It has been two months since both Microsoft and Sony released their latest generation gaming consoles and people are still scrambling to get their hands on these units. Sony held its first round of pre-orders for the PS5 back in January while Microsoft occasionally keeps bringing a few units of the Series X to eCommerce platforms. While there’s no specific date as to by when the scarcity of these consoles might end, Microsoft has given a tentative timeline for Xbox fans.
In a statement to The New York Times, Microsoft said “it saw huge demand, too, and was working tirelessly with our manufacturing and retail partners to replenish Xbox hardware as quickly as possible.” Mike Spencer, head of investor relations at Microsoft added that the company was able to sell every console in the last quarter and the supply constraints could carry on until June 2021. The company topped $5 billion in gaming for the first time.
Xbox Series X, Sony PS5 could face a shortage in supply
Unlike Microsoft, Sony refused to give out any statement regarding the PS5’s short supply. Sony has been consistently pointing out the high demands as reasons for supply constraints. Similar to Microsoft, Sony has two variants of the PS5 and both of them are hard to find in most markets. Microsoft, however, has been able to keep the Series S regularly in stocks.
David Gibson, the chief investment officer at Astris Advisory in Tokyo, says, “In a lot of ways, they don’t want to satisfy demand initially. They want to have an ongoing gap between supply and demand. They want to have buzz and excitement around it for a longer period of time.” He estimates that Sony was able to sell five million units of the PS5 while Microsoft was able to sell a total of 3 million units of its new Xbox consoles through the end of 2020.
Both the Xbox Series X and Sony PS5 offer high-end gaming performance at the prices of an entry-level gaming PC. At Rs 49,999, both the Sony PS5 and Xbox Series X offer up to 8K gaming with ray tracing and up to 120fps of gameplay. The PS5 has the advantage of some exciting exclusive titles whereas the Xbox Series X brings the advantage of Game Pass subscriptions as well as Quick Resume.
Currently, the Xbox Series X and the Sony PS5 remain unavailable on any Indian eCommerce sites. Sony is yet to announce the second batch of pre-orders for the PS5 in India.
