Supply problems have hampered the launch of the latest generation of video game consoles. Even now, almost two months after the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S released, Microsoft is still struggling to meet demand and reportedly turned to chip maker AMD to speed up production at its end.
AMD makes the GPU and CPU for both consoles, so if it were able to launch its chips faster, Microsoft could, in theory, produce more consoles by extension. As seen by VGC, Microsoft is “working as hard as we can” to pump more systems and even contacted AMD for help, according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, in a recent appearance on Major Nelson Radio Podcast hosted by Xbox Live Program Director Larry Hyrb
“I have some people [asking], ‘why didn’t you build more? Why didn’t you start earlier? Why didn’t you dispatch them before? ‘ I mean, all those things, ”said Spencer. “It’s really just a matter of physics and engineering. We are not preventing them: we are building them as quickly as possible. We have all the assembly lines up and running. I was on the phone last week with [CEO and president] Lisa Su at AMD [asking], ‘How can we get more? How can we get more? ‘ So it is something that we are constantly working on. ”
In November, Xbox Chief Financial Officer Tim Stuart projected that problems with Xbox supplies could last until at least april. In 2020, Microsoft sold about 3.3 million units of its high-end Xbox Series X, for Statista, and sold about 21,000 Xbox Series X and S units in Japan during launch.
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Microsoft is not the only one struggling: competitor Sony is dealing with a similar shortage for its next generation console, the PlayStation 5, which also depends on AMD for its GPU and CPU.
“But it’s not just us, I think the games really stood out in 2020,” Spencer told Hyrb. “Obviously, the PlayStation 5’s offer is very limited. When you look at AMD and Nvidia graphics cards … there is a lot of interest in games now and console sales are just a sign of that, game sales are a sign of that and the hardware is in short supply ”.
However, chip makers like AMD and Nvidia are already busy with their own supply problems. OMG struggled to meet demand for its Ryzen 5000 series processors last year. A global shortage of GDDR6 memory has supposedly helped to obstruct production of AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 GPUs and Nvidia’s RTX 3000 series, and things are not expected to improve until at least February. This may also slow down the production of next generation consoles, as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S use GDDR6 RAM.
Therefore, it is uncertain whether AMD would be able to respond to Microsoft’s call for action. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic and the rush to distribute vaccines may also be affecting global supply lines. And then there’s the money changers collecting the available stock to sell them at a profit margin. AN recent review estimates that eBay scalpers have made more than $ 82 million in sales since September with the resale of next-generation consoles and AMD and Nvidia chips.