PS5s are selling out in (possibly) record time, and prospective buyers are furious that bots are to blame.

It all started today, Thursday, February 4, at 10:53 a.m. ET, when Atlanta-based Antonline tweeted out PS5 availability: a PS5 camera, a second controller, PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. A digital-only console bundle with a year of each appeared to be available.

But then it wasn't; within a minute, Antonline's supply seemed to have been crushed.

User @threephaze posted a screenshot at 10:54 AM. (The photo screams a thousand words, likely censored.) The console was sold out and in stock. But as we all know, that usually just means "good luck next time."

Two minutes after the original tweet, at 10:55 a.m., Twitter user @strongratz wrote that the entire PS5 inventory was "gone within 10 seconds ... Amazing!" He declared. The user had a typical story: there was a PS5 in his cart, but it was gone before he could complete his purchase.

At 10:55 a.m., @BubbaMcZ shared the story of his immediate loss, saying, "I put it in cart, entered payment info, then it was sold out."

Not everyone was up Ant's creek. One Will Wright (@yung_smook) shared what appeared to be a legitimate result of the console he purchased.

Annoyingly, the replies to Antonline's post are filled with traces of people cheating the system. For example, two users whose usernames are their names followed by an eight-digit number: Frank81510817 and @Christo83885251, both claiming to have successfully placed orders.

Frank's account is suspect because it has no posts of its own and only replies to the Anton Line announcement; as for Christo, aka "Christopher Corcoran," his account was just created this month (February 2021) and his tweets are only replies and retweets to PS5 stock announcements and giveaways.

Neither user has attached receipts to prove their claims. Frank simply attached a screenshot of Anton Rein's order at 11:03 AM today. This does not necessarily claim that they are lying or faking, but it is hard to trust user accounts with such strange usernames without a photo. We would not be shocked to learn that these are bot-related purchases.

The above is a short digest of why people are upset about the scarcity and early sales of PS5 restocks. Even buyers who jumped at the moment of the online sale could fail; it's like someone trying to buy tickets online for Beyonce's instant sell-out tour.

It's crazy that the PS5 only hit the virtual shelves a few months ago and is still so difficult to purchase. But we have some advice: editor Roland Moore-Colyer of Tom's Guide writes about this console restocking disaster, telling shoppers, "No, you don't need to buy a PS5 or Xbox Series X yet," and "Really, don't .

We have said time and time again that the PS5 does not have much exclusive software yet. Therefore, the act of buying a PS5 becomes more of a victory for beating the system than acquiring a console that is worth the effort for its own sake.