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Xbox boss Phil Spencer says console supply issues will continue into 2022

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

The head of Microsoft’s games business told The Wrap that a shortage of chips wasn’t the only thing stopping the company getting as many Xbox Series X/S consoles onto store shelves as it would like.

“I think it’s probably too isolated to talk about it as just a chip problem,” he said. “When I think about, what does it mean to get the parts necessary to build a console today, and then get it to the markets where the demand is, there are multiple kind of pinch points in that process. And I think regretfully it’s going to be with us for months and months, definitely through the end of this calendar year and into the next calendar year.

“The thing that’s most disappointing is just the fan disappointment,” Spencer continued. “People really want this new generation of consoles—they’re good consoles, both from us and the other platform holders—and they want the new functionality. We’re working hard to bring them to market but it’s going to be a challenge that we’ll work through for quite a while.”
 
Please Phil run for president and give Americans everywhere an Xbox series x.


I Hope Please GIF
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Well, it was bound to bite people in the ass for specialized products. It's not like apples and oranges which never run out.

When companies around the world really on a small number of chip companies in a small number of global foundry factories, all it takes is a wrench thrown in and things clog up. It also doesn't help a lot of those places are in Asia, so even if something is made it'll probably takes a month by container ship to get over the Pacific unless product is flown in at extra costs. And then you got time at the port and then getting it to warehouses.

AMD and Nvidia love it. Their stocks are close to record highs.
 
MS hasn't announced any cross gen games after dec 2021. While the company that believes in generations will probably still be making cross gen games in 2023.
You'd be a fool to think Xbox cross gen games will stop come the end of the year.

What sort of userbase will these next gen only games sell to? How many people out there have a Series X/S vs One X/S?

It makes complete sense to go cross gen for the foreseeable as there's an ongoing pandemic affecting supply chains and a worldwide chip shortage.
 
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You'd be a fool to think Xbox cross gen games will stop come the end of the year.

What sort of userbase will these next gen only games sell to? How many people out there have a Series X/S vs One X/S?

It makes complete sense to go cross gen for the foreseeable as there's an ongoing pandemic affecting supply chains and a worldwide chip shortage.
Xbox has actually always cut off sharply since the very first transition.
 

elliot5

Member
You'd be a fool to think Xbox cross gen games will stop come the end of the year.

What sort of userbase will these next gen only games sell to? How many people out there have a Series X/S vs One X/S?

It makes complete sense to go cross gen for the foreseeable as there's an ongoing pandemic affecting supply chains and a worldwide chip shortage.
nothing has been announced as cross gen beyond Halo Infinite, no?
There's always xcloud to reach audiences that cannot access a console themselves yet.
 
Cross gen until 2023 I guess

You'd be a fool to think Xbox cross gen games will stop come the end of the year.

What sort of userbase will these next gen only games sell to? How many people out there have a Series X/S vs One X/S?

It makes complete sense to go cross gen for the foreseeable as there's an ongoing pandemic affecting supply chains and a worldwide chip shortage.
Sony has already hit over a million PS5’s sold and MS is probably in a similar ball Park with that.

With PS5 games being $70 and game pass for Xbox it would not hurt either with just releasing next gen games.

Also I think this console gen will be long just like the PS3/360 era because it would not make sense to release new consoles anytime soon coming off these wasted years with shortages.

The install bases will grow over time but obviously it will not grow quickly due to the shortages but this isn’t anything new. The install base of brand new consoles have always taken time to grow so it doesn’t make sense for them to delay next gen only games over that. At some point they will have to move on from the PS4 and Xbox one consoles or else it will make it harder to sell the new consoles going forward once the shortage issue gets resolved.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
Merry Christmas, everyone!
I've seen plenty of warnings out there now that if there is an item you plan to buy as a gift for people to purchase them when you see them and don't assume they will be there later.

Seems like shortages in almost all categories are expected this holiday.
 

bender

What time is it?
Lisa Su did said that the silicone shortage might ease around half of 2022

Seems optimistic at this point and you still have a glut of backorders across the industry. If we are lucky things will return to normal in 2023.
 

XXL

Member
Sony has already hit over a million PS5’s sold and MS is probably in a similar ball Park with that.
PS5 is at 10 Million sold as of July.

In June it was 9 Million sold.

It's safe to estimate around 12-13 Million PS5's sold at this point.
 
