Amazon has confirmed in a tweet that it is sending out invites to purchase the hard-to-find Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles.
These invites are being sent in waves, with another batch of invites being sent out next week.
If bueys receive one of these invites, they will have 72 hours to complete the purchase on Amazon's site by clicking through a unique link in the email. Amazon's emails may appear somewhat generic. It says it comes from "Amazon.com," with the subject ine "Congrats, you're invited!,"which may end up in the spam folder or can be deleted upon sight. As such, users should be careful in checking their emails.
Invite System Allows Amazon to Fulfill Deluge of Console Orders
This appears to be an immense departure from Amazon's reputation for sloppy restocks, where the consoles get sold out swiftly due to a number of checkout errors. You'd think the e-commerce giant could figure out a queue system for live restocks of high-demand items, but at least this is a useful substitute.
How to Request an Amazon Invite
To request an invite, the pages for the standard $499.99 PlayStation 5, the $549.99 PS5 bundle with Horizon Forbidden West, and the $499 Xbox Series X all feature buttons to ask for an invite on Amazon now. You don't need to be a Prime subscriber to become a recipient of the wave of invites.
It's been hard to get a PlayStation 5 since the console launched in November 2020, and subcultures have built up around finding and securing the high-demand consoles. Restocks have been few and far between, selling out immediately upon notification. Despite short supply, Sony said last year that the PS5 is the company's fastest-selling console all of time, having sold 10 million consoles in 249 days. The previous record was held by the PlayStation 4, which sold 10 million consoles in 271 days.
Amazon introduced the invite-based purchase system to ensure that its customers can purchase in demand products, such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X, instead of losing sales when bots place automatic purchase orders. The system started with the Sony and Microsoft consoles amid supply difficulties.
It's been over 18 months since the PS5 and Xbox Series X launched, but they remained widely unavailable. And due to the high demand, retailers could not offer significant discounts.
How the Invite System Works
To get an invite for either console, interested buyers shoud visit the product's page on Amazon and request one. Amazon's algorithms will then check your account for issues, and invite will reach your inbox if you are part of a wave of invites being sent. Amazon is set to fulfill the order, so you will need to wait for the retailer to make restocks.
