PlayStation 2 brings online stores to their knees
Gamers searching for bargains with bots cause headaches for online e-tailers
If you though that PlayStation 2 madness was over, think again - apparently a new util called PS2Finder is playing havoc with online stores selling the console. As the name suggests, the tool automatically searches e-tail sites for the PlayStation 2, often hitting a particular site every thirty seconds for hours on end to make sure that if some stock miraculously appears the user doesn't miss out on it in the ensuing stampede, which usually sees the consoles vanishing within minutes of them being offered for sale. One relatively obscure online store called BlueLight reported getting 80,000 visits from the bot in the space of a few minutes, and even larger stores such as Amazon are finding their bandwidth soaked up by constant requests from users of the program and others like it. It's a crazy world...