There are a lot of things going on in the video game world right now that isn’t exactly the best. Such as a certain company suggesting that Loot Boxes are “beloved” by gamers even though we know that’s a blatant lie. Or how certain companies as of late have been exposed for their treatment of their employees and many are wondering if true change will finally come to the industry. But the thing that definitely troubles gamers the most across the board is that there is a semiconductor shortage going on in the world right now, and that means that consoles like the Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 are very hard to get.
This bodes especially bad for the latter two consoles because they are still relatively new on the market, and thus these opening years are SUPPOSED to be when they sell a good bulk to get things rolling, and yet, because of the shortage (among other issues with jam up the pipeline), things aren’t really going their way.
However, if you are one of the people who don’t have the PS5, you’re in luck, because apparently GameStop is going to be getting a shipment of them this upcoming weekend that’ll tie into the release of Madden NFL 23, a major release in the month of August.
Granted, we don’t know just how many units of the PlayStation 5 GameStop will get, or how they are going be all over the country, but if you have a GameStop near you, you might just have to call into the store and see if you can get one. Or get a pro membership if that really is the requirement for things.
Obviously, this won’t be a permanent solution to the problem, and no doubt sellout quickly (not the least of which is because of Madden, that game sells millions every single year), but it’s a start, and for every one of the three main console developers, that’s what they need, a good start and a strong finish.
We already heard of the semiconductor shortage from the side of the Nintendo Switch recently, as they were noted to have sold over a million fewer consoles this past quarter than they did in the same quarter last year. Their projections for the Nintendo Switch overall in the fiscal year went down to 20 million units, showing that the shortage is indeed something that affects each publisher in the literal millions.
When this shortage will be over is honestly something we can’t determine at present, and that’s a problem, because the longer this goes, the longer it’ll affect both the companies and the gamers who are just trying to get a system to play on.
Source: Twitter
