Microsoft Says Xbox Series X and Series S Supply Shortages to Continue Till April 2021

Microsoft expects the newly launched Xbox Series X and Series S supply shortages to continue until April 2021. The latest Xbox consoles’ sale commenced globally last week, although they were quickly sold out in many parts of the world. During the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference that took place last week, Xbox Chief Financial Officer Tim Stuart (via Seeking Alpha) said that the company would continue to face supply shortages even during the post-holiday quarter (January to March 2021). Notably, not just Microsoft’s Xbox, other gaming equipment like the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs by Nvidia are also expected to see supply shortages until next year owing to the COVID 19 pandemic and high demand.

Stuart at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference further said that the supply chain is expected to return to normal during the fourth quarter of Microsoft’s financial year, that is, post-April 2021. “And then when we get to Q4, all of our supply chain continuing to go full speed heading into kind of the pre-summer months. And that’s where I start to — I expect to see a little bit of the demand — the supply profile, meeting the demand profile,” Seeking Alpha reported citing the Xbox Chief Financial Officer. Notably, in October this year, Xbox head Phil Spencer had already stated that the company might not be able to meet the demand for the new Xbox Series X and Series S consoles this year. “We’re going to have more demand than we do supply, and I’ll apologise in advance to people for that,” he added on the Dropped Frames podcast.

Similarly, official retail partners like Amazon had also sent out emails regarding shortages in supply to customers who pre-booked the consoles in September. “Due to high demand, consoles will ship as inventory continues to arrive throughout November and December. You will receive an email notification when your order has shipped,” the e-commerce company in response to a tweet said.

Last week, Microsoft had announced that the company sold more Xbox Series X and Series S consoles on its launch day (November 10) than any previous Xbox consoles. Though the exact number remains unclear, Microsoft says that the Xbox Series S added the highest percentage of new players for any Xbox console at launch. Additionally, the company had also stated that it is aware of the Xbox consoles supply shortages in several countries. Microsoft had assured that it is “working tirelessly” with partners to address this issue.

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