Microsoft seeks AMD’s assistance to meet high Xbox Series X demand

Xbox chief Phil Spencer said that the team was working hard to meet the demand.

Xbox Series X features an octa-core custom AMD Zen 2 CPU (7nm process) clocked at 3.8GHz along with a custom RDNA 2 GPU in addition to 12 TFLOPS and 52 CUs (Compute Units). (Robin Sinha/HT Tech)

Microsoft has sought AMD's assistance to meet the demand for the new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles.

During an appearance on a video podcast, Xbox chief Phil Spencer said that the company was working hard to tackle the stock shortages.

"I get some people [asking], ‘why didn't you build more? Why didn't you start earlier? Why didn't you ship them earlier?' All of those things,” Spencer said in the podcast.

"It's really just down to physics and engineering. We're not holding them back: we're building them as fast as we can. We have all the assembly lines going. I was on the phone last week with Lisa Su at AMD [asking], ‘how do we get more?'” he added.

Spencer did not clarify the role of AMD in amplifying Xbox production. According to a TechRadar report, AMD is responsible for manufacturing GPU and CPU for both Series X and S consoles. The report added that AMD's increased production in chips could help Microsoft making more consoles.

Spencer's comments come as fans are struggling to buy Xbox Series X and S, even though the two next-gen consoles debuted in November. Some fans are even resorting to eBay to purchase the consoles at higher prices, reports PC Mag.

It is worth noting that Sony is also facing a similar issue with its PlayStation 5 consoles. "Obviously, PlayStation 5 is in very tight supply. When you look at the graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia… there's just a lot of interest in gaming right now and console sales are just a sign of that, game sales are a sign of that and hardware is in short supply,” Spencer commented.

According to reports, shortages are expected through April 2021.