After 2 years connected the market, you’d astir apt deliberation scooping up a PlayStation 5 oregon Xbox Series X would beryllium simpler by now.

Sure, there’s the semiconductor shortage the satellite is inactive contending with and a supply-chain bottleneck that’s expected to past until 2023 (if not 2024 according to some estimates). But, arsenic Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan said astatine the yearly PlayStation Partner Awards ceremony successful Japan connected December 2, the institution has seemingly “resolved the semipermanent proviso contented of the PlayStation 5" successful Asian markets.

Oh yeah? Then why, erstwhile Kotaku called respective brick-and-mortar stores conscionable a fewer days earlier Christmas this twelvemonth were we told inventory for some the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles was either precise constricted oregon wholly gone?

The information of the substance is, portion it has go somewhat easier to get your hands connected new-gen consoles, doing truthful inactive requires diligence and patience—unless you privation the smaller, cuter Series S, oregon tin hold for shipping. Otherwise, much similar past year, if you were hoping to locomotion successful and retired of a store with a brand-spanking-new console successful hand, you’re apt retired of luck.

Inventory In Brick-And-Mortar Stores Is Unreliable

You mightiness beryllium tempted to telephone up your section carnal retailer similar Best Buy oregon GameStop with the extremity of buying a PlayStation 5 oregon Xbox Series X successful the store. That’s surely a possibility, though it depends connected the console you’re going for.

A GameStop subordinate astatine a Manhattan, New York determination told Kotaku implicit the telephone that Sony’s strategy is “rarely” successful banal and erstwhile it is connected the store shelves, it’s gone wrong the week. The Xbox Series X is “a small much common,” the subordinate said, but the aforesaid inventory contented arises: When it is available, it’s sold retired successful conscionable a fewer days’ time. This concern is repeated astatine different carnal stores, including Best Buy and Walmart, with store associates astatine some retailers telling Kotaku successful little telephone interviews that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are “occasionally” successful banal but rapidly merchantability out.

Surprisingly, things are a small antithetic astatine Target. An worker astatine a Manhattan store said that the PlayStation 5 was really sitting connected the shelves “right now,” but folks looking to bargain 1 couldn’t conscionable locomotion in, instrumentality 1 to the counter, and cheque out. Instead, you person to bash an in-store pick-up done the company’s website and, if inventory was available, past you could locomotion successful with wealth and locomotion retired with a PlayStation 5. In an eye-popping twist, the Xbox Series X was instantly available. The worker said, if I truly wanted to, I could spell bargain Microsoft’s console this instant. They were speedy to constituent out, though, that each strategy purchases—especially connected the PlayStation 5—were constricted to 1 per idiosyncratic owed to “security concerns.” Yikes.

Online Retailers Are A Bit Better, But Not By Much

If brick-and-mortar stores are unreliable successful presumption of carnal inventory, you whitethorn person a amended accidental astatine buying a PlayStation 5 oregon Xbox Series X online and shipping it to your home. All the large retailers typically person some consoles successful banal and if they aren’t disposable by themselves, you tin usually get it bundled with a crippled oregon subscription. There are immoderate exceptions here, of course. GameStop, for example, is wholly sold retired of individual PlayStation 5s and Xbox Series Xs online close now. As is Best Buy connected the PlayStation 5, though you tin order the Xbox Series X if you person an account.

It’s ever finicky ordering thing from Walmart, arsenic the institution tends to spouse with third-party sellers to implicit transactions. But, arsenic I’m checking the company’s website close now, PlayStation 5s and Xbox Series Xs are mostly disposable to acquisition online—though the prices for these consoles look to alteration wildly. Target is likewise strange, with both systems either being “discontinued for shipping” oregon relegated to in-store pick-up only—if they are adjacent disposable astatine all, of course. One speedy enactment here, though: You could besides bid the PlayStation 5 oregon Xbox Series X straight from Sony and Microsoft’s authoritative websites, and they look to beryllium successful stock. Shipping present seems to beryllium comparable to different large retailers arsenic well, with orders placed present arriving conscionable a fewer days aft Christmas. Not bad.

Hey, You Could Always Just Get An Xbox Series S

You whitethorn person noticed I skipped 1 full console: the Xbox Series S. That’s because, arsenic I wrote earlier, Microsoft’s cheaper, smaller strategy is astir ever available. Several associates crossed the brick-and-mortar stores told Kotaku implicit the telephone that they had “plenty” of Xbox Series S’s sitting connected their shelves astatine the moment. And portion I was browsing astir aggregate online retailers, including Microsoft’s ain website, the slimmer sister to the behemoth shoebox Xbox Series X was acceptable to beryllium ordered.

Sure, it’s not the monster powerhouse that is the Xbox Series X. It can’t output autochthonal “true 4K” and lone has 4 teraflops of processing powerfulness erstwhile compared to the bigger sister’s 12. And yeah, you bash lone get 512 GB of interior retention alternatively of 1 TB. But what the strategy lacks successful powerfulness is made up by its awesome signifier origin and accessible terms point. If you’re consenting to marque those insignificant trade-offs, past the Xbox Series S is an fantabulous mode to get into this existent procreation of console gaming.

Another twelvemonth is successful the books, y’all. We made it through. The amusement and exertion industries are inactive getting battered by some the ongoing pandemic and semiconductor shortages, but it does look that things are smoothing implicit a little. Maybe this clip adjacent year, the forecast of getting a PlayStation 5 oregon Xbox Series X volition beryllium importantly better. At the precise least, we don’t person to interest overmuch astir bots anymore.