The Xbox Series X and S launched last week, but unfortunately, a lot of folks weren’t able to snag one. When will we see a decent amount of supply on shelves? It’s unlikely to happen in 2020, but what about in 2021? Xbox CFO Tim Stuart addressed the issue of Xbox Series X/S stock at the recent Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference, and it seems the wait won’t be too excruciating (thanks to the folks at Video Games Chronicle for spotting the quote and Seeking Alpha for the transcript)…
I think we'll continue to see supply shortages as we head into the post-holiday quarter, so Microsoft's Q3 (January 1 to March 31, 2021). And then when we get to Q4 (April 1 to June 30) 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. You'll be outside of a holiday window. We'll have supply cranking over the next, what, 4, 5, 6 months. And that's when I expect to see really that demand profile start to be met, which will be really, really great. And really, what that's going to do is, once we get into that world of a great high end, call it, a great high-powered console, plus that lower-end SKU for value, I think we're going to start to see some real velocity kick up, which I'm really excited to see.
So, there you are, hopefully you’ll be able to walk into a store and grab an Xbox Series X or S without hassle by Spring 2021. Will the same be true for the PlayStation 5? Well, you can hold out hope, buuut I wouldn’t count on it.
The Xbox Series X and S are available now worldwide. Anyone out there snag one at launch? For those who missed out, but still want one, are you willing to bide your time until spring?
