An Xbox Series X|S restock happened this morning, but most players weren’t lucky enough to get one as it sold out in minutes. Worst of all, it’s likely that Xbox shortages will be the norm for the next several months.
2020 has been a rough year for players trying to buy new tech. The first wave of the Xbox Series X|S pre-orders sold out incredibly fast and the PS5 didn’t fare much better later that same week, with scalpers selling both consoles at ludicrous markups. Another Xbox restock happened today with little notice and things didn’t go so well this time, either.
Xbox Series X|S restock hampered by supply shortages
An Xbox Series X|S restock went live earlier today, but the frenzy lasted for all of a few minutes as the Xbox Series X is now out of stock, repeating the events of the console’s launch day and a PS5 restock earlier this week. Players hoping to get their hands on one of Microsoft’s new consoles should expect this to be the norm well into 2021 at the minimum.
“I think we’ll continue to see supply shortages as we head into the post-holiday quarter, so Microsoft’s Q3, calendar Q1,” Xbox CFO Tim Stuart said at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment Virtual Conference last week as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. “And then when we get to Q4, all of our supply chain continuing to go full speed heading into kind of the pre-summer month.”
Tim Stuart goes on to say that he doesn’t expect Microsoft’s supply of consoles to adequately meet consumer demand for another 4–6 months. What this means is that it likely won’t be easy to buy a console at the next Xbox Series X|S restock until sometime between March 2020 and May 2020 — and that’s assuming that there aren’t any additional problems further on down the line.
