PS5, Xbox Series X shortages could last till late 2021

Gaming fans may need to wait until the second half of 2021 to get their hands on PlayStation 5 (PS5) and Xbox series console, forecasts AMD, a hardware engineering company that develops the CPUs and GPUs for both consoles.

Demand for both consoles has been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has seen consumers flock to gaming but has strained supply chains.

“Demand will outstrip supply so there’s going to be some people that won’t get a-hold of the console when they want to,” said Piers Harding-Rolls, director of Ampere’s games research.

AMD further revealed that console stock shortages are likely to be there for the foreseeable future.

The company’s CEO Lisa Su said that she expects “some tightness” during the first six months of 2021 before things finally get better during the second half of the year, reports GameByte.

Sony reveals PlayStation 5 console, games

“So certainly, when I look at the semiconductor environment in 2020 it was very strong. So, we saw a strong revenue ramp in our business as well as across some of our peers,” said Su.

“It’s fair to say that the overall demand exceeded our planning and as a result, we did have some supply constraints as we ended the year. Those were primarily, I would say, in the PC market, the low end of the PC market, and in the gaming markets.”

“That being said,” added Lu, “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 takes aim at Sony with cloud gaming service

Since the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles were launched in November 2020 it’s been practically impossible to get one.

Sony pre-sold as many PS5 consoles in the first 12 hours in the United States as in the first 12 weeks for its predecessor PlayStation 4 device, Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said in an interview.

While Xbox Game Pass subscription service has grown rapidly; it offers more than 100 titles including brand-new games and has over 15 million users. Sony has been reluctant to make its hottest titles available on services like PlayStation Now, fearing this could cannibalise sales of big-budget games.