Nearly three months after the release of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, Microsoft is still struggling to meet demand for its new consoles, and inventory shortages are expected to continue until at least April 2021.
But during a recent appearance on the Xbox Live director of Larry Hyrb (AKA Major Nelson)’s video podcast (via VGC), Xbox boss Phil Spencer assured fans that the company “as hard as we can” to get more Xbox Series X to make. stock available, with the CEO revealing that he even reached out to AMD to ask if the processor manufacturer could increase production to help demand
‘I get some people [asking], ‘why did you not build more? Why did you not start earlier? Why did you not send them earlier? “All this stuff,” Spencer told Hyrb. “It’s really just about physics and engineering. We’re not holding them back: we’re building them as fast as we can. We have all the mounting straps. I was on the phone with Lisa Su at AMD last week. [asking], ‘how do we get more?’ So this is something we are constantly working on. ‘
AMD manufactures the GPU and CPU for both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, with the console’s custom processor consisting of an 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2-class GPU. By AMD increasing the production of these chips, more consoles can (in theory) be manufactured by Microsoft.
But it’s not just the Xbox consoles that use AMD chips. The PS5 also uses an AMD Radeon RDNA 2 GPU and AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 core points, and has also been plagued by stock shortages since its launch.
“It’s not just us: gaming really came into its own in 2020,” Spencer told Hyrb. ‘It’s clear that PlayStation 5 is very strict. If you look at the graphics cards of AMD and Nvidia … there is currently just a lot of interest in gaming and console sales are just a sign of it, gaming sales are a sign of it and hardware is a shortage.
“But we work as hard as we can. The teams are incredibly dedicated, and I appreciate people’s patience as we work to build more. ”
How long can shortages last?
While Microsoft is determined to build more consoles, it inevitably depends on the components needed to build them.
We are currently seeing a shortage of AMD and Nvidia graphics, which could reportedly continue until February 2021.
According to French publication Cowcotland, both AMD and Nvidia have been hit by the restrictions on the GDDR6 offering and are likely to run shortages until early next year. This GDDR6 RAM is used in both PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles – and can affect the production of the new consoles.
It is also possible that component shipments could be further disrupted by global efforts to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine.
But it’s not just component shortages that could affect the console stock shortage; we have also seen scalpers buy consoles once they are in stock before we sell them online for exorbitant prices.
Microsoft has already stated that it is unlikely to issue Xbox shares until at least April this year. During the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment Virtual Conference, mid-November 2020, Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart said the supply shortage would continue “if we go to the holidays after the quarter, hence Microsoft’s Q3, calendar Q1.” This suggests that we will first see a boost in console inventory before we get to early 2021 – early April, but quite possibly even later in the year.
“We’ll increase the next four months, which, four, five, six months,” Stuart adds. “And that’s when I expect to really see the demand profile met.”