PS5 / Xbox series: Shortage could last for "years"

News hardware PS5 / Xbox series: Shortage could last for “years”

Published on 05/31/2021 5:04 pm

Since their release in mid-November, next-generation consoles have been hard to find. This is due to a semiconductor shortage that is rocking the entire electronics industry and, according to Intel’s CEO, may persist.

Nobody will have missed it: it is very difficult to get a PS5 or Xbox Series S | X to acquire. This is due to the health crisis and its consequences: The demand for semiconductors is exploding and manufacturers cannot keep up. As a result, many products dependent on these components are out of stock, e.g. B. next generation consoles or new generation graphics cards. In recent months, the second part of 2021 or even 2022 has been mentioned as the end of the tunnel, but some market participants have been more pessimistic.

. During a COMPUTEX virtual session (Electronics and New Technologies Meeting), Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, said the electronics crisis could be prolonged:

While the industry has taken short-term initiatives to address this limitation, it may take years to fully clear inventories for foundries, substrates, and components.

To this end, many large companies do not hesitate to invest in new factories to provide more and more semiconductors. March, Intel announces a $ 20 billion plan Expansion of semiconductor manufacturing capacity by building two factories in Arizona. end of January Lisa Su (AMD) said the company will increase its additional manufacturing capacity in the second half of the year.

But how does that relate to the lack of PS5 and Xbox series? The semiconductors in question are essential to the development of the new generation processors with which the new generation consoles are equipped. However, both manufacturers are provided by AMD with regard to this component. However, the American manufacturer is not the market leader: in the field of Gaming

it is being replaced by Intel and Nvidia. As a result, AMD is not a priority with the suppliers required to manufacture these semiconductors. A deficiency that is all the greater for Xbox and Sony since, as mentioned above, they have the same supplier. The principle of ship communication therefore applies: as soon as one person places a major order for their consoles, it is difficult for the other to get it back. And vice versa.

Source : Reuters