PS5, Xbox Series X hunters to face bigger Black Friday challenge

San Francisco, Nov 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Holiday shoppers may be swamped by offers on a wide range of goods as companies offer attractive discounts as Black Friday 2020 nears, the same, however, may not apply to those hoping for the newest next-generation game consoles from Sony and Microsoft.

They have the bigger problem of whether they can get one this year or not.

According to a report in Seeking Alpha, the earliest preorders of the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5 may have gotten lucky and received units - but since the launches, gamers have been running into "out of stock" notifications on almost every site they try.

Amazon.com's pages for the two consoles have the site's typical "Currently unavailable. Likewise, Best Buy simply lists the machines as sold out and GameStop says they are not available but will let consumers put them on a wishlist.

Microsoft Xbox Series X and Series S consoles are projected to be in short supply until at least April next year. The overwhelming number of pre-orders resulted in a limited supply of consoles available on launch day and even some early buyers will need to wait until after the holidays for their pre-orders to be fulfilled.

"I think we will continue to see supply shortages as we head into the post-holiday quarter," Xbox CFO Tim Stuart said at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference recently.

Last month, Amazon warned its customers that they might not get their console on time due to incredible demand.

The company emailed to many who preordered a PS5 -- both the regular and digital edition -- advising that shipments might not arrive in time.

Meanwhile, GameStop for one is offering up to 50 per cent off certain games for the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Some PS5 launch titles are on sale as well, though they might find a limited audience. Sony is also offering 25 per cent off a 12-month PlayStation Plus membership.

This year Amazon launched its deals a whole month early. Other retailers including Very, Currys PC World, John Lewis, Superdrug, O2, Boots and AO have also started their sales already too.

Black Friday is the day that comes right after Thanksgiving Day in the US.

Thanksgiving is one of the biggest festive and shopping seasons in the US. Now online stores all over the world, including the UK, Japan, Australia and the European Union offer Black Friday sales.

With retail chains and e-commerce stores across these countries offering huge discounts on a wide range of products, Black Friday is widely regarded as a great time to grab deals on products ranging from electronic gadgets to lifestyle and designer goods from a number of countries.

Source: IANS