Amazon Wants You to Get a PS5 with New Invitation Service

Amazon has quietly added a new Request invitation button to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X products pages as a new way to deal with high demand.

If you go to either the PS5 or Xbox Series X product pages, you will see the invitation button instead of "Out of stock" where you get in line to purchase. An Amazon representative was able to clarify this new invite-based ordering is to help people with products that are in high demand, but in low supply.

This new move is aimed directly at scalpers. Llew Mason, Vice President of Consumer Engagement at Amazon, states the invitation button is for customers who "worry about bad actors buying and reselling them at a much higher price."

The way it works is that you first request an invitation from the product page, and if granted, you'll get an email with instructions on how to purchase. There's no extra free and you don't need to be a part of Amazon Prime; anybody can request an invite. As for when you can expect the invite, the Amazon representative states you'll get the email as soon as the consoles are back in-stock.

So far, only the disk version of the PS5 has that invitation button while the digital version does not. Xbox consoles don't have the same supply problem so you may not see the invite button, but Amazon does confirm it's there.

The button is limited to the consoles and to US customers, for now. Amazon has plans to extend the service to other countries and other potentially high-demand products sometime in the future, but the company gave no set date.