How desperate are you for GPUs, processors, consoles? Newegg tests with a new lottery

Over the past 12 months, electronics retailers have come under increased criticism and scrutiny for mismanaging the way they sell new consoles and high-end PC components. This week, online retailer Newegg moved forward with a unique new system for selling high-demand, low-supply electronics: the Newegg Shuffle. (Or, as the site’s metadata calls it, the Newegg Popular Product Lottery queue.)

If you pick up this article early enough on Friday, January 22, take this as a suggestion to do everything you can to rush to the site before 5 p.m. ET and request a product purchase. Really: Get it right now if you’re interested in recent AMD processors, Nvidia GPUs, or the all-digital PlayStation 5. We will wait.

OK, so this process could have been a bit confusing. What is happening with the Newegg Shuffle?

Mix in a forced package? Not necessarily, but likely

The Newegg Shuffle buzz started earlier this week when savvy shoppers noticed a limited-time lottery event under the same name in messages sent to a limited number of Newegg customers. It advertised a variety of processors and graphics cards, and the homepage included a sales pitch: choose what you want to buy, log into your established Newegg customer profile, and submit a request. Do this within a while, and in a few hours you will be notified if your account has been selected to purchase any of the products you have chosen. (This means that you can try to subscribe to every list, or just one, without the choices apparently changing your chances of being randomly selected.)

The issues with that first test, however, came in the form of irate customers sharing images of what the shopping interface actually looked like. After clicking on a shiny new AMD processor or Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card, you will see the real purchase option: a forced package. Each option seemed to require the purchase of a brand new motherboard, even if you didn’t need it. This was particularly evident in the case of Nvidia graphics cards, which are compatible with the common PCI-e 3.0 standard and therefore do not require a new motherboard for interested PC gamers.

Pressed by PC Mag about this forced anti-consumer and group promotion, Newegg clarified that its Shuffle function was still in “beta”. The promotion would reduce forced bundles once rolled out to all customers. Newegg Shuffle’s launch on Friday confirmed this – but there are still a few forced batches.

The two AMD processors available today, the Ryzen 5 5600X and the Ryzen 7 5800X, can be purchased as standalone options. However, they’re also listed with bundles, which means you essentially have a better chance of buying them from Newegg if you’re willing to tie a motherboard purchase to the processor. The same goes for one of the GPUs in the promotion, an ASUS flavor of the RTX 3070, which can be purchased a la carte or with an ASUS motherboard included.

Three other GPUs appear in the promotion; two of these can only be purchased on-board, and one, the ASUS RTX 3080, can only be purchased with a bundled ASUS motherboard (for a whopping combined price of $ 1,179.98).

And the all-digital PlayStation 5 on offer can only be purchased as part of a package, adding $ 160 to its normal price of $ 399 with an additional controller (of course), 1080p webcam (meh), and media remote (ugh). These are serious Gamestop vibes, and not in a good way.

Microsoft takes leadership in the field

The worst part about Newegg Shuffle is that it is arguably the best system on the market today for interested PC parts buyers. If not, your best bet is to follow the most well-known Twitter accounts and online shopping guides to find out exactly when high-end computer components and consoles are in stock because retailers seem completely disinterested, you know, we let them preorder things and enter a shopping queue.

The only exception to this madness seems to be the Xbox Series X / S. Microsoft has developed a scalper-proof purchasing system in the form of Xbox All Access. Combine a monthly subscription price with a dedicated Xbox account (and the associated mailing address) and you can get your hands on a shiny new Xbox. Such systems are a pain for the scalpers with which to transfer the ownership of the account. (As an added bonus, purchasing an X / S Series in this manner can save you money compared to purchasing the hardware and subscription rates associated with retail prices.)

Until we see more retailers embrace customer verification systems, buy limits, and anti-scalping efforts, we’re likely going to see more funky ‘lottery’ systems like Newegg, with predatory package deals. .