Scalpers are already trying to tout a limited edition of God of War 5: Twilight of the Gods at twice the retail price.
Pre-orders for four different versions of God of War Ragnarök have now begun, with the most expensive version of the Giant, priced at £230, including many fancy physical and digital versions of the game, but no discs.
Given that it's a limited edition, it's probably not surprising that this more collectible version is already sold out on official retail sites like GAME and the PlayStation official store. And, perhaps more predictably, it looks like too many scalpers have taken aim at these pre-orders and hung them online at auction venues at huge prices.
For example, a quick glance at uk-up eBay shows that the £230 version retails for £300, £350, £530, £550 or even higher.
Players in the U.S. aren't much better either, with the lowest "buy now" price of the most luxurious version seen on u.S. eBay being $375, though some are trying their luck and asking for as much as $500 or more.
While the most expensive version, the Giant Edition, sells for £230, you can get the God of War 5: Twilight of the Gods Collector's Edition for £180, while the Digital Deluxe Edition costs £80, as you might think from the name, without a physical disc.
The standard digital/disc version of the game costs £70 on the PS5 and £60 on the PS4 (with a £10 upgrade option).
In fact, as early as December 2021, U.S. lawmakers announced a bill to prohibit scalper behavior in high-demand goods. The bill specifically targets scalpers using computer programs to snap up tight items from online inventory for resale at significantly higher prices, and its focus is not limited to the video game industry, but it certainly covers items such as consoles and graphics cards. As supply chain issues worsened during the covid-19 pandemic, both items were particularly affected by scalpers.