AMD CEO expresses her surprise at the increasing demand for Sony’ PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S

The continued high demand for both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X|S has impressed AMD CEO, Lisa Su. It's no secret that since the consoles were released late last…

By Nivedita Bangari

January 1, 2021

2 min read

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The continued high demand for both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X|S has impressed AMD CEO, Lisa Su. It’s no secret that since the consoles were released late last year, demand for the next-gen consoles has been tremendous. Both consoles are still hard to come by due to continued supply shortages caused by the global epidemic.

AMD’s CEO was asked about the current supply problem and seasonality during a recent financial conference call with investors. AMD will increase chip output next year, and she expects Sony and Microsoft to have another great year in 2022, while she believes 2023 will be the “peak year” for next-gen consoles.

“Well, I think — first of all, I think the console business, this console cycle and all when you look at it in totality, has been amazing”, Su said. “I mean if you think about the strength of the cycle, now we’re sort of deep into the second year and the fact that the demand is so high. I mean we’ve been shipping a lot of products.

AMD CEO expresses her surprise at the increasing demand for Sony’ PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S

So the fact that the demand is still high says something about just sort of the product capability that’s been captured by both Microsoft and Sony in this console cycle. We’re continuing to ramp up production. We expect 2022 to be another strong growth year for consoles. If you look at the typical console cycle, the peak year is the fourth year typically. And so you would expect maybe 2023 would be the peak year.”

Seasonality has gotten more “muted” as COVID-19 continues to disrupt supply chains, according to the CEO. As a result, in this context, annual regular and predictable changes in sales are somewhat out the window.

“But to the overall point is, look, it’s a great platform. We love the fact that we have so many users that are using AMD technology on the console platform and we’ll continue to ramp up supply. And from a seasonality standpoint, yes, you’re right. Seasonality does become more muted in this environment until we get to sort of a more normalized environment.”

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S is available globally now (if you’re able to get your hands on one). Sony and Microsoft launched their consoles back in November of last year.