PS5 production has reportedly doubled, but 2020 supply issues are still possible

Sony has reportedly doubled production of PlayStation 5 hardware as it prepares for the next-gen console’s launch later this year.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the electronics giant has informed assembly partners that it is significantly increasing orders for PS5 to 10 million units this year.

Sony had previously set a production target between five and six million by March 2021, according to the publication’s sources.

However, the new stock still might not be able to satisfy demand this year due to shipping constraints, it’s claimed.

According to the report, Sony began mass production of PS5 in June and expects to assemble five million units by the end of September.

The additional five million units would be assembled between October and December, Bloomberg sources said, but due to the months it takes to shipments to travel from China via ocean lines, this stock likely won’t arrive in US and European markets until next year.

Bloomberg notes that Sony could potentially use air cargo to replenish its launch stock, as it did for PS4’s 2013 launch, however airlines are currently severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The corporation is also said to have ordered increased production of the DualSense controller, which Bloomberg claims had previously been set at 10 million units by March 2021.

PlayStation 5 is due to launch in the holiday period.

A Digital Edition PlayStation 5 will be available at launch, which sacrifices the Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive, likely for a lower price point. According to recent analysis, the Digital Edition PS5 could cost $50 less than the disc version.

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PlayStation 5 has reclaimed Sony’s wonderful weirdness

But Sony is struggling to demo its unique features

Last month PlayStation announced a roster of first-party PS5 games including Gran Turismo 7, Marvel Spider-Man Miles Morales, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart a Demon’s Souls remake and Horizon Zero Dawn 2.

Sony revealed the PlayStation 5 hardware specs in a previous digital broadcast featuring lead system architect Mark Cerny.

The console’s headline feature is a high-bandwidth SSD, which Cerny claims is two orders of magnitude faster than PlayStation 4, with the drive able to load 2GB of data in one-quarter of a second.