PS5, Xbox Series X, And PC Part Shortages Won't End Soon, Says AMD

AMD CEO Lisa Su has indicated that supply shortages for gaming consoles, desktop CPUs, and GPUs will continue until the second half of 2021, with the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Series S most affected. With bots still snagging so many consoles as soon as they're put on sale, this could exacerbate the problem.

The news was included in AMD's full-year financial earnings (via Tom's Hardware), which showed the company surpassing its past earning records with a strong Q4. This was in part thanks to the launch of a slew of AMD-powered products, including both current generation consoles, AMD's Zen 3-powered Ryzen CPUs, and RX 6000 series graphics cards.

Supply of all three has been tight since launch, however, and Su expects this to continue being the case until new production capacity comes online. Su also pointed out that lower-cost components for low-end PCs and both consoles will be affected the most given the overwhelming demand, with the prospects for new stock of much higher-priced components looking more positive over the same period.

This is identical to the situation Nvidia finds itself in with stock of its RTX 30-series GPUs, which it says will not be any better before at least April. Nvidia did announce a new RTX 3060 desktop GPU and multiple laptop RTX 30-series chips at CES 2021 despite this.

Stock of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X has been a nightmare since launch, which isn't at all out of the norm for a big, anticipated release of new gaming hardware. Microsoft previously expected stock issues to continue through March, and it's yet to be seen how AMD's plans for increased production later this year will help alleviate issues further. The consoles' demand has been high, but shortages and the lack of in-person retail orders have certainly still made it even more difficult to find. It's unclear when they'll be more widely available outside of delivery and pickup orders.