The coronavirus is threatening various technology sectors, as we've reported in the last few weeks on Wccftech. Console gaming is no exception and there have been growing concerns that the next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, could be delayed or severely affected by shortages due to supply chain issues.
Speaking in the latest MCVUK magazine (March 2020, issue 955), IHS analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said:
The chance of supply chain disruption due to the coronavirus is growing weekly. To assemble optimum inventory for a November launch, I expect both companies to start ramping up production in Q2, so if factories are not back at full capacity by that point there is likely to be some constraint versus optimum shipments in preparation for a launch.
Aside from the actual assembly of the consoles, it is hard to predict at this stage if the supply chain for components that go into these consoles, several of which will be custom, will or will not be affected.
However, gamers looking forward to purchasing Sony's PlayStation 5 or Microsoft's Xbox Series X (or both) can find some reassurance that the next-gen consoles are currently on track to ship in Holiday 2020 according to none other than AMD. As you already know if you are a regular reader of our website, AMD will provide custom SoC (system on a chip) for both gaming systems based on their latest Zen 2 and RDNA 2 microarchitectures.
The news came thanks to Rick Bergman (Executive Vice President of Computing and Graphics at AMD), who took care of the 'Driving Growth Across PC and Gaming' presentation during yesterday's 2020 AMD Financial Analyst Day. You can find all of the presentation's slides here, though we've extracted the relevant one below.
Next-gen is on track, then, unless this dreaded coronavirus has further 'surprises' in store for us.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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