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Almost 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, with stockouts expected to continue until at least April 2021.
But, during a recent appearance on Xbox Live, programming director of Larry Hyrb’s (AKA Major Nelson) video podcast (via VGC), Xbox boss Phil Spencer assured fans that the company was “working as hard as it gets “to make more Xbox Series X stock available, with the executive revealing that it has even reached out to AMD to ask if the processor maker can ramp up production to meet demand.
“I receive people [asking], ‘why haven’t you built more? Why didn’t you start earlier? Why didn’t you ship them sooner? All of these things, ”Spencer told Hyrb. “It’s really about physics and engineering. We’re not holding them back: we’re building them as fast as possible. 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 this is something that we are constantly working on. “
AMD manufactures the GPU and processor for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, with the console’s custom-designed processor consisting of an 8-core AMD Zen 2 processor and an RDNA 2 class GPU. increasing the production of these chips by AMD, more consoles (in theory) could be made by Microsoft.
But it’s not just Xbox consoles that use AMD chips. The PS5 also uses an AMD Radeon RDNA 2 GPU and an AMD Zen 2 processor with 8 cores, and has also suffered from stock shortages since launch.
“It’s not just us: the game really took off in 2020,” Spencer told Hyrb. “Obviously, the PlayStation 5 is very limited. When you look at graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia… there’s just a lot of interest in games right now and console sales are just a sign of that, game sales are a sign of this, and hardware is scarce.
“But we are working as hard as possible. The teams are incredibly dedicated and I appreciate the patience of the people as we work to build more.
How long could the shortages last?
While Microsoft seems determined to build more consoles, it’s inevitably tied to the components needed to build them.
Currently, we are seeing a shortage of AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, which could continue until February 2021.
According to the French publication Cowcotland, AMD and Nvidia have been hit by GDDR6 supply constraints and will likely continue to face shortages until early next year. This GDDR6 RAM is used in both PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles – and may impact production on newer consoles.
It is also possible that component shipments will be further disrupted by global efforts to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine.
But it’s not just component shortages that could affect console outages – we’ve also seen scalpers buy consoles as soon as they come in before selling them for sky-high prices online.
Microsoft has previously said it’s unlikely to get a handle on Xbox stock issues until at least April of this year. Speaking at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment virtual conference in mid-November 2020, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart said supply shortages will continue “as we head into the post-holiday quarter. , so Microsoft’s third quarter, the first quarter schedule “. This suggests that we won’t see a rise in console stock until 2021 – April at the earliest, but most likely even later in the year.
“We’re going to have an increase in supply over the next, what, four, five, six months,” Stuart added. “And that’s when I expect to really see that demand profile start to be satisfied.”
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