How Sony’s Fighting PS5 Scalpers in Japan

Sony Japan has reportedly found an interesting yet simple way to deal with PS5 scalpers. According to an article published by Yahoo Japan, the company is asking retailers to break PS5 box seals in front of customers, thereby ensuring any potential scalpers won’t be able to sell them as a “new” item. The article in question was published a month ago but has only just been picked up by Reddit users so it’s unclear how long Sony has been doing this.

How Sony’s fighting PS5 scalpers

According to a machine translation of Yahoo’s article, Sony is reportedly distributing a special type of seal to retailers across Japan, which is being placed on boxes ahead of sale. The sticker is apparently so aggressive that only retailers have the ability to cut it off without damaging the box. Anyone who manages to snag the console with the seal intact will have a hard time peeling the thing off and forcefully doing so will scratch the box. The idea, as previously stated, is to prevent scalpers from re-selling the consoles as new, unused items.

Opinion: Direct-to-consumer selling is the best way to deal with scalpers

Zarmena writes… Retailers are just middle parties least concerned about scalpers and most concerned about selling their inventory. The good news is, Sony has signaled a shift to direct-to-consumer selling, which is the best way to curb scalpers. Unfortunately, PlayStation Direct is a hot mess in its current state. Sony has no way of keeping a track of who it’s inviting to purchase PS5s as those who already own a console continue to receive multiple invitations. Meanwhile, there are people struggling to purchase one who have yet to receive a single invite. In an ideal world, we’d have enough PS5s for everyone and their grandma but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

In other news, Sony has reiterated that it’s not done with acquisitions, and Metal Gear’s 35th anniversary website turned out to be a hoax.

[Source: Yahoo Japan via Reddit, MP1st]