Game News

Xbox says consoles are short on supply; GameSpot finds them on US shelves

Xbox hardware sales fell 14% in Microsoft's latest quarter, Eurogamer reported on 29 October, while Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said there was “more demand than consoles available” and that console sales “remain constrained by supply”.

Sharma wrote on X that Xbox revenue declined 2% year on year, compared with a 10% decline the quarter before, and that Minecraft and WoW Forever set records. GameSpot pointed out that in the US, Xbox Series X|S consoles are on sale at Best Buy, Target, Walmart and on Xbox's own site, and that Sharma did not say which markets have supply problems.

“I'm not seeing [the moves] have any positive impact” — Mat Piscatella, Circana, via GameSpot

In a separate piece, GameSpot reported Piscatella's view, given to The Game Business, that neither the disc-to-digital programme nor making Gears of War: E-Day a console exclusive had changed sales. A third GameSpot story covered Sharma's goal, told to CNBC, of making Xbox more profitable than PlayStation and Nintendo by 2030, with plans that include film, TV and new partnerships “including China”.

How each outlet framed it

• Eurogamer — the result: hardware down 14%, and the company's explanation.
• GameSpot — a check on the claim, an analyst's doubts, and the long-term profit target.

What we don't know yet: where supply is short. Microsoft has not named the regions, and it does not publish console unit sales.