In hindsight, getting a new PC in early 2020 and pre-ordering the first batch of the Xbox Series X (and S) has been some of my best gaming-related purchases in a long time. Feels so great not to have to worry about missing out on Amazon, MS Store, etc. dropping a few consoles here and there which go away in 0.1 seconds due to scalpers and similarly thirsty fans. I see this lack of chip shortage affecting a lot of things in my work too, but at least in my private life I don't have to change my computer, consoles, phone, car, etc. soon.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Might see some standard Series X come into the market if people trade up for the Halo edition as well but yeah think everyone is struggling to be honest.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Cant these companies just build more factories to make more stuff?

I know is complecated but the tech shortage has been going on a while, in countries like china they are known for very rapid construction, you would of thought that plans to extend manufacturing capacity would of been implemented already.
 

Allandor

Member
So many things are so hard to get right now. This virus has slowed the world.
It is not only the virus. This shortage already began before as more and more products need chips (PC-industry, smartphones, tablets, consoles, cars, smart-home devices, .....) and there are not so many companies that can produce them. Resources are also getting more and more a problem.
But yes, the virus did not make the situation better ;)

Cant these companies just build more factories to make more stuff?

I know is complecated but the tech shortage has been going on a while, in countries like china they are known for very rapid construction, you would of thought that plans to extend manufacturing capacity would of been implemented already.
Such a company is really expensive to build (it needs years to compensate the costs) and it is not only the production capacity that is a problem. Getting the resources for production is also a problem.
 
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Coolwhhip

Neophyte
Cant these companies just build more factories to make more stuff?

I know is complecated but the tech shortage has been going on a while, in countries like china they are known for very rapid construction, you would of thought that plans to extend manufacturing capacity would of been implemented already.

From what I understand it takes about 2 years to build a factory but a lot longer to get it fully running and requires highly trained people. So not that easy.

Depending on China for this seems like a bad idea though.
 
Several things come from this.
1, good next gen games won't sell as much thus not making companies the money they thought they would.
2, that means those companies won't make sequels or take care of the game post launch period (patches, dlc, etc.)
3, also because of that, more titles will still be cross-gen, which isn't bad but it still means we won't see the full potential of next gen systems for another 2-3 years.
4, due the virus still hampering game studios, we will continue to see more and more "crunch time" and buggy launches.

I'm lucky i got my PS5 and XBX from knowing the right people, but the supply issue is crazy this far after launch.
 

The majority of the chip plants are in Taiwan and they're undergoing their worst drought in 50 years.


The drought had threatened to affect Hsinchu, home of the world's largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) (2330.TW), .

The company has said, though, that it has seen no impact on production from the drought and would continue to trim its water use and buy supplies from tanker trucks for some foundries.
 
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Umbasaborne

Banned
Sucks but its to be expected. I feel like the shortage will seriously knee cap this generation. Yes the consoles are selling alot, but id be willing to bet the majority of sales are going to scalpers. Though as far as the cross gen problem, xbox has a solution. Xbox one’s will be able to stream any xbox series games that are on gamepass, even if they cant run them natively
 

NickFire

Member
The real question is whether supply (Series X / PS5) exceeds demand before 2023 IMO. I'm guessing it will, but I'm not so sure because I assume more and more people will be ready for a new generation as the big games start coming out. Cross gen might negate that though.
 

CeeJay

Member
You'd be a fool to think Xbox cross gen games will stop come the end of the year.

What sort of userbase will these next gen only games sell to? How many people out there have a Series X/S vs One X/S?

It makes complete sense to go cross gen for the foreseeable as there's an ongoing pandemic affecting supply chains and a worldwide chip shortage.
Contrary to what some companies might have you believe you cannot just knock up a last gen version of a game at the last minute if it has been developed from the ground up specifically targeting and taking full advantage of the next generation of hardware. You can downgrade the visuals but if a game is properly utilising the CPU, faster IO and is targeted towards SSD storage then it would take a lot of work to shoe horn all that down onto last gen to the point where it wouldn't really be feasible or worthwhile.

As you've pointed out, there is a way via Xcloud to play the Series games so even if you can't get hold of the native hardware you still can play.
 

Three

Member
MS hasn't announced any cross gen games after dec 2021. While the company that believes in generations will probably still be making cross gen games in 2023.
Let reality hit you. MS has been making nothing but crossgen games bar a single PC game which they wanted to make crossgen but struggled with. The reason they haven't announced a crossgen game since Dec 2021 (what?) is because they are showing games that won't be out for years.
 
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