Spencer says Xbox is ‘working as hard as it can’ to increase X / S Series inventory

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Phil Spencer, director of Microsoft’s Xbox, said the platform owner was “working as hard as possible” to bring more stock of Xbox Series X / S consoles to market.

Speaking in a new Xbox podcast, the executive revealed that he even contacted chipmaker AMD – which makes both the processor and GPU in the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles – to ask them about ‘he could speed up manufacturing.

Much like its rival PlayStation, Microsoft has struggled to meet demand for the launch of Xbox Series X and S. Since November, consoles have been largely sold out at retailers and Microsoft has said it expects supply problems continue until spring.

“I have people [asking], ‘why haven’t you built more? Why didn’t you start earlier? Why didn’t you ship them sooner? All of those things, ”Spencer said in a Major Nelson podcast released this week.

“It’s really a question of physics and engineering. We’re not holding them back: we’re building them as fast as possible. We have all the assembly lines 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.

Phil Spencer says Xbox is “working as hard as it can” to bring more consoles to market.

“But it’s not just us: gaming really took off in 2020. Obviously, the PlayStation 5 is very limited. When you look at graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia … there is just a lot of interest in games right now and console sales are just a sign of it, game sales are a sign and hardware is rare.

Xbox Series X / S retail

“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.

The Xbox Series X / S and PS5 shortages are believed to have been exacerbated by groups of scalpers using software to automatically buy consoles as soon as they are in stock, before selling them for exorbitant prices in marketplaces like eBay. .

A recent study suggested that the so-called “scalpers” made more than $ 28 million in profit on next-gen consoles through the eBay auction site.

According to an analysis by data engineer Michael Driscoll, the median selling price of the Xbox Series S (MSRP $ 300) on eBay was $ 469 and for the more powerful Xbox Series X (MSRP $ 499) it was of $ 865, generating over $ 9 million in profits for resellers. .

In a November interview, Phil Spencer expressed his frustration with how pre-orders for the Xbox Series X / S had gone for some customers, and suggested that Microsoft come up with a new model for pre-ordering consoles. , like filing a deposit.

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“I think this will push us to think about new models,” he explained. “It could be, reserve your spot. It could be more direct with the customer. The retailer could still be asked to process the order, but just so people could know more clearly when they can get a console. This is something that we are working on.

He added: “The biggest disappointment for me in this launch – but I’m also happy with it – is that people love the product. The demand is high, so when you see a product hit the shelves, it goes really fast. If you want one, now I look like a seller, but I recommend you pick one when you see it. “