Consoles disappear from Christmas catalogs while department stores are reluctant to recognize the lack of stock

• GUILLERMO DEL PALACIO

Updated on Wednesday, 24November2021-02: 09

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Ángel and Felipe managed to buy an Xbox Series X and a PlayStation 5 in recent months. They compare it to practically winning the lottery and in no case was it as simple as going to a store and getting a unit. Microsoft and Sony, respective makers of the game consoles, acknowledge problems in the supply chain. Meanwhile, department stores are reluctant to admit that there will hardly be units for everyone who wants to give one this Christmas.

"I found out that some were on sale and I connected with my mobile and my computer at the same time to access with two IP addresses and have more options," describes Felipe. The high volume of visits, he remembers, made it practically impossible to navigate the page and when he was about to throw in the towel - "I told myself I would try three more times and went to the third time" - he managed to put one in the virtual cart. It wasn't even the model that interested him the most.

Ángel, for his part, got a PlayStation 5 through his bank's store and also in a pack that included, whether he wanted to or not, a game and an additional controller. Knowing that they were going to receive a remittance, he asked his manager to notify him, although finally and before his silence he had to resort to a Telegram channel and connect at 7 in the morning. "The bad thing is that it was financed by noses," he explains, and paid in total about 750 euros.

According to recently published

, Sony has made about a million fewer units than it had planned for the PlayStation 5 that it launched a year ago. Its great rival, Microsoft, cannot guarantee the stock of its Xbox Series X either - you can find the Xbox Series S, a less powerful version and without a reader - and the corridors of any shopping center, specialized or not, reflect this reality. To this is added that the shortage has attracted speculators, who use bots to try to buy any unit that appears, even momentarily, on the internet and then resell it for much more money.

"We will be restocking Xbox Series X | S this year, but demand is still high," a Microsoft spokesperson explained without giving further details. "We are working as quickly as possible with our manufacturing and retail partners to accelerate production and shipping to meet the unprecedented demand." Other consoles of less relevance - the most important is Valve's Steam Deck, but it also happened to Play Date - have had to delay a launch at the end of this year due to problems in the supply chain.

This shortage is already a reality in the face of Black Friday and threatens the Christmas campaign. So much so, that the consoles do not even appear in the Christmas catalog of El Corte Inglés or the Mediamarkt. On the websites of these stores or Fnac, when performing this search, the aforementioned Series S appears as a result, the only new generation console that is available and only for the moment: industry sources predict that it will become the gift of this Christmas, even if it comes in the form of a second course.

All these stores were contacted by EL MUNDO about the supply in the coming weeks and none answered the questions. Officially, the sector appeals to forecasting: provisioning is done months in advance, precisely to avoid this type of crisis. The problem is that, in this case, those who should have been providing the consoles have not been able to produce them at the desired rate at any time, nor does it seem that they will achieve it in the immediate future. You cannot fill the bathtub without water coming out of the tap.

"Stores do not have because companies do not," sums up the director of a publication specialized in video games on condition of anonymity. "The PS5s come to Sony in Spain with a dropper and they see them distributing, as they can, among the stores ... but there are stab wounds to reserve some," he continues. Thus, the only solution for those looking for this gift is to join a waiting list and, as the name suggests, wait.

"The thing is screwed up for this Christmas; the people who wanted a PS5 had to have tried it in summer", sentence. In fact, he believes that it will be the paradoxical case that Xbox Series S could become the star gift of Christmas, as it will be the only alternative for many. Or even the previous generation

or

, whose first model was launched almost five years ago and is halfway between the two. This expert also points to the absence of the new PlayStation in catalogs such as El Corte Inglés - "The Bible of Kings toys" -, which does not appear "because they cannot assure that they will have it."

From FACUA they explain in a simple way why a catalog without PS5: "It would be misleading advertising", details

, general secretary of the organization. "If they advertise products that they do not have, they would be violating the legislation," says Sánchez. And when it comes to Black Friday deals, remember, the same thing happens, so "if you sell a laptop now at a 40% discount, you can't argue later that you've run out of stock." Video consoles, in any case, are practically disappeared in the catalogs of this campaign, which focuses on other technological products that have also been affected by the microprocessor crisis, although on a smaller scale.

According to EL MUNDO a worker present in a recent talk with the employees of a large supermarket chain, the director of this one warned them that this year there will be some problems with

for the next campaigns (Apple is another great firm that has admitted that it is being affected by the shortage of chips). Last year it happened with computers, but for this the company took it into account in its forecasts and they are not afraid of shortages. In the case of the PlayStation 5, the measures have not mattered: "

" explains this employee.

The fault, he points out, is a Sony that has not been able to produce at the rate of demand.

At first, they expected that there would be units in storage waiting to be put on sale before Christmas, but they already know that it will not be.

In toys, better not wait

Although the supply crisis has also affected the toy sector, they do not expect such significant shortages as in the case of video consoles.

"The problems we are having are global in nature and affect us all, but the degree of intensity is not the same," reassures

, president of the Spanish Association of Toy Manufacturers.

Their supply, he explains, is also done with a year -if not more- of time and they are already used to working with a very seasonal market, such as Spain, which concentrates 50% of sales in the last six weeks of the year. .

"We work with a long time in advance", summarizes Pastor.

"This anticipation has partially mitigated the shortage of microchips," explains the manager.

Anyway, it does point out that there may be manufacturers that have been affected.

In any case, remember that seasonality traditionally causes a product to be out of stock, since it is very difficult "to fine-tune the forecasts exactly with the behavior of the market."

That is, what becomes very fashionable, is scarce in recent weeks and this 2021, in addition, it will be more difficult to replace the star products.

"This year that may happen a little longer, because those last operations in the industry may be compromised by the supply jam," Pastor contextualizes.

"They will be specific and specific things; therefore, we cannot speak of a market shortage, but there will be a lack of specific products," he argues.

Given this, the solution provided by the association is simply to advance purchases that are clear: "The sooner, the better."

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