We’re a year after release and the PS5 is still hard to find, which means the consoles already out there are a hot commodity. Sadly, this has led to a heated resale culture around the machine, and even more sadly in this case, it has resulted in a 19 year-old being shot when trying to sell one.
As ABC13 reports, a young man from Harris County, Texas had listed his PlayStation 5 console for sale online over the weekend, where a supposedly interested buyer had seen the ad and made contact.
The pair agreed to meet up on a street at 1:30pm on Sunday, but when he arrived the “buyer” pulled out a firearm and tried to steal the console from the seller. It’s not clear what happened next, but for whatever reason the assailant shot the 19 year-old “in the side,” then escaped without having stolen the console, which was left behind.
ABC13 has this image from the scene:
The victim was rushed to a local hospital where he’s in a stable condition with “non-life-threatening injuries.” Police were unable to release a description of the suspect.
The PS5 shortage has continued for the same reason we’re still seeing the unavailability of graphics cards, phones, and new cars: there just aren’t enough semiconductor chips being made. Thanks to Covid and the resultant chaos it has wrought on global supply networks, the shortages have affected the whole world. This is not helped by the fact that the factories capable of building them are notoriously difficult and expensive to build, and require long lead-in times for production.
What was described in March as something that was building towards a “crisis” is certainly there now. Many companies are not forecasting a return to regular service until 2022 at the earliest, and others are more conservatively suggesting it could spread well into 2023.