Best Buy announced today that the company will have another PS5 and Xbox Series X/S restock tomorrow, December 15, with online inventory due to be updated early that day. The biggest story of the holiday season in gaming remains the scarcity of the industry's current-gen consoles, with both PS5 and Xbox Series X restocks selling out near-instantly and crashing websites all over the world as a staggering number of consumers remains without devices despite having the capital to purchase them.
That's made PS5 and Xbox Series X/S restock announcements feel like they're on par with the reveal of a new game, and the cycle has continued in the month following both consoles releasing. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S restocks have also illustrated a major flaw in the way that consumers are allowed to purchase goods online, with scalper groups laying claim to thousands of consoles during the pre-order process using bots. While some scalper groups have been rebuked by online retailers, the process has continued unabated, and the resale of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles also brings with it some added danger as criminals have used the desire to purchase them to commit robberies.
The next PS5 and Xbox Series X/S restock is coming tomorrow, December 15, 2020, from Best Buy. The company announced via the corporate Best Buy blog that a current-gen console restock was coming, providing consumers with a day's notice before the retailer's online stock is updated. Unfortunately, and perhaps frustratingly, Best Buy didn't provide an exact time for the restock. Instead, the company stated that the current-gen consoles will be made available online "sometime after 8 a.m. Central Time," which means fans will once again need to refresh pages and camp out if they want the best shot at securing a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S order.
Best Buy also stressed that the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S restocks will be online only, which will help prevent hordes of customers from arriving at physical locations tomorrow. The announcement does, however, indicate that a completed PS5 or Xbox Series X/S order will need to be completed through curbside pickup - perhaps to avoid the many PS5 shipping horror stories that have cropped up after the console's release.
Best Buy did not comment on how many PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles will be available, so it's anyone's guess as to how many orders will be capable of being fulfilled before the retailer is once again sold out. As always, it's going to be a race against internet speeds, glacial website loading times, and the scalper groups and bots that will be trying to snag more consoles to resell at exorbitant markups. It's wise to keep an eye on Best Buy's social media channels throughout the day just in case there are updates with more specific times, but until then, all fans now is that there'll be another PS5 and Xbox Series X/S restock - and it's bound to create exactly the same fervor the last several have.
Source: Best Buy