The PS5 and Xbox Series X are both currently scheduled to release sometime this holiday season, however there's growing concern the ongoing coronavirus outbreak -- and it's impact on China's current manufacturing capabilities -- will delay the two consoles. At the moment of publishing, both Microsoft and Sony are remaining silent on this speculation, probably because right now they can't predict what's in store as the coronavirus grows from an epidemic to a pandemic.

At this point, it doesn't take an industry insider or someone ultra familiar with the situation to point that the chance of supply chain disruption is looking greater and greater with each passing day. In order to hit this holiday release window, both Microsoft and Sony will need to start mass production this spring. The problem is, not only are factories still not back at full capacity, they are backed up on orders.

Now, will this lead to either console being delayed? I don't think so, but it could very well lead to some supply constraints. It's a matter of how serious these constraints will be that will determine a delay to 2021 for either console.

That all said, right now, AMD has some promising news for those hoping to play either or both consoles this year. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X are currently on schedule to ship during the release windows they've announced. The news comes way of Executive Vice President of Computing and Graphics at AMD, Rick Bergman, who revealed as much during a presentation at AMD's Financial Analyst Day. In other words, so far the coronavirus hasn't impacted the launch of either console. However, neither have entered mass production yet, which is where the hiccups could occur.

For those that don't know: AMD is a major partner of both PlayStation and Xbox. It will notably be providing custom SoC for both consoles. In other words, if there's someone with a good idea on when the two consoles will hit, it's them.

Right now, neither PlayStation nor Xbox have confirmed a release date for their respective consoles.



Posted: Mar 10, 2020 6:45 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2020/03/07/ps5-xbox-series-x-release-date-delay-amd/