Xbox CFO expects Xbox Series X|S shortages through Q1 2021

This article contains affiliate links: if you buy through them, SavePoint may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It doesn’t change what we write.

The numbers first: the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S reached stores on November 10, 2020, at US$ 499 and US$ 299, and sold out quickly in almost every market. According to Microsoft, it was the biggest launch in Xbox history, with more consoles sold in more countries in the first 24 hours than any previous model. In the United Kingdom alone, about 155,000 units were sold on launch day.

On November 16, 2020, speaking at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference, the Xbox division’s chief financial officer (CFO), Tim Stuart, explained that the stock shortage would continue for a few months. In his words, the company expected to “continue to see supply shortage” in the quarter following the holidays, Microsoft’s third fiscal quarter, which corresponds to the first calendar quarter and ends on March 31, 2021.

Translating the jargon: Microsoft counts its fiscal year from July, so its “Q3” is the period from January to March. Stuart said that, after that, with the production chain “at full steam” in the months before the Northern Hemisphere summer, supply should start to meet demand. He also said he expected “real velocity” in sales once both models, the more powerful and the cheaper one, were available in quantity.

In practice, this meant that anyone who had not secured the console in pre-order would hardly find a Series X on shelves before April 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic weighed on both ends: it disrupted production and increased demand for video games.

What came next

The forecast proved optimistic. Both the Xbox Series X|S and the PlayStation 5 remained in limited supply throughout 2021, because of the global semiconductor shortage combined with high demand. In June 2023, Microsoft said the two models had passed 21 million units sold.