Xbox Series manufacturing was late to incorporate RDNA 2 tech

Xbox Series manufacturing has been revealed to have been a later than that of the PlayStation 5 as Microsoft waited to nab specific RDNA 2 technology for their next-gen hardware.

In an interview with The Verge, Xbox boss Phil Spencer acknowledged that Xbox Series manufacturing was behind compared to the competition despite Microsoft’s plans to release ahead of the PlayStation 5.

Spencer explains that the Xbox Series consoles were waiting for specific AMD technology to incorporate into the devices’ SoCs, namely the hardware that enables true RDNA 2 features like Variable Rate Shading, Mesh Shaders and more advanced machine learning capabilities compared to its competitor.

“We started manufacturing late summer,” Spencer explained in the interview. “We were a little bit later than the competition, because we were waiting for some specific AMD technology in our chip.”

“We were a little bit behind where they were, where Sony was, in terms of building units. When you do that, then you have to ship them to all the right retailers and distributors. There’s a time lag, even when you start and even when they’re coming off the assembly line, [until they’re] sitting at retail shelves.”

Spencer also explains that Xbox Series manufacturing is currently prioritising the creation of the higher-powered Xbox Series X consoles, despite Microsoft believing that the lower-power Xbox Series S will eventually sell the most units over time. This is likely due to early adopters usually craving the best machines.

“We figured that our first holiday, and probably our second holiday, you would see more of the higher end SKU, the Series X sold,” Spencer explained about current Xbox Series manufacturing output.

“We built more Series Xs than we did Series Ss. I think when we go into spring and summer, we’ll probably moderate that a bit. Over the long run, in most cases, price wins out.”

We have yet to see any Xbox Series S or Xbox Series X games take proper advantage of any RDNA 2.0 specific features yet, but it’s an exciting prospect for the future of Xbox’s consoles.