first released its PlayStation 5 videogame consoles, and while over 10 million have already been sold, they are still not widely available for customers.

Due to huge demand, global chip shortages and various supply-chain issues, they are sold out at nearly every retailer, and PS5 consoles are for up for sale on reseller sites like eBay.

At a cost of $98 a year, Walmart+ gives members delivery discounts and early access to some Walmart offerings; Best Buy’s Totaltech subscription gives members additional tech support, product protection and free delivery for $200 a year; and Amazon’s signature Prime service costs $119 per year

“They’ve been a hot-ticket item all year, so we encourage customers to sign up for Walmart+ for front-of-the-line online access to these gaming consoles as well as our other exciting Black Friday deals,” Rachel Nipper, corporate communications director at Walmart, told MarketWatch

Walmart is hoping this method of product release will eliminate error pages for sought-after products like videogame consoles and grow its subscriber base by putting its most popular products behind a paywall

Walmart would not say if giving subscribers early, exclusive access to those types of products has led to more subscriptions

Those who have signed up for free trials of Walmart+ are excluded from the videogame-console product releases

This method of product releases will help eliminate “bots” attempting to buy consoles, since only subscriber accounts can make purchases

Bots are commonly used in limited online releases with products like shoes, concert tickets and other collectibles — bot software is typically faster than humans at making online purchases