Xbox Series X Supply Reportedly to 'Improve Quite a Bit' This Holiday Season - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 November 2021 / 2,853 Views
Xbox Series X availability remains low as any stock shipped to retailers sells out in a matter of hours. The Head of GamesIndustry Christopher Dring has heard stock for the console will improve in time for this holiday season.
"Word on the industry bongos is that Xbox Series X supply will improve quite a bit for the year-end run-in, just in time for Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon," said Dring.
"Microsoft will utilise those games and Game Pass as the key hardware selling points during the Christmas sales window."
The lower end next-generation Xbox console, the Xbox Series S, has been readily available in many parts of the world.
Word on the industry bongos is that Xbox Series X supply will improve quite a bit for the year-end run-in, just in time for Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon. Microsoft will utilise those games and Game Pass as the key hardware selling points during the Christmas sales window
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) October 28, 2021
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I wonder how many Series X's that would've been on the market were instead utilized for xCloud
Considering the number of GPs subs, PSNow subs and the idea of xCloud I would go from hundreds of thousands to close to a million actually.
Most likely true, not sure why I low balled the number so much when you think these servers are placed worldwide.
Do we know those servers are Series X-based? To the best of my knowledge, they've only described them as Xbox Series-based hardware. Since xCloud tops out at 1080p, and isn't driving 120 FPS either, it seems unnecessary to go all the way to Series X levels of performance. Series S would do just fine, and is smaller and more efficient which would be good for data centre use. And isn't as supply-constrained, which is yet another benefit. Or perhaps they have a custom solution that's in-between those extremes. I suppose an analysis of texture detail, levels of foliage, etc., and then comparing those to the Series S and Series X versions of the same game could answer this question for us.
The fact that the games now have options that only appear in the Series X versions of games would appear to conclusively prove it, too. Thanks for the link! :)
"The lower end next-generation Xbox console, the Xbox Series S, has been readily available in many parts of the world."
Good article, and I particularly appreciate this particular line. The comments on various VGChartz articles suggest that people in North America generally under-estimate global availability of the Series S, and that people in many other countries overestimate global availability of the Series S.
Microsoft has a website in Canada that lists and links to several online retailers with an indication of whether they have Series S or Series X in stock. On any given day, that website tends to suggests that none of those online retailers have Series X in stock, and only about 40% of them have the Series S in stock (and which ones do have Series S in stock changes every time I look at it). So that suggests that Series S is less supply-constrained in Canada, but that it does nonetheless continue to sell out here (just more slowly than in Europe, it would seem). I speak from the Canadian perspective, but comments from Americans tend to echo the Canadian experience, more often than not.
Whereas in Europe and some other places, Series S is comparatively plentiful. So good for VGChartz to acknowledge the reality of that. thumbs up
Not good enough, Sony managed to make a few million more in the same time.
I look forward to stop hearing about scalpers buying up console.
AMD's contract includes both chipset design and manufacture so it handles all the TSMC contracts and those contracts would have involved working with both customers on initial volume and that would have been mainly based off the previous Gens sales plus perceived demand, giving Sony a head start and that volume advantage grew even larger when AMD procured Apples 7 nm share when they moved to 5nm and used it all for PS5, so while both Sony and MS want and need more volume Sony's market share dominance has some what helped soften the impact compared to MS whose lesser console sales has seen them starting this Gen further back than Sony .
Unless he believes the demand will decrease I don't believe him. We have heard from Intel, AMD, MS and Sony that the supply constrains are expected to be strong until at least middle 2022 so I don't expect real improvements for this Holiday. The only way other than demand decreasing would be that they have been stockpilling in warehouse to prepare for holiday.
He didn't say that supply would be sufficient to meet demand. He just said it would be a lot better. There's a lot of room between the current state and the ideal state. So all of the parties that you've mentioned here can be correct.
Also, it is certainly possible that some level of stockpiling has been going on
Sure, but saying there is more production on holiday is like saying water is wet, those contracts were already in place. The way he is saying is as if something is improving. We had Sony top tier talking yesterday why they didn`t kept above PS4 for the quarter and that they still think they will meet the year goal but nothing on holidays being improved. And since the biggest bottlenecks are the same I don't take this rumor with credibility.
They specifically talked about the Series X. Maybe they have already manufactured enough Series Ss to the point where they can reduce the production of that model and focus on the Series X?
I doubt it, it isn't like Series S is overflowing the market, or is a more than maybe 20% the production of Series and also the size and yield of the wafers would really improve the numbers of Series X produced.
Is there some indication that Xbox Series production is about 80% Series X? Or are you just guessing?
In an interview with Kotaku on October 16th 2020, Phil Spencer predicted that the Series X would sell better in the short-term, but that Series S would sell better in the long-run. Which I tend to agree with when you look at the potential for the Series S in countries like India and Brazil, especially when paired with Game Pass and Microsoft Rewards. So that does suggest they probably are trying to make more Series X than S units at this time. But a 5:1 ratio or more? That I have my doubts about.
You mention the size and yield of wafers, and Series S chips are smaller, clocked lower, etc., so you can get more on a wafer and might enjoy better yields, and with the Series S still selling out in North America Microsoft would presumably see value in producing as many Series S units as they can at least until some point where they predict that changing.
Plus Microsoft has a history of doing promotions on its cheapest SKUs on Black Friday (we have seen that all the way back to Xbox 360 Arcade units), so even if Series S stops selling out Microsoft might still want to keep getting as many Series S units into stores in North America as possible at least until Black Friday. No point incentivizing Series S sales while it's selling out (or close to). But once they can get supply to also exceed demand in North America (as Series S already seems to have in Europe), then they can start doing bundles, or time-limited sales, or other promotions to push Series S adoption and using it to gain marketshare. I think Microsoft is likely very interested in doing so, if their history is any indication. But they have to at least meet demand first.
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