The continuing scarcity of Xbox and PlayStation consoles has been a story since the launch of these platforms in November. The scarcity is not unique to console games – there are problems with the availability of hardware on PCs and consoles, as the newly launched GPUs from Nvidia and AMD remain difficult to find, as well as AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs.
According to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, the company has been answering questions related to Xbox production for weeks.
“I have some people [asking], ‘why didn’t you build more? Why didn’t you start earlier? Why didn’t you dispatch them before? ‘All these things, ”said Spencer in a Major Nelson podcast, seen by VGC.
“It’s really just a matter of physics and engineering. We are not preventing them: we are building them as fast as we can. We have all the assembly lines up and running. I was on the phone last week with Lisa Su at AMD [asking], ‘how can we get more?’ So it is something that we are constantly working on. “
I don’t mean that there is nothing AMD can do to improve the situation for Microsoft, but the company’s ability to change the situation is probably limited. AMD’s involvement with the chip is limited to designing it – the actual work of manufacturing and shipping in sufficient volume is done by TSMC.
In fact, there may be some buttons and dials over which AMD has some indirect control, or it may be able to work with TSMC to increase yields if a number of X Series SoCs | Xbox S are just bad missing specifications. Minor adjustments to improve throughput and performance are common. From the mid-2010 to the mid-2010, it was not uncommon to see AMD or Intel introduce a new variant of an older chip, but with a lower TDP compared to what they immediately launched. These improvements reflected low-cost optimizations.
But while AMD may be able to increase Xbox production by reducing orders in other 7 nm product families, the company will be limited by TSMC’s 7 nm capacity. Last fall, several reports suggested that TSMC would be able to build 140,000 7 nm wafers per month by the end of 2020. In the first half of 2020, TSMC’s WPM (wafers per month) was estimated at 110K. This means that the company increased its capacity from 7 nm by 1.27x over the year.
Clearly, it was not enough, and Nvidia’s decision to build with Samsung on 8N instead of using TSMC’s 7nm was not enough to save Ampere’s availability. Currently, Nvidia is expected to move to 7nm TSMC for additional Ampere production in 2021, which could put even more pressure on the situation.
Relief may come in the form of reductions in mobile demand from 7nm as companies transition to 5nm. Currently, several companies have told consumers to expect better product availability after the period from March to April 2021, which can reflect anything from new capacity going online, to better yields, to reducing usage of 7 nm as companies transition to 5 nm. It may even be that companies are forecasting a reduction in the levels of dismissal up to that point, which can lead to a slowdown in demand, especially in the short term. Once people can safely leave the house again, we’ll probably see the flow of spending on video games and home entertainment and going back to other types of leisure, even if the pandemic creates a long-term increase in the number of people who buy consoles, subscribe. for streaming services or working from home.
Image by VGChartz
The best data we have on the relative performance of the two console manufacturers comes from VGChartz. They compiled their sales estimates in the first six weeks since launch (Switch data is in line with its launch, not current sales). The results are not particularly good for Microsoft, although we have warned that only a very limited amount of data can be obtained in the first six weeks, especially at a time when console sales remain limited. All indications suggest that Microsoft and Sony continue to sell every console they can make.
US Sales, VGChartz
Sales in the United States are a better story for Microsoft. Although the Xbox Series S | X is still lower than the PlayStation 5, they are about 30 percent below, not nearly 50 percent. This is also the only region where the Xbox is really hitting the Switch in terms of worldwide sales. Everywhere else, Switch leads, including Japan.
For now, evidence indicates that the PlayStation 5 is selling heavily on the Xbox Series (both flavors) globally, with tougher competition (but still favorable to Sony) in the US. It is not known whether AMD can do anything to put more console SoCs in the hands of its partners. Also, wasn’t the PlayStation 5 supposed to face severe supply restrictions?
Now read: