video is wearing a mask, it's worrying to think of how this might have impacted the safety of those nearby, or those who came in contact with people on public transport, or in other shops.
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Ultimately, the event was brought to a swift end when the city's police were called to Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara. Now, if you want to buy a PS5 from this shop, you'll need to sign onto their credit card plan as an officially registered member. Secondly, its schedule of planned PS5 sales will be randomised, and thirdly, it will not sell to you if you intend to re-sell the console somewhere else. The posters in the windows of Yodobashi Camera also add a few conditions to the pile: you cannot buy a PS5 here if you've "purchased PlayStation 5 in the past," "purchased multiple Nintendo Switches in the past," or if you are a "person who has performed an act that disturbs other guests." (Thanks, Famitsu).
In the UK, a motion has been proposed by MPs to prevent scalpers from getting ahead of the game and artificially inflating the price of these expensive consoles. They ask that the Government "bring forward legislative proposals making the resale of goods purchased using an automated bot an illegal activity, thereby denying unscrupulous vendors the chance to make themselves vast profits at the expense of genuine gamers and computer users, while also deterring fraudulent cybercriminal activity."
Topics: News, PlayStation
