Good news everyone! If you haven't managed to get yourself an Xbox Series X yet, tomorrow could be the day as another UK retailer is set to get a restock that's impervious to bots.
Don't forget that neither the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PS5 are region-locked, so if you can find a way to get a console from another region shipped to you, it's worth keeping tabs on retailers globally – which you can easily do with our Xbox Series X stock tracker, and PS5 stock tracker.
Tomorrow's Xbox Series X restock comes courtesy of BOX; in order to thwart bots, the retailer uses a ballot system to give customers a fair chance at buying a new console. All you have to do is head over to the website, and enter the allocation ballot.
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BOX is drawing winners tomorrow, February 12; successful entrants will then be contacted to move forward with their purchase. If the Xbox Series X isn't claimed and paid for in the window of time you've been given, it'll be offered to another randomly picked entrant, so make sure you check your email inbox and junk folder so you don't miss out!
Retailers have varied wildly in their approach to dealing with console scalpers and bots; Walmart implemented a system that warded off millions of bots for example. Unfortunately, not enough retailers are coming up with solutions to the issue, and seem happy enough to let scalpers run riot, so long as they're moving inventory.
In the UK, an MP has brought forward a bill that would make console scalping using bots illegal, in the same way that using bots to buy and resell music tickets became a prosecutable offence with legislation that rolled out in 2018. It's unlikely it will pass, but it'll serve its purpose in drawing attention to the issue, and hopefully result in a similar course of action sooner rather than later.
With console supply issues possibly lasting until the end of the year, retailers are on their own when it comes to making the process fair to customers, and we're always glad to see workarounds that mean a new PS5 or Xbox Series X is making its way into gamers' hands, rather than being stockpiled to sell on at frankly obscene prices.