Friday, July 9th 2021
Last-gen Consoles from Sony, Microsoft Also Facing Stock Issues in the US
As pressure mounts over Sony and Microsoft's (in)ability to deliver their current-gen PS5 and Xbox Series S|X consoles at a fast enough pace to satisfy demand, it seems that users now have yet another reason to throw their gamer hands up in the air in frustration. Stocks of new PS4 / PS4 Pro and Xbox One S|X have been increasingly harder to come by in recent times, and especially in the US, stock of the last-gen consoles on Amazon, Target, Walmart and GameStop is virtually non-existent. The only choice prospective gamers have is to find a second-hand last-gen console - and pricing on those seems to be (predictably) going up.
When one looks at it, it does make sense that last-gen consoles are also becoming hard to find, despite the fact that they haven't been discontinued yet. It all pertains to the finite resources at manufacturers' disposal. Even if there are no common components between last and current-gen consoles, the difficulties faced by the supply chain in procuring even raw materials for fabrication means that manufacturers have to prioritize resource allocation - and it seems obvious that both Sony and Microsoft would prioritize current-gen consoles over the alternative. The stock issues even extend to peripherals - controllers for Sony's PS4 are also out of stock, and while the PS5's Dual Sense sees healthy stock levels, that controller has no backwards compatibility, meaning that users looking for a replacement or additional PS4 controller have to make do with either used ones or third-party alternatives. As for Xbox controllers, fear not - they're in stock, for both current and last-gen systems.
Current-gen gaming is hard enough to achieve nowadays, even considering the improving situation in high-performance graphics cards - and "improving" here refers to street pricing that's still some 50% above MSRP - on average. Of course, one can always opt to dip their toes in cloud gaming - Microsoft's xCloud is now open to all prospective users, presenting an alternative to the hardware shortages we've been facing.
Source:
Kotaku
When one looks at it, it does make sense that last-gen consoles are also becoming hard to find, despite the fact that they haven't been discontinued yet. It all pertains to the finite resources at manufacturers' disposal. Even if there are no common components between last and current-gen consoles, the difficulties faced by the supply chain in procuring even raw materials for fabrication means that manufacturers have to prioritize resource allocation - and it seems obvious that both Sony and Microsoft would prioritize current-gen consoles over the alternative. The stock issues even extend to peripherals - controllers for Sony's PS4 are also out of stock, and while the PS5's Dual Sense sees healthy stock levels, that controller has no backwards compatibility, meaning that users looking for a replacement or additional PS4 controller have to make do with either used ones or third-party alternatives. As for Xbox controllers, fear not - they're in stock, for both current and last-gen systems.
40 Comments on Last-gen Consoles from Sony, Microsoft Also Facing Stock Issues in the US
Awesome.
But if I suggest they do something else, other than electronics, for fun.....it's like they don't know how. The weather has been amazing the past few days, mid 70s, cool breeze and they refuse to go outside and be active....that's fine, I guess, but they sure don't get to use their electronics inside. So, they sulk...I'm not sure if it's funny or sad.
But yes, they are hard to find in the US.
These consoles were mostly sold out the entirety of last year, So if you give-up hope on the New Hotness, the old demand should resume 3-6 months after launch.
That old stuff is no faster than current Tiger Lake IGP.
ssu.gov.ua/novyny/sbu-vykryla-naibilshu-kryptofermu-v-ukraini-maizhe-5-tys-kompiuteriv-mainyly-hroshi-na-vinnytsiaoblenerho
According to the google translate version, 5800 consoles were seized. This does not indicate they were used in mining. It is more likely they were scalping them.
Anyways, I'm sad to see our prophecy so quickly fullfilled.
Honestly it's very healthy to have a wide variety of hobbies, people need to just take a break for a year or two if they are that desperate for hardware, go explore some new hobbies.
I have several: gardening, nature exercises/biking trails, reading, painting/coloring with professional colored pencils (hoping to get a Bob Ross paint set eventually, but they are a bit pricey), reading, visiting family more often, and getting back into indie gaming or older backlog games and thoroughly taking my time to enjoy them. I have some more, but yeah.
Add ASA sailing classes. Go into any yacht club and you'll be up and sailing within days or hours. Do it on a daily or weekly thing. The weather right now is perfect, once winter comes, most boats go on the hard, (hard top, hard storage, winter storage).