Demand for Microsoft’s latest Xbox Series X console is high, but supply is unlikely to hold until at least June. In an interview with The New York Times, Microsoft’s head of investor relations, Mike Spencer, revealed that the supply of its new Xbox consoles will be limited at least until June.
Microsoft warned that the Xbox Series X would be out of stock until at least April or later, and it is now clear that the wait for inventory will continue for longer. The difficult supply situation means that Microsoft sold all the Xbox units it had in the last quarter, during one quarter it reached $ 5 billion in gaming revenue for the first time.
It has been incredibly difficult to buy an Xbox Series X, PS5 or even the latest AMD and Nvidia GPUs in recent months. This shortage is expected to continue for most of 2021, with AMD CEO Lisa Su warning that there may be no capacity until the second half of the year. “The industry needs to raise overall capacity levels,” Su said in a earnings conference call last week. “And therefore, we see some tightening throughout the first half of the year, but there is additional capacity in the second half.” AMD saw supply restrictions in the PC market, especially in the low-income segment, and in games in late 2020.
Part of the problem for retailers and consumers is also the money changers. The real cost of a new GPU or game console was incredibly high in late 2020, thanks to eBay resellers. It is a problem that has proved difficult for the entire industry to solve and means that waiting for a PS5, Xbox Series X or a new GPU will continue for most people for almost 2021.