Russian stores stocked up on PlayStation 5 in the absence of supplies from Sony

After a long shortage of PlayStation 5 consoles, retailers recorded an increase in stocks of these products in warehouses.Experts attribute the trend to the establishment of deliveries through parallel imports and a decrease in demand for consoles among Russians

One of the market participants told RBC that retailers overstocked warehouses with PlayStation 5 consoles. According to him, at the end of August there was a large supply of these devices to RUSSIA under the parallel import scheme (without the permission of the copyright holder), but, unlike previous periods, there is no rush demand for them now.

Ivan Polikarpov, HEAD of the Office Equipment, Network Equipment and Accessories Procurement Division of Citilink, and a representative of M.Video-Eldorado confirmed the information on new deliveries.

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Polikarpov told RBC that Citylink received a batch of PlayStation 5 at the end of August and now the game console is available online in the full version with a disc drive and a 12-month warranty. M.Video-Eldorado said that the PlayStation 5 is also available on their network and, unlike last year, it can now be bought in “free access”, that is, without special pre-order systems.

Why the PlayStation 5 was in short supply

The PlayStation 5 was officially presented at the Sony conference in June 2020, and its worldwide sales started in November of the same year. The prefix has two versions: with and without a disk drive (it is assumed that users of this version will purchase games online). The cost of the set-top box without a drive started at $399. However, due to logistical difficulties amid the pandemic, Sony could not produce enough set-top boxes and they were in short supply. In Russia, the PlayStation 5 did not go on sale for many months after the presentation of the device: the set-top box was supplied in limited quantities, which immediately dispersed on pre-order. At the end of 2021, Sony, as BLOOMBERG reported citing sources, planned to stop production of the previous console model, the PlayStation 4, but eventually changed its mind,

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At the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, Sony, joining a number of other foreign companies, announced a complete cessation of the supply of PlayStation consoles to Russia. The company also curtailed the sale of software and hardware, limited the access of Russian users to the PlayStation Store app store and canceled the launch of the racing game Gran Turismo 7 in Russia. Against this background, in March-April, sales of games on physical media for PlayStation and Xbox consoles (produced by MICROSOFT) among Russians grew by 20% compared to the same period last year, a representative of M.Video-Eldorado told RBC earlier. Then experts said that the stocks of “boxed” games for consoles would last for a couple of months, and then these products would have to be delivered through parallel imports. In May, the Ministry of Industry and Trade published a list of products allowed to be imported under this scheme, the list includes goods and materials from about a hundred foreign brands, including Sony. Previously, experts told RBC that parallel imports are not working “at full capacity” and cannot provide deliveries in pre-crisis volumes, therefore, for example, some models of Samsung smartphones were in short supply in July.

Why the demand for set-top boxes has decreased

According to Anton Fomin, a business analyst at Marvel Distribution, even if there are significant volumes of consoles in retailers' warehouses, "they are unlikely to be in great demand at the prices offered." “The price of the PlayStation 5 is now critical for buyers, and those offers that exist exceed the level acceptable to Russians. Taking into account the fact that with the decline in interest in mining, prices for video cards have fallen, it is possible to assemble a gaming computer for 80 thousand rubles,” he argues. As the correspondent of RBC was convinced, you can buy a PlayStation 5 set-top box in Citilink from 69.9 thousand rubles, in DNS - from 64.9 thousand rubles, in M.Video-Eldorado and Svyaznoy - from 72 .9 thousand rubles

At the start of sales in Russia, set-top boxes were sold for 36,990 and 45,990 rubles. for the version without a drive and with it, respectively, from April 1, 2021, prices have increased to 40,990 and 49,990 rubles. After Sony left this spring, there were no set-top boxes on official sale, and the price for them from resellers at the peak reached 150-200 thousand rubles, followed from the ads on Avito and Yandex.Market.

According to Marvel Distribution, for the first half of this year, the console market in Russia in units decreased by 30% compared to the same period last year, and in money - by 37%. The gaming laptop market decreased by 20% over the same period, but grew by 2% in money terms. In terms of volume, however, these markets "varie widely." “If in pieces they are approximately equal - the market for gaming laptops is 260 thousand, and for consoles - 249 thousand devices, then in money it is 26.9 billion and 4.4 billion rubles. respectively,” notes Fomin. But, despite the fact that the market for gaming computers and laptops, as well as the market for consoles, was falling, the representative of Marvel Distribution believes that the interest of Russian gamers is shifting to the former due to the closure of internal application stores for consoles.

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Demand for the PlayStation is also declining relative to the Xbox, Fomin points out, explaining this as a "more interesting offer." “The value of the game console is that it is a relatively inexpensive but productive device with access to a large amount of game content. In set-top boxes, not only manufacturability is important, but also the availability of content. If earlier the PlayStation market could be used as a whole to evaluate the console market (PlayStation had a share of about 80%), now the situation has changed, ”he says, explaining that Xbox offers users access to a library of games for a fixed amount, unlike PlayStation , which until recently did not have such a subscription, and games cost from 5 thousand rubles.

Ivan Polikarpov states that the demand for the PlayStation 5 is now lower than at the start of sales, as "many gamers have been waiting for the release of the novelty for a long time and were among the first to purchase the console." Among other factors, he also cites restrictions on the PlayStation Store. But, according to him, the game console continues to be bought. In August-September, in Citylink, Russians most often purchased the PlayStation 5 separately and in a bundle, for example, with the game Horizon Forbidden West (a sci-fi computer role-playing game in the open world action genre from the Dutch studio Guerrilla Games), he says.

The representative of M.Video-Eldorado did not evaluate the current demand for the game console, but indicated that the company expects an increase in demand for the console by the New Year, as this is "one of the most popular gifts."

Representatives of the Svyaznoy network and the distributor of Merlion equipment declined to comment.