With early Cyber Monday deals upon us, one item is unfortunately not available, and that’s the PlayStation Portal. It’s currently sold out at Best Buy, Target, Amazon, Gamestop and PlayStation Direct. Meanwhile, other retailers like Walmart and Newegg haven’t even listed the Portal yet. There is, however, at least one strategy that can give you a better chance at getting a Portal, but it’ll still be difficult. At least it doesn’t involve paying resellers inflated prices on eBay or StockX. Scroll down to read how.
Black Friday isn’t the end of the deals. Cyber Monday continues many of the best holiday deals, and often includes some new sales, too. See the best Cyber Monday deals, and keep up with all the latest deals with our full Cyber Monday live blog coverage.
Check PlayStation Portal stock here
We’re still seeing the Portal go in and out of stock at Best Buy. It’s sporadic, but worth clicking through to see if and when that’s changing in real time — either at Best Buy or at these other retailers, where it’s sold at its list price of $200.
Willing to pay more?
Unfortunately, resellers have caught on to the hype, and are reselling the game streaming device for over $300 on sites like eBay and StockX. We don’t recommend paying the markup, but if you absolutely must have a PlayStation Portal for the holidays, it’s an option.
The PlayStation Portal is Sony’s $200 PS5 accessory that looks like a Nintendo Switch, but isn’t a dedicated gaming handheld. Games stream via Wi-Fi from your PS5 to the device, allowing you to game in bed, from the sofa or wherever there’s a good connection. While the streaming quality won’t compare to when you’re playing on your PS5 on a TV, it’s still a good stopgap measure when you can’t game on the couch, for whatever reason.
Your best chance at grabbing a PlayStation Portal at retail price
Now that PlayStation Portals are showing out of stock across the internet, that doesn’t mean retailers aren’t updating inventory as more come in. The problem is that so few units come in that once websites are updated, it immediately sells out again. To even have a chance at grabbing a PlayStation Portal at retail price, you’ll have to use stock trackers and enable alerts on your phone.
The app we like to recommend is Hot Stock. It tracks inventory from across the net and sends you notifications for when things come in stock. Even then, if you do get a notification saying that the Portal is in stock, by the time you add it to your cart, it might have already sold out. Plus, to get the earliest notifications, you’ll need to pay for the privilege, which costs $5.49 per month.
If you don’t want to go through the hassle, a Twitter account we like to recommend is Wario64. The account compiles video game deals from across the net. But, with over 1 million followers, if the account puts out a tweet showing Portal in stock, know that many people will rush towards that buy button. But, at least it’s free.
More Cyber Monday deals from CNET
Watch this: PlayStation Portal Review