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In November 2020, Sony released the newest in the line of PlayStation consoles: PlayStation 5 (PS5). But shoppers had a hard time finding a PS5 because of shortages and scalpers who used sophisticated bots to quickly buy up any stock. Meanwhile, Google searches for PS5 availability at Walmart trended in November and December 2020, following the Nov. 12, 2020, release date. So when we came across TikTok videos that purported to show Walmart employees trying 2 stash away PS5s for themselves, we decided to take a closer look. The videos were posted by TikTok user @skitdaddle_420. He claimed to find a stash of PS5s that were hidden away by Walmart employees in what appeared to be the store's garden section. We were unable to confirm the Walmart location where the videos were recorded. The first video had been viewed more than 269,000 times: A second video showed a cage with multiple PS5 consoles and accessories locked inside: However, the TikTok videos did not show that Walmart employees had stashed a bunch of PS5 consoles for themselves. All of the boxes visible in the second video were marked with names and either pickup or delivery, because they were already purchased. At the end of the first video, an unidentified person told @skitdaddle_420: These are for people who ordered them online. This meant they were likely preorders or online orders. As for the scalper problem that had plagued the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series S and X, Chicago Tribune reported it could threaten the platform's longterm success: Walmart published a blog post about what it calls grinch bots and called on lawmakers to help with the problem: For further reading, we previously published another story about video games that claimed Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 6 was hinted at in a GTA Online teaser.
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