The Semiconductor Crisis: What's Happening to PS5, Xbox Series X and GPUs

The Semiconductor Crisis

The semiconductor crisis undoubtedly represents the most important phenomenon as regards the electronic device sector and what revolves around it: from automotive to information technology, from household appliances to video games, there is only one object today. today it does not depend on electronics. It all started because of the pandemic and the lockdowns, but soon further critical elements were added to a picture that has now become truly worrying.

Video game enthusiasts have perceived the problem, when the pre-orders of PS5 and Xbox Series X have already sold out within a few minutes without new stocks arriving shortly, or when the new generation GPUs have disappeared from circulation only to be sold at much higher figures than those official from the retailers themselves.

The reasons

The contagion map As mentioned, it was first of all the pandemic that started the crisis: when the first coronavirus outbreaks broke out in Asia, several factories that produce microchips have been forced to close their doors for weeks, suddenly running out of raw materials for the creation of electronic devices and creating sensational inconvenience to companies that counted on these resources.

A second crisis has occurred at the same time, that of transport: imagining that the production lines would have stood still for a long time, the companies that manage the movement of goods have "breathless", eliminated several routes and thought it well to dedicate the forced break to the renewal of their fleets. Except that the break lasted less than expected.

With the companies stopped and transport by service, the coup de grace has arrived: a substantial increase in demand. Forced to remain indoors for several days, people took refuge in electronic entertainment and therefore bought televisions, PCs, tablets, smartphones, consoles, video games and maybe even a bread maker. Without considering the need to create an office at home, so as to be able to work remotely.

It is therefore certainly no coincidence that during the quarantine even the videogame market was "drugged" by extraordinary numbers: both fans how much those who still weren't thought that the best way to pass the time was to devote themselves to gaming, and so purchases have increased dramatically and yes, even daily visits to specialized sites such as sportsgaming.win.

The current situation

PS5 in standard version and Digital Edition In the videogame field, those who have been lucky enough to be able to buy a new generation console or a GPU like the NVIDIA 30 series in unsuspecting times, Basically at the launch after booking, he found himself in a clearly privileged position compared to all the others. In fact, in the following months we got used to seeing the sales of PS5 and Xbox Series X concluded within a few minutes at the major stores, with absurd queues and even unfair practices.

As for the video cards , the situation was in many ways worse: although characterized by a subdivision between the various brands and therefore supplies coming from different companies, the GPUs have not only become unavailable within a few weeks also due to the well-known phenomenon of mining, but the retailers themselves have begun to sell them at much higher prices than the official ones.

NVIDIA 30 series video cards Meanwhile, on the transportation front there have been further problems. Called into question for the delivery of masks and sanitary devices even in poor areas from a commercial point of view and with no export capacity, the companies brought many containers to the site which then remained there, as it was not convenient to recover them from empty. Guess what's missing right now? Exactly, containers.

Within a market that absolutely depends on the punctual supply of materials from various parts of the world for the assembly of electronic devices, we therefore found ourselves with fewer international deliveries and have become more than ten times more expensive, a crisis of the workers who manage them, the factories stopped in the absence of raw materials and the inevitable health checks to slow things down further.

When will it end?

Xbox Series X It's the proverbial million dollar question: When will the semiconductor crisis end? Unfortunately, no one can know for sure, there are many factors at play. The system is trying to find a balance, but the persistence of certain situations and an apparently impossible demand make this process rather slow.

Of course, there are those who have made predictions. The latest is that of Intel, according to which the PS5, Xbox Series X and GPU stock problems will continue until 2023. In general, the big producers seem to agree that in the course of 2022 things will gradually return to normal, but we must hope that no further shocks will occur at the international level. Will everything be okay?

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