February has so far been a very quiet month for PS5 restocks, but there is one retailer that currently has the in demand gaming machine in stock and available for sale. However, in this instance we strongly advise against a purchase as there’s a major catch.
Right now, HSN has PS5 bundles that start from $999 and go up to as much as $1,119. That’s already a fairly significant turn off as even the cheapest is twice the PS5 standalone price. For comparison, retailers such as GameStop that also bundle next-gen consoles with additional products usually keep packages below $800.
Things get worse when you examine what’s actually in these bundles. They are all filled with undesirable extras including silicone controller skins, no-name-brand headsets and unofficial controller charging docks. Because these accessories are unbranded we can’t give an exact retail value, but we can confidently say these bundles are extremely overpriced.
Even more egregiously, every single bundle comes with two vouchers, a Family Game Services Software Voucher and a Game Essentials Software Voucher. The HSN website doesn’t list the value of these vouchers and it’s not clearly listed what they can actually be used for. These vouchers almost certainly can’t be used on the digital PlayStation Store, which begs the question why are they included?
These are not the first rip-off PS5 bundles we’ve encountered, but these bundles are definitely some of the worst value we’ve seen to date. Considering the PS5 is now more than a year old, we had hoped that demand would have lessened enough for retailers to stop with this sort of nonsense. Unfortunately, it would appear that some are still hoping to profit off the scarcity surrounding the console.
Based on the last few weeks, it seems that the PS5 is actually becoming harder to find once again after a period of increased availability over the holiday period. Hopefully this is just temporary and at some point this year buying a PS5 finally becomes a simple task, if only so retailers such as HSN can't pull anti-consumer stunts like this anymore.
In the meantime, if you’re still desperately hunting for one of Sony’s next-gen gaming machines then don’t cave and buy ripoff bundles, bookmark our PS5 restock guide and we’ll alert you when there’s a restock so you don’t have to pay more than the standard retail price.
PS5 restock tracker — stores to check
- Walmart: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock January 13)
- Best Buy: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock January 20)
- GameStop: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock January 27)
- Amazon: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock December 30)
- Dell: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock January 20)
- Target: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock February 10)
- Sony: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock January 25)
- Newegg: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock April 29)
- Kohl's: PS5 (last restock April 21)
- Adorama: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition | Bundles
- Costco: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock January 24)
- Antonline: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock January 27)
- Sam's Club: PS5 (last restock December 16)
- Verizon: PS5 | PS5 Digital Edition (last restock November 17)
