Supply chain Battle Royale

What do you mean it's on a boat?

As the next earnings season kicks off, a major theme will be the games industry’s exposure to the shortage economy.

Growing delays in the supply chain combined with a shortage in hardware components in the midst of a period of unrivaled consumer demand for interactive entertainment are bound to impact especially conventional game makers.

Worldwide, a reported 584 container ships are stuck at ports. That is a doubling from January, according to the Financial Times, which has resulted in a tripling in the average cost of a shipping container to $10,000 (source: paper edition). Compared to the start of the pandemic, prices have increased ten-fold.

Under normal circumstances, one publisher tells me, delivery takes 37 days from China. Today it takes 110.

Dang.

To get rid of the backlog at the ports, Biden’s remedy of allowing the ports to operate 24/7 will help, yes. But once on land the cargo still has to make it onto trucks and trains. There, too, are labor shortages and delivery problems.

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