Microsoft Forced to Use Xbox Dev Kits At Halo Tourny Due to No Stock!

With it being less than a week now until Christmas if you were still hoping that you’d be able to manage some kind of next-gen console within the next couple of days, well… While I wish you luck, I’d say that at this point you’d probably stand a better chance of winning the lottery. – Yes, the stock has, is, and looks likely set to continue to remain poor for the foreseeable future.

In a mildly amusing moment that has seemingly acknowledged this issue on the homefront, however, following a report via Kotaku, a Microsoft-backed Halo tournament has had to go ahead utilising ‘dev kit’ Xbox Series X systems. Why? Well, apparently because Microsoft couldn’t get hold of enough retail versions of the system!

Microsoft Can’t Get Enough Xbox’s For a Halo Tournament!

Now, in regards to the tournament participants, this isn’t really a huge problem. While the Xbox dev kit certainly looks very different from the official retail version we’ve (hardly) seen on shelves, in terms of hardware, they are, for all intents and purposes, practically identical. All it needs to effectively needs is to be switched from its ‘dev’ mode into ‘retail’ and it’s good to go.

The mildly embarrassing point is that with the tournament, HCS Kickoff Major Raleigh 2021, being in part supported by Microsoft, the fact that even they were unable to supply enough Xbox Series X consoles for the event clearly indicates that not even the makers of the system are immune to the woefully poor levels of stock!

When Will Things Get Better?

It might now be what you want to hear, but your last best chance to get an Xbox Series X/S or PS5 before the end of the year (at a reasonable price at least) probably expired a little over a month ago. Worse, it doesn’t seem likely that even despite increased efforts, and particularly from Sony, the chance of you casually snagging yourself a system might still represent a huge challenge this time next year.

On the plus side, however, this story at least confirms that even Microsoft isn’t having a great time in getting hold of their own console! – Albeit, being highlighted at an event like this is certainly not the best kind of PR they could’ve hoped for!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!