On August 5th, 20201, at 3:00 PM EST, Walmart “restocked” their supplies of Xbox Series X and Playstation 5 consoles. Available only online, customers could purchase the items on the online Walmart website or app, but anyone still interested will have to wait yet again.
Within hours of the consoles becoming available, Walmart was once again sold out. The dearth of consoles available for purchase has been an ongoing issue for Microsoft and Sony for nearly a year, leading to next generation purchases being far less than we’ve seen in the past. As a result, game releases have likewise stagnated, and the industry may be suffering almost as much as Hollywood.
Walmart will have PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles today at 12 PM PT
PS5 Disc https://t.co/EukCod6yuv
PS5 Digital https://t.co/OcWFS3yuSHXbox Series X https://t.co/ufzVO8u0qw #ad pic.twitter.com/UGvzCqK8tG
— Wario64 (@Wario64) August 5, 2021
Thus far, Sony has only been able to sell about 10 million PS5 units, far below the demand. Both Xbox and PS5 consoles are being sold on eBay for sometimes double the retail price. However, Sony has said they have acquired enough chips to manufacture 22 million total PS5 units by the end of the year; whether those will make it to retail by Christmas was not disclosed.
All of this has led to a strange situation where many next generation games are being held back, thus meaning that next generation consoles mostly play last generation titles at improved performance rates. We’re many months into the era of XBX and PS5, and we still have very little knowledge of just what these systems are capable of doing. That is likely to change come November.
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