Id Software co-founder John Carmack has proposed a new approach to tackling the plague of scalpers and retailers taking advantage of the global semiconductor shortage: auctioning off new consoles and computer hardware. This will prevent bots from buying the consoles immediately as soon as they are offered for sale. But it also has some complications.
The supply of PS5 and Xbox Series X / S consoles could not keep up with demand, while computer hardware such as the latest series of Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards were also snatched up by scalpers and resold for a price that was a hefty profit margin. include. . When the figures were last picked up, it was estimated that resellers made more than $ 82 million in profit.
Carmack’s idea is that Sony, Microsoft and Nvidia should chase the intermediaries out of their pockets and want to auction console stock themselves. Would this initially lead to incredibly high bids from interested buyers? Absolutely, but Carmack believes that this strategy will deter traders from getting their hands on new-generation consoles and making a profit afterwards.
“Given shortages and speculators about things like 3090 GPUs and new consoles, it looks like we would really be better off with a transparent auction system directly from the manufacturers and a more efficient market,” Carmack wrote. “The world of sales channels has prevented this in the past, but we may be going past it for many products. There will be a lot of outrage at reported prices outside the gate, but the removal of intermediaries should ultimately be better for consumers.”
In another post, Carmack also mentioned that the current low availability of these consoles remains beneficial to Sony and Microsoft’s business, as the consoles are consistently sold out within minutes when new inventory is introduced. Fighting the retailer market by pricing these consoles higher can meet the current consumer demand for these valuable items.
The market is still a fast-paced game of fingers for anyone interested in buying a PS5 or an Xbox Series X. Merchants immediately snatch consoles using an army of malware and bots to do so, prompting the UK Government’s Digital and Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage to propose a bill banning the act of scalping will make consoles illegal.
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