GTA 6 Could Spark PS5 Shortage as Console Demand Surges

The console shortage is arriving at a particularly interesting time for gaming. GTA 6 is on the horizon, and with the popularity of next-generation consoles on the rise, the PS5 Pro seems to prove to be hard to find in many stores. Put those things together, and you could be looking at a serious supply problem by the holiday season.

The last major console shortage happened around six years ago, when the pandemic created enormous problems for manufacturing, shipping, and putting new systems together. This time, the circumstances are obviously different, but there is still pressure on hardware production, particularly because artificial intelligence has increased demand for memory and other components.

It does not mean another shortage is guaranteed. However, some of the early warning signs are already appearing.

The PS5 Pro is probably the clearest example right now. In Germany, the upgraded console has reportedly sold out at multiple retailers and was even unavailable through the official PlayStation store. Once stock started disappearing, prices on the secondary market began moving upward.

Some sellers have pushed the PS5 Pro as high as $1,500, while other retailers have increased their prices by around 30% or 40%. That is nowhere near the most extreme pricing seen during the previous console shortage, but it is still enough to show that people are willing to pay considerably more when supply becomes limited.

The situation is not isolated to Germany either. In the United States, major retailers have also been running out of the PS5 Pro, leaving the official PlayStation store as one of the more reliable places to find one. If you look at secondary marketplaces, you can already see renewed and open-box systems being listed for roughly $1,200 to $1,300.

You can also find newer listings around $1,000, while some used systems become even more expensive once shipping is included. There are plenty of regular PS5 listings mixed in as well, showing that sellers are already testing how much buyers will pay for hardware that is becoming harder to locate.

For now, you can still find these consoles if you look around.

That is important because this is not yet a repeat of the situation where practically every retailer was completely empty. But the combination of declining availability and higher resale prices is something worth watching. GTA 6 is expected to become one of the biggest entertainment launches ever, following the enormous commercial success of GTA V.

The previous game generated billions of dollars extremely quickly after launch, and its successor has the potential to surpass that performance. More importantly for the hardware market, you need either a PlayStation 5 or an XBOX Series console to play GTA 6 when it arrives. That means the game's audience is directly connected to the current console market.

The marketing could also give PlayStation an advantage. Promotional footage has prominently featured the PS5, including a trailer ending with a notice that the footage was captured on PS5. The game is still coming to XBOX, but major publishers and console manufacturers regularly work together on marketing, and that can influence which platform receives the most visibility.

That matters because GTA 6 is not only going to attract people who already own consoles. It could also reach people who have not paid much attention to gaming for years. Netflix is a good example of that broader exposure. The game has appeared prominently on the streaming service, potentially putting it in front of an audience that normally would not follow gaming announcements.

Someone could see the name, remember Grand Theft Auto from years ago, and suddenly realize that a new game is coming.

From there, buying a console becomes part of the conversation. If you have been waiting for the right reason to upgrade or return to gaming, a release this large can provide that reason. That is why a holiday shortage becomes a realistic possibility. The PS5 Pro could sell through its available inventory, while people who cannot find one may turn toward the standard PS5.

If demand for both systems increases at the same time, retailers could struggle to replenish their stock quickly enough. Sony has indicated that it has enough memory supply to cover its current projections for PlayStation 5 production. The important word there is "projections." If actual demand ends up being substantially higher than expected, those supplies may not be enough to maintain production indefinitely.

There could eventually be a point where Sony simply cannot produce enough systems for the remainder of its fiscal year. That could lead to higher prices for new consoles, or it could simply mean fewer systems sitting on store shelves.

Either way, the secondary market would probably react first. When consumers cannot find a console through normal retailers, resellers gain more leverage. During the previous shortage, that dynamic became extremely obvious, and there is no reason to think it would be completely different this time.

Rockstar has confirmed that the game currently runs at 30 frames per second.

Details about a potential 60 FPS performance mode remain unclear. That has become a major talking point because 60 FPS has become much more common on consoles during this generation. The game itself appears to be pushing the current hardware extremely hard.

The world contains large numbers of NPCs, detailed environments, complex animations, and a huge amount of activity happening simultaneously. This is not only about a game that has amazing graphics; a huge amount of simulation is also going on behind those graphics.

Reducing the resolution will help in reducing the load on the GPU, but this doesn’t necessarily mean solving the CPU bottleneck issue. If the processor is already being pushed to manage NPC behavior, animations, world simulation, and everything else happening around you, dropping from a higher resolution to 1080p may not suddenly make 60 FPS possible.

The released footage has reportedly been analyzed at an internal resolution around 1440p on the base PS5 before upscaling. On paper, that sounds like there could be room to lower the resolution and improve performance. The problem is that resolution may not be the main issue.

That is also why the lack of clear information about performance is so interesting.

Rockstar has remained vague about the final resolution, ray tracing, and whether a 60 FPS option will exist at launch or potentially arrive later. The PS5 Pro creates another possibility. You would expect the more powerful console to receive some form of enhancement, but that does not automatically mean 60 FPS.

It could offer better ray tracing, higher image quality, a more stable resolution, or some combination of those improvements. Ray tracing is one area where the PS5 Pro has a meaningful advantage over the standard PS5. That extra performance could give the developers more flexibility when deciding where to spend the available resources.

A 40 FPS mode could also make sense. It would provide smoother motion than 30 FPS without requiring the same performance target as 60 FPS. A 60 FPS mode specifically for the PS5 Pro is technically an interesting possibility, but there is currently no reason to assume it will happen.

The bigger question is whether Rockstar is deliberately saving some of these details for later. If the company eventually announces major PS5 Pro enhancements, that could become another major promotional moment for GTA 6. Instead of revealing every technical detail now, the publisher could use future previews or promotional material to show what the game looks like on Sony's upgraded hardware.

The reality is that 30 FPS is not necessarily going to ruin the experience.

Older console games frequently ran below the performance standards players expect today, and GTA V itself was an enormous success despite having inconsistent performance on older hardware. The difference now is that you have spent the last several years getting used to 60 FPS. Performance modes have become almost expected, especially when a game includes shooting, driving, and fast movement.

Ultimately, GTA 6 could create pressure on both the software and hardware sides of the industry. If millions of people decide they need a console to play it, existing supply problems could become much more serious. For you as a potential buyer, that means waiting until the final weeks before the holiday season could be risky.

The PS5 Pro is already showing signs of limited availability, and a surge in demand for the standard PS5 could follow. If the shortage becomes severe enough, seeing secondhand consoles listed above $1,000 may no longer seem unusual.

A console reaching that kind of price would obviously be a remarkable situation, but the combination of limited supply and one of the most anticipated game releases in years could create exactly that environment. The important thing is that the shortage does not need to become as extreme as the pandemic-era crisis to affect prices.

Even a small gap between supply and demand can spike hardware prices when everyone suddenly wants the same console at once. With GTA 6 pulling attention toward current-generation hardware, the holiday season could become the real test. If stock keeps disappearing over the next few months, what looks like isolated shortages now could turn into a much bigger console supply problem.