Xbox Series X shortages will continue until at least April, Microsoft predicts

Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S shortages will likely continue until roughly late spring next year, according to Microsoft.

Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart offered insight into the Xbox supply situation in a Q&A session at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment Virtual Conference, spotted by VGC and transcribed by Seeking Alpha. Stuart noted that "gaming is just exploding" in terms of popularity, which means more people than ever before are trying to grab a next-gen console in the same hectic launch timeframe. However, he's confident that Microsoft's supply pipeline will start catching up after the holidays.

"I think we'll continue to see supply shortages as we head into the post-holiday quarter, so Microsoft's Q3, calendar Q1," Stuart said. "And then when we get to Q4, all of our supply chain continuing to go full speed heading into kind of the pre-summer months.

"And that's where I [expect to see] the supply profile, meeting the demand profile. You'll be outside of a holiday window. We'll have supply cranking over the next, what, 4, 5, 6 months. And that's when I expect to see really that demand profile start to be met, which will be really, really great."

To decode the business talk, Stuart is saying the supply for the new Xbox consoles should start meeting demand in the second quarter of the 2020 calendar year - that is April, May, and June. No auto-refreshing store pages for a slim chance at getting in right on time, just being able to buy a console when you want one, if you can imagine it.

For what it's worth, Xbox boss Phil Spencer is very sorry if you can't get your hands on a Series X or Series S right now.