PlayStation 5 Walmart sales might get waiting rooms
Recognition: C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
- A recent PlayStation 5 Walmart sale in Canada saw the creation of an online waiting room, suggesting the retailer could do the same in the US.
- Getting a PS5 from Walmart was a nightmare, partly due to Walmart’s laissez-faire attitude towards sales.
- Waiting rooms are one of the best ways to combat bot sales. Hence, your chances of getting a PS5 from Walmart may have just increased.
If you’ve tried buying a Sony PlayStation 5 (and we bet most of you did) you’ve likely encountered website crashes, mysteriously emptied carts, and ten-second long sales. If you’ve tried buying a Walmart PS5, you probably didn’t even get this far: you just saw the Oh Deer page and cried.
Well, that might not be the case in the future. During a PlayStation 5 Walmart sale in Canada, the retail giant’s online portal used a crude waiting room for the drop today. This is the first time we’ve known that the company doesn’t just put the consoles for sale and let anything happen.
YO! WAITING ROOM? (About @ Lababinz) Walmart strengthens bot protection 👀? pic.twitter.com/9yy5SmVX7B
– PS5 Drop (@ PS5Drop) 3rd December 2020
Waiting rooms are one of the best ways to combat bot sales. That’s probably the biggest problem getting people in the way of buying a PS5. With Walmart announcing the time and date for its PS5 drops, bots can quickly keep track of all inventory. That stock then ends up on the resale market, tripling the retail price.
PlayStation 5 Walmart waiting rooms in the US?
This waiting room we saw was only on the Canadian version of the Walmart website. We have never seen the US version use a waiting room. However, using a waiting room at Walmart.ca could mean the retailer might use a similar system at Walmart.com next time. In other words, you may have a better chance of snagging a PS5 from Walmart than you have before.
Good luck out there!
