I gave up the PS5 stock again, even blogged about it. I thought I did not need a PS5. It was good with the consoles and games I already had. But then I came back looking for PS5s and found it just as difficult as ever.
This past Thursday, I finally managed to buy a PS5. And since I won with a collection of tricks, I learned to help the system play, I am confident that I can help others achieve the same achievement. It may not work the first time, but I’m now sure that by implementing the following strategy, it’s going to significantly increase the chances for those who’m still looking.
But before I outline a PS5, I will take some time to find out why I gave in to the hunt. I enjoyed playing Control on my Xbox One X, but the performance on Microsoft’s last generation system was unstable and blunt. I accepted this until I heard that I would get Control Ultimate Edition on PS5 for free via PS +. When I saw how much ray tracing and other optimizations it looked like, I got a greater desire to own a PS5 and to make it happen soon.
Then there is the case of Resident Evil Village, which begins in May. Right now, it’s the game I love the most, and my zeal makes me want to play at the best settings and performance. We know that RE8 will probably look good on PS4 (RE7 is proof of that), but when the next Resident Evil game becomes the biggest game of 2021 for me, my priorities have been adjusted.
You will probably fail first (avoid bad bundles)
Annoyingly, my hunt started with so many failures that I thought I was signing with the Knicks. Hours were lost to buy a PS5 from Walmart, Target and Gamestop.
I even had the chance to buy a PS5 bundle at Gamestop, but it was too expensive at $ 718, an addition of over $ 200. Of course, at some point I wanted to try Spider-Man: Miles Morales but do i need a second controller? No. Do I need a $ 20 GameStop Gift Card? No.
So I braced myself to wait it out, and kept trying. Luckily, I was trying to get my mom a Covid-19 vaccine, to improve my skills in securing hot-ticket items online.
1. Make sure your store accounts are up to date
You have an account with all the retailers – including Walmart, Best Buy and Target, right? It’s time to sign up and make sure your invoice and shipping are up to date. Because if and when you arrive at the checkout, you do not want to waste time entering billing information.
Your PS5 or Xbox may just as well be ripped off, as some stores will not “reserve” it after it’s added to the cart. It can even disappear before or during the deal – as has happened to me dozens of times with Best Buy.
2. Get notifications when PS5 re-stocks occur
It is the most important thing to start the competition, like a sprinter who is the best foot forward in a race. First of all, you want a Twitter account to follow the official Sony Twitter account, as well as third-party tweeters, including @ PS5StockAlerts, @GYXdeals and @ Wario64.
Turn on notifications and see if the alerts come in. These accounts tend to post the details early enough, but many people look at the accounts. Just note that Wario64 posts about very more than PS5 reconnections, so you do not want notifications for that account, which can get messy.
The other half is to work with friends who are also looking for hunting. No, you do not need insiders to help you. But if you have friends texting or texting you – one of my colleagues saw the Sony Direct PS5 queue launch and let us all know – you’ve got a good chance too.
I came to the Sony Direct website 20 minutes ago before the site countdown to availability has ended, which is the main trick for its sales. If you read the site and the minutes and minutes until they open, you are probably too late.
3. It’s time to play the system to beat the system
However, you can give yourself more than one chance, depending on the online retailer. This is probably the biggest reason why I achieved my victory. I opened up Sony Direct in as many ways as possible: Chrome and Safari on my desktops and personal laptops, and Safari on my iPhone.
Every extra browser gave me an extra lottery ticket. The only prize was that I had to split my attention in five ways. It may feel like fraud, but let’s be honest: you do it manually with a handful of browsers to get one PS5 for yourself is much more ethical that people using bots use to snatch it up to make a profit.
It’s all fairly in love and PS5 is being refilled, or at least that’s what I told myself. My colleague Matt Swider at Tech Radar has become something of a PS5 stock legend on Twitter, confirming that you should use multiple devices and not many tabs in the same browser for Sony Direct.
Although I could not get a PS5 from Target or Best Buy, you should know that buying the console on each of these sites works differently. You want to keep the same Best Buy tab open in each browser and to refresh the page you do nothing. However, it is best to refresh at Target. Those in big cities may find these retailers the most difficult to buy, as there are larger groups competing in the same place. Unfortunately, it seems that Target as well as Best Buy limit orders to local pickup.
4. Keep your eyes on the screens
Next, I made sure to fill my screens with the Sony Direct store pages, putting life in the background at the moment. After that, I adjusted the settings to make sure my screens stay on, even if I’m not actively using them.
It may be too much, but it’s one of the steps I took, and it’s easier to see multiple devices at once. By default, your screens are dimmed, and you may not see a possible win in front of you.
On Windows 10:
- Search “power options” in the Start menu or Cortana.
- Click “Select when to turn off the screen.”
- Select “Change advanced power settings.”
- Select Display.
- Select Enable adjustable brightness.
- Set on battery and plugged in to Off.
On macOS:
- Press Command + Space to open Spotlight search.
- Enter ‘System Preferences’.
- Open the system preferences.
- Choose Energy Saving (most MacOS versions) of Battery (on Big Sur).
- Drag the screen pin (or “Turn off the screen to”) under Never into the battery and power adapter.
- If you used Big Sur and selected Battery: check the box next to “Dip the screen slightly while it is on battery power” under Battery.
On iOS:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Display and Brightness.
- Tap Auto-lock.
- Choose Never.
Rules for Android differ by manufacturer, but check in your Settings app and turn off the screen timeout, power saving mode and adaptive brightness.
5. Find the right signs and move fast
I knew something was different this time. This is because the Sony Direct store on my iPhone showed an estimated waiting time of 23 minutes, while all the other cases of Sony Direct had no ETA or ‘longer than an hour’. This is when I performed step 4 on my iPhone, making sure the screen stays glowing.
As I waited until the progress bar filled up, I was ready and ready. My password manager was unlocked because I had to log in to Sony Direct again, which also meant I had easy access to my billing information if I had to confirm something.
And then the yellow bar filled completely, and I had my moment. I quickly logged in to the website – you have to click on the menu bar at the top left and tap Sign in – and then add the PS5 to my cart.
Here I did make one mistake. I was thinking of buying more than the console. Sony wants to make extra sales by offering free shipping when you buy $ 60 accessories. After the brief moment passed in my head, I realized that I would actually get a fast shipment of 1-2 business days, thanks to my PS + account.
And then I go out and get my confirmation email. This is how I got my PS5, and with these tips and a little luck, I think you have a chance to join me and the rest of the lucky souls who got one too.