Sony’s latest venture into handheld gaming the PlayStation Portal is officially sold out, and right on cue, the scalping has begun.
Less than one day after the device launched in a handful of regions worldwide, including the United States and the United Kingdom, the PlayStation Portal is being sold online for much higher prices than the retail value—which is still available, but may come with a wait.
If you purchase the device directly from Sony you’ll only pay $200, while listings online on storefronts such as eBay have the device listed upwards of $300, as first noticed by VGC.
That means if you’re desperate to get your hand on the PlayStation Portal today you’ll be paying an extra 50 percent of its cost. Not the greatest deal is it?
Many of these listings have popped up in the wake of the UK PlayStation Direct store announcing it had sold out of its supplies of the device. More stock details are expected to come on Wednesday, Nov. 22 though.
Given the limited amount of countries included in the initial PlayStation Portal rollout, we expect most of these scalped units will be sold internationally to countries like Australia that, at this stage, will be waiting until Feb. 2024.
Perhaps Sony could take a page out of Valve’s book to crack down on scalping for the PlayStation Portal. Recently the Steam Deck maker shared new measures they’ve put in place to limit the ability for scalpers to get a hold of the new Steam Deck OLED device.
Of course, even with measures in place, there’s just no way to stop scalping entirely, so for the time being, while PlayStation Portal supplies are being built up at Sony retailers, expect to see more overpriced units appear online.
We just ask you to resist the urge to support them where possible.
