Microsoft CFO Tim Stuart has said the company expects shortages of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S to continue through the first quarter of 2021.
Retailers are expected to sporadically offer limited numbers of Xbox Series X/S consoles for sale as and when they receive new stock, but availability is likely to be few and far between for the foreseeable future.
“I think we’ll continue to see supply shortages as we head into the post-holiday quarter, so Microsoft’s Q3, calendar Q1,” Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart said at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference last week.
“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.
Microsoft hasn’t revealed how many new Xbox systems it sold around the November 10th debut. It said the Series X and S represented its most successful launch in history, but that’s not completely surprising given the growing console market, the Xbox One’s rough launch and a pandemic keeping people at home.
This won’t be good news if you’re trying to track down a new Xbox for a holiday gift. However, it’s ultimately good news for Microsoft this suggests that interest is strong enough that the Series X and S will remain hot commodities long after festivities are over. We wouldn’t be surprised if Sony is encountering a similar phenomenon with PlayStation 5 sales.
