Sony expects to ship 56% more PS5s this year, and claims ‘demand is higher than that’

Sony has said it expects to sell 56% more PS5s during its current financial year compared to the previous period, and claimed that even this won’t satisfy consumer demand.

The company announced on Tuesday it had shipped 11.5 million PS5 consoles during the FY21 financial year ended March 2022, missing out on its initial target of 14.8 million consoles by over 3 million units, which it said was due to parts shortages.

However, the company said it expects to sell significantly more PS5 consoles during its current fiscal year ending March 2023, at around 18 million units, and that it felt “very comfortable” it could achieve the target.

Commenting further during Sony’s financial webcast on Tuesday