Chips Challenge
In a private briefing with investors, Sony has reportedly told shareholders that it expects the short supply woes currently bothering its PS5 hardware to continue for the foreseeable future, throughout 2021 and leading into 2022.
While the PS5 has gotten off to an incredibly strong start sales-wise — even beating out the launch numbers of the previous generation’s PS4 — a shortage of manufacturing components hangs heavy over the industry, with Sony expect demand to far exceed that of production. According to a report by Bloomberg, Sony Japan has openly addressed this problem in a meeting held not long after the release of its latest financial earnings report.
“I don’t think demand is calming down this year and even if we secure a lot more devices and produce many more units of the PlayStation 5 next year, our supply wouldn’t be able to catch up with demand,” Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki reportedly told investors “We have sold more than 100 million units of the PlayStation 4 and considering our market share and reputation, I can’t imagine demand [for PS5] dropping easily.”
The shortage of PS5 consoles is, essentially, a two-pronged attack on customers. At the supply level, a lack of internal components is causing slow production of the physical console itself, while at the retail level, customers have struggled in battles with scalpers and multi-buyers to bag what little hardware hits the market. Add to the mix production delays and distribution issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and it’s easy to see why all major publishers — not just Sony — are struggling to get their wares into the hands of the public.
Sony has shipped over 7.8 million PlayStation 5 units since its release in November 2020. The corporation forecasts to have sold 14.8 million consoles by the end of the current fiscal year.
