More than two months since release, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X remain difficult to find. Scattered inventory refreshes give some people a chance to get one, but there’s no reliable inventory anywhere right now. AMD, the supplier and manufacturer for next-gen console CPUs and GPUs says it expects PS5 and Xbox Series X stock shortages to continue into the second half of 2021.
The statement was made by AMD CEO Lisa Su, who said on the company’s Q4 2020 earnings call that she expects supply constraints will be tight for the first six months of 2021, before “added capacity” in the second half of the year allows supply to catch up to demand. While Su is talking broadly about overall demand for semiconductors, she specifically says the supply constraints stem from “low end of the PC market and in the gaming markets.”
That being said, I think we’re getting great support from our manufacturing partners. The industry does need to increase the overall capacity levels and so we do see some tightness through the first half of the year, but there is added capacity in the second half.
Microsoft has also voiced that it doesn’t expect supply of the Xbox Series X|S to meet demand until at least April 2021. Sony hasn’t spoken up yet, except to say that they are aware of the demand for the PS5, and working to increase manufacturing to meet the inventory demands. However, Sony’s earnings report for Q4 2020 is expected to take place next week, so we may hear more from the company at that time. Both Sony and Microsoft are experiencing record launches for their respective next-gen consoles.
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has addressed the speed at which they (and presumably Sony) can even manufacture the consoles, which comes down to how fast AMD can supply the components. “It’s really just down to physics and engineering. We’re not holding them back: we’re building them as fast as we can. We have all the assembly lines going. I was on the phone last week with Lisa Su at AMD [asking], ‘how do we get more?’ So it’s something that we’re constantly working on,” Spencer said.
Interest in gaming, thanks in part to the pandemic that began in early 2020, has risen tremendously, catching manufacturers off guard. The limited supply of PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles has proven to be a boon for scalpers who stand to profit by purchasing the hard-to-find consoles and reselling them en masse at oftentimes ridiculous markups. While retailers keep trying to find ways to beat the bots and scalpers, people just looking to make a profit often end up taking stock that would ordinarily go to a legitimate player who hasn’t managed to get their hands on a console yet. If AMD’s projections about their own supply for crucial PS5 and Xbox Series X components holds true, we won’t start seeing stable inventory of either next-gen console for another few months.
[Source: VGC]
