PlayStation Sends Users Message Urging Them To Sell Their PS5s

Published Nov 3, 2026, 6:37 AM EST Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. Xbox made the curious decision to send select users a message a few weeks ago suggesting that they trade in their consoles. Now PlayStation is doing the same, and it’s almost certainly because GTA 6 is right around the corner. PlayStation Tells People To Sell Their PS5s Source: Adobe Stock Evidence of a notification from the PS App was shared via ResetEra showing how the message looks. Open that notification, and you’re met with a post explaining that you could get up to $400 for your PS5 if you trade it in at Back Market. That appears to be for a standard, launch-day PS5, provided the console is in “flawless” condition and includes at least one controller. I paid a visit to Back Market after seeing the post and, upon entering all of the details listed for a standard PS5, was offered $412, so actually a little more than PlayStation claimed. If you’ve got a “flawless” PS5 Pro with a controller gathering dust, you can potentially get as much as $750. PS5s are a lot more expensive today than they were when they launched six years ago. If you bought one before the prices started to skyrocket, then that $412 is actually a pretty good deal. Less than $100 short of what you originally paid, and after six years of use. Not bad, but the big mystery attached to all of this is why on Earth would PlayStation want people to sell its consoles? Why PlayStation Wants You To Sell Your PS5 There is no official explanation, but there are a lot of factors at play that likely explain PlayStation’s logic, and Xbox’s before it. First of all, not everyone is going to receive this notification. It is almost certainly being reserved for those who haven’t turned on their PS5 in a while. If people aren’t using their PS5, then PlayStation isn’t making any money from it. They’re not buying new games, nor are they signed up to PS Plus. With the release of the PS6 almost certainly quietly pushed back into the distant future, PlayStation needs people who own PS5s to be spending money. Those who haven’t turned them on in months are of no use to them anymore. If those people trade in their consoles, however, they will, eventually, end up in the hands and homes of new owners who will actually use them. A steady flow of trade-ins is necessary for that right now due to the ongoing RAM shortage. Not only is PlayStation struggling to make new PS5s, but the ones it does manufacture now have to cost an extortionate amount, severely limiting the potential audience of people willing to pay those new, sky-high prices. Pascal/Pexels PlayStation doesn’t need to source RAM for refurbished consoles, and if it can tempt lapsed users into trading them in, it means there’s more stock on the shelves that doesn’t need to be made from scratch, and therefore doesn’t cost PlayStation additional money. Why now? Well, because GTA 6 is a little more than two weeks away, which means there are going to be more people now than there have been since 2020 looking for a console on which to play it. The current MSRP for a PS5 might have some of those potential new players rethinking just how much they want to play GTA 6, and that’s if they can even find a new console in the first place. Get those traded-in consoles back out there, and PlayStation is potentially swapping out those who are tired of their PS5s and not spending any money on them for a whole new player base whose current-gen journeys begin with GTA 6. Brand Sony Original Release Date November 12, 2020 Original MSRP (USD) $499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (Base) / $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (Digital), Operating System Orbis OS Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 @ 3.5 GHz Resolution 720p - 8K