With everything that went down in 2020, it was something of a miracle that we managed to actually get new consoles launching. It was also something of another minor miracle if you managed to actually get one, as pre-orders for the things were something of mess. There isn’t a lot of good news on that front as it stands, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer wants you to know they are building their new Xbox systems as fast as they can.
In the final Xbox podcast of 2020, Spencer was on and was asked about the stock issues with the system. He states that he understands the frustration from many, but says that there was no holding back of supply. Due to all the various issues, specifically COVID-19 and its impact on production, it simply wasn’t feasible to get more. He promises that Microsoft is working hard to produce more stock however, saying the assembly lines are going, and he’s constantly on the phone with AMD.
“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.
“But it’s not just us: gaming has really come into its own in 2020. Obviously, PlayStation 5 is in very tight supply. When you look at the graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia… there’s just a lot of interest in gaming right now and console sales are just a sign of that, game sales are a sign of that and hardware is in short supply. But we’re working as hard as we can. The teams are incredibly dedicated, and I appreciate people’s patience as we work to build more.”
Near the end of last year, Microsoft signaled that they were expecting Xbox Series X/S shortages up until Q2 of 2021, so most likely we won’t be seeing a mass production of the systems until at least summer.