Xbox, PlayStation and Intel expect hardware shortages to continue

In a recent investor call, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart has said that he expects supply chain issues to continue until at least 2023, explaining that further strain has been put on the console industry by recent lockdowns in China. According to Stewart, the manufacturing issues come down to two key points — a limited amount of parts which “favour Series S consoles” and “elevated logistics pricing pressuring margins”.

A world wide silicon shortage and other logistics issues have been putting strain on the games and technology industries for a while. Sony announced in their own May investor call that they were lowering their sales forecast for PlayStation 5 consoles for the year to 18 million units, down from 22.6 million, saying that “18 million units is what we feel very comfortable that we can get the parts and components for” and that the hardware shortage was “not only restricted to game business”. 

Intel’s CEO Pat Gelsinger also commented on hardware issues for their company in May, saying “…we believe the overall semiconductor shortage will now drift into 2024, from our earlier estimates in 2023, just because the shortages have now hit equipment and some of those factory ramps will be more challenged.”