![]() ![]() Even older systems like the Nintendo Switch are affected, with Nintendo forced to slash supply estimates for the year because of parts shortages.īecause of this uncertainty, it's no surprise that Microsoft has been pushing its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service, which comes with Xbox Cloud Gaming access at no extra cost. Ships have routinely been forced to sit in the ocean, waiting for an opportunity to be unloaded, and no production increases can solve this bottleneck. According to the NPD Group executive director Mat Piscatella, the general window is currently between Q2 2022 and the middle of 2023, and issues with shipping ports present their own challenges unrelated to the manufacturing of the parts themselves. ![]() Any estimate as to when the shortage will end is just that: an estimate. The ongoing semiconductor shortage-a type of computer component needed for a wide variety of applications in addition to video game consoles-has been one of the key factors in the consoles' low stock after a year. That would ostensibly reduce players' need to get a PS5, though the speed with which they sell out and the price on reseller markets show that demand is a non-issue. Sony seems to be hedging its bets on the issue, as well, with several of its high-profile games, including the upcoming God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West, launching on PS4 in addition to PS5. Some are patiently, and fruitlessly, waiting for a chance to hand these companies their money, and this limbo period still doesn't have a clear endpoint. In the case of Xbox Series X and PS5, there is indeed a decline in search traffic over those succeeding months following launch, but it never completely died off, likely because some of the same people hoping to secure a console in 2020 still haven't done so. The systems became commonplace as exclusive games began releasing more frequently. If the local Walmart didn't have one, the local Target, Best Buy, or GameStop probably did. From that point on, finding an Xbox One or PS4 wasn't all that difficult. For context, a graph of search interest for both "Xbox One stock" and "PS4 stock" shows a big peak in November 2013, followed by a fairly sharp decline that had bottomed out by the end of winter. ![]() At the time, it was already an unusually long period of scarcity for the systems, and nothing has changed since then. With no end in sight for some of the key factors contributing to the consoles' scarcity, their mere availability could be a metric for success this generation.īack in April, I wrote a piece detailing why both the Xbox Series X and PS5 were so difficult to find-about five months after the consoles launched. Continued parts shortages and shipping issues exacerbated by the global pandemic have kept supply far below demand, making any public sales figures for the systems less about which is more popular and more about which company could make the most. ![]() After a full year, both the Xbox Series X and the PS5 remain nearly impossible to find, even for those vigilantly waiting on Walmart and Best Buy pages for the latest supply to go on sale. They were the obvious ones-game lineup, price, unique features, power-but this generation is already a lot different. In the past, a game console's success in competing against other major systems was based on a few recurring factors. ![]()
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