I hate having to prove my brand loyalty just for the chance to buy hardware at full price

Nobody likes scalpers, man—it's already hard enough to get the latest and greatest hardware, let alone with some enterprising bad actor and their bots buying up all the available stock, and then charging an even greater fortune for sought-after bits of kit. That said, I'm not really a big fan of the anti-scalper measures many vendors are now deploying either.

For instance, Sony Japan has rolled out an anti-scalper lottery system for PS5 Pro orders. To be in with even a chance of picking up the pricey console, you'll need a Sony account registered in Japan that has logged at least 60 hours or more of gaming, either on a PS4, a PS5, or both (via Tom's Hardware). In theory, that should be enough of a faff to deter scalpers and an easy enough hurdle for PlayStation fans to overcome. In practice, I'm not loving the weird precedent of locking my potential hardware purchases behind a dystopian brand loyalty test. …