I remember the Wii being hard to find but I don’t remember them being as hard to find for as long as the PS5/XBX. I happened to stroll into a Target on Switch launch day and pick one up with no preorder, no muss no fuss, but I know it wasn’t like that everywhere. This time feels different. I know the semiconductor industry was set back by COVID but this feels like more than that. It feels like console scalpers are seriously impacting the availability of the new gen of consoles. I suspect that scalpers are going to get stuck holding a giant bag once manufacturing capability ramps up. Thoughts?
Perhaps you weren’t involved in the all-night lineups at Best Buy for the first-gen Xbox? Or more recently for the (not all night, but many hours-long) lineups for the PS4?
I was. Not that I care about video gaming or consoles, but these were must-have Christmas presents! And it was brutal, especially the overnighter for the Xbox. Fortunately for my son, I’m a little bit insane.
Scalpers can do what they do because production is low. There really is a supply shortage due to the pandemic, and it’s affecting pretty much all of the computing sector—especially graphics.
Even used GPUs are like double the price they were 2 years ago–as people who were going to do a big upgrade with the new stuff settle for a smaller one for now, and just the trickle down effects of people not selling their old stuff as much. I’ve checked, as I was hoping to get one for my birthday this month.
It’s clearly worse than anything I remember. Sure, you had some trouble getting consoles before Christmas, but usually production would get better afterwards.
Agree that the graphics card availability is worse than I remember since the Great Bitcoin Graphics Card Shortage a few years ago. This feels about the same maybe. No opinion on consoles.
I work in the hardware biz. The parts needed for consoles are the same parts needed for PC’s (and there is an unprecedented demand for PC’s for work from home and remote learning), and the automotive industry is rebounding (and automobiles are pc’s on wheels competing for the same parts), and the silicon chip foundries are running 24/7 and not catching up.
I’m having parts go from a 12 month lead time to 53 weeks literally overnight.
There just isn’t enough silicon to go around.
I’ve noticed the Xbox Series X is not available at all, even for preorder, at the largest electronics retailer here in Australia. Fortunately, I’m not in the market for that. NVidia 3070s are pretty limited in choice, and start at 1200AUD from my usual retailer. All are limited to one per household, for that matter.
I don’t think that makes sense. Scalpers are a symptom of low supply, not a cause. Scalpers can get money by turning themselves into middlemen and getting the difference between the retail price and the market price, but they won’t meaningfully change the availability of the good. If a scalper is able to sell a console for $100 over the retail price, those consoles weren’t going to stay on the shelves very long because there’s lots of demand. The only way scalpers could cause low availability is if they were hoarding things and waiting for the price to increase. That seems unlikely to be happening in any significant volume.
We’ve got the confluence of
- More people spending time at home, and using devices more for all sorts of things
- Manufacturing somewhat reduced and supply chains somewhat messed up due to COVID.
- Cryptocurrency mania creating tons of extra demand for GPUs
So from 52 weeks to 53 weeks?
That’s worse but it’s less than 2% worse.
I remember having to wait in line all night for a wii but I believe the 360s and PS3 were much easier to get.
Also how much of this is intentional, I get the impression that they intentionally under manufacture consoles at first release to increase the hype and status around them rather than due to any shortage of parts. but like others have said its also likely due to covid and higher demand for some parts.
is the new Xbox also extremely hard to find, I thought it was more the PS5 people were lining up for.
This shortage seems greater since it affects both major consoles (and the Switch, I believe) and is still continuing four or five months after those consoles released. It’s not unprecedented to need to wait in line to buy a newly released console at Christmas. Having to still work hard at it in the following March is something new.
I’m not in the market for any of them but, judging from chatter in my internet haunts, people are still sharing tips on where they might find an Xbox Series X. The Series S (cheaper, lower spec, digital only) seems more available but still not an easy casual purchase.
It’s hard to tell from here. With the previous gen consoles, I wasn’t in the market for a new one on launch day so I wasn’t really aware of the availability. In both cases, Xbox Original and PS4, I bought them as impulse(ish) buys while window shopping, i.e., they were sitting on store shelves. With the latest gen, I have money budgeted for a new console but no way to buy one. I went in to a game shop the other day and asked about availability, they just shrugged and said they’re still trying to supply pre-orders. There would be no consoles on shelves for the foreseeable future.
But I’m in New Zealand. We have a freight problem at the moment caused by a mixture of COVID decimating (yeah I know, it’s worse than that, “decimating” wouldn’t be so bad) the number of inbound flights, and the port of Auckland, our largest city, being unable to handle enough of the inbound ships due to labour shortages and equipment issues.
We’ve got some of the same problems as NZ, of course - inbound flights are way down, at least.
I had a look at Microsoft AU’s page, pointing me to Australian retailers of the XBox Series X - and all of them are out of stock.
whistles I just had a look at ebay - the buy it now prices start at 869 AUD, for a used one. New ones are 1000AUD +. Criminey! I don’t know if scalpers are solely to blame, but they sure ain’t helping.
Here is an article entitled “Why You Can’t Get Your Hands on a Wii” and it came out a year after the Wii’s release, when the next holiday season was approaching and people could still not find one.
Nintendo had some supply chain problems back in the 80s that resulted in a lot of upset parents being unable to find Super Mario Bros. 2 in stock. Given that it’s one of the weaker games in the franchise perhaps that doesn’t seem so bad in retrospect.
The Series X isn’t just hard to find, it’s essentially impossible to find. My son has been in the market for one since it was released in November and so far has had no luck. No retailer has them in stock for more than a few minutes. There are Twitter and Facebook pages devoted to letting people know when a retailer will have a shipment drop and so far he’s not been able to snag one. Scalpers are selling them on eBay for twice their retail price.
The Wii shortage was bad (if you wanted a Wii) but it also only affected a single system. You could still buy other consoles at the time if you wanted. The shortages right now are affecting all the current gen devices: PS5, Xbox S|X and Nintendo Switch.
One of the reasons it’s a weak game in the franchise is that it’s not really a game in the franchise. SMB 2 as released in North America was really Doki Doki Panic (a Famicon-only game) with the sprites replaced with SMB characters. SMB 2 for Famicon would later be released as “SMB: The Lost Levels” in North America as part of a compilation of SMB titles for SNES.
The recent console market crash in North America combined with the difficulty that was SMB 2 in Japan led Nintendo to release an easier game as SMB 2 in NA.
You can go to the websites of Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Amazon, GameStop, etc. right now and order a Nintendo Switch. Granted, some of them give an estimated delivery date of a couple weeks from now, but they all let you add it to your cart and proceed with the order, and some even have it in stock for immediate pickup at a local store.
I’ve played both versions of SMB 2 and honestly, the one released in the US is vastly superior. The Japanese one is mainly just more levels. They were harder, but it didn’t even feel like a full sequel. More like an extensive DLC.
Well, that’s something. For the last year it’s been a big nope with high eBay prices. Still, saying that you can now get a device that launched in 2017 (almost four years ago to the day) with maybe only a two week delay doesn’t really undermine the point that the current situation is worse than it’s ever been.