Best Buy is holding PS5s hostage behind a $200 membership

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It’s been almost a full year since next-generation consoles were released and there’s still an incredible lack of supply of the PlayStation 5. Earlier this week, Best Buy finally stocked back up on PS5s, but it turns out they’re not available to just anybody.

On Monday, people began seeing that Best Buy’s website showed that the PS5 was in stock, but there was a pretty significant catch. The company is locking the purchase of the PS5 behind a subscription to its Totaltech program. The cost for that? An extra $200.

Totaltech is an annual subscription service from Best Buy. It offers some nice benefits, like round-the-clock tech support and two-year protection plans for qualifying purchases (including Apple Care+ insurance). The service also gives you special member pricing on certain products.

This year, the company has added another feature to the service that somewhat takes away from regular everyday customers. During the holiday season, Best Buy is locking some of its products, including the PS5, behind the Totaltech subscription.

Totaltech as a service itself seems pretty useful. If you’re a regular shopper at Best Buy, it offers some nice rewards that you might want to take advantage of. But locking items like the PS5 behind the service doesn’t seem very fair at all.

It seems kind of ridiculous to pay an extra $200 just for the privilege to buy something else. But I’m sure many people will take advantage of the program if it means they can finally get their hands on a PS5.

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