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We've all heard about how AI has caused component prices to increase substantially over the past few months, highlighted by a significant global RAM shortage amongst other things, and Xbox's Chief Strategy Officer has been speaking today about how it's continuing to cause a "crisis" for new hardware.
In an interview with The Game Business, Xbox's Matthew Ball admitted the crisis could continue for some time yet, and that "it's not a question of appetite" when it comes to fans wanting Xbox consoles, but the demand is hard to satisfy.
Here's a bit of what he had to say on the matter (courtesy of a GameSpot transcription):
“The crisis is not yet getting better... The window in which we and others are gonna have to work through is getting longer, and that is going to constrain the category,”
Today, demand for Xbox consoles is outstripping supply, Ball said. “We are producing them as quickly as possible. There is a severe limitation to how quickly we can do that, but it’s not a question of appetite,” he said. “That is a privilege as a company. It is a challenge for us to figure out.”
As you can see in the snapshot above, Ball later went on to talk about Project Helix and how the component crisis could affect that console, explaining that the team at Xbox are "working very hard to rethink everything that we can about Helix" in order to make sure it's both "affordable" and "flexible".
Despite the difficulties around console production, we do have a new Limited Edition console being released later this year, and Ball says that no matter what, the company remains "committed to shipping" Project Helix in the future.