There's a lot of demand for the two next-gen consoles

Jul 23, 2013 23:26 GMT  ·  By

The initial stocks of both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One next-gen consoles will run out very fast at launch and there will be plenty of shortages, at least according to games industry analyst Colin Sebastian.

He believes that the complexity of the launch and the simultaneous multi-continent release will take their toll on stocks.

The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are set to be released at the end of the year and, while Microsoft pinned a November release period onto its console, Sony is still reticent to narrow things down, despite rumors about a similar November launch window.

After quite a few reports concerning stocks of the two consoles at different retailers like Amazon or GameStop, it seems that launch-day devices have been sold out in a lot of places.

This popularity will, no doubt, lead to plenty of shortages, as with the "complexity" of coordinating the launches, "it is more likely than not that there will be initial shortages," according to Robert W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, who talked with GameSpot.

"This also partly explains why the manufacturers have been somewhat judicious in allocating pre-sale units to retailers, so that there won't be a lot of unhappy customers from day one," he added.

Sebastian refrained from pinning actual dates on the two next-gen consoles but he emphasized that both might appear in early November so that stocks can be replenished ahead of Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

"From a timing perspective, both platforms will want to launch before Thanksgiving/Black Friday, and ideally at least a couple of weeks in advance of that in order to replenish the retail channel," Sebastian said.

Both consoles will also strive to appear first on the market so that they can steal the thunder of the other one.

"In terms of who goes first, it would certainly be ideal to launch first, and gain all of the initial attention and momentum, as console launches are really the only equivalent of a 'red carpet' event for the industry."

As of yet, however, neither Sony nor Microsoft have committed to launch dates for their PS4 and Xbox One, respectively.