With the demand for high-capacity chips in all consumer electronics, manufacturers have not been able to keep up at all. With the demand so high for more products and materials low, semiconductor chip shortages are worsening. Due to this, many gamers have been seeing the worst happen to all of their favorite product launches of the year. The item goes on sale for a few hours and then sells out until supply is drip-fed through over months. This certainly affected gaming graphics cards last year with the launch of new Nvidia and AMD cards. The same can be said for the PS5 and Xbox Series X launches, including the upcoming Steam Deck and OLED Nintendo Switch. The same semiconductors used in these gaming devices are everywhere in cars and cellphones. As announced by Bloomberg last night, the Toshiba chip shortage is projected to last until at least September of 2022.
Exclusive: game console supply for coming holiday season and even next year doesn’t look good. If you are planning to buy Switch OLED model, be sure to get 1st batch. https://t.co/qyZhxqiHbb
— Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) September 3, 2021
What Does the Semiconductor Chip Shortage Mean For Upcoming Console Launches?
While it seems that demand has certainly calmed down for some products, the hunt is certainly still on for many upcoming releases. As mentioned, the upcoming OLED Switch and Steam Deck are going to have tight supply numbers attached. More than likely the reason why Valve decided to go with a paid pre-order method. With the growth of Toshiba’s business, the semiconductor chip shortage continues to march on another year. Demand is vastly outpacing it with many other competing markets. Car manufactures are struggling to make new models and even air condition manufacturers are struggling to make a new inventory. Long-term contracts for all this work have been piling up on Toshiba, which compounds material shortages. Toshiba is expecting the worst with orders possibly set to roll over into 2023.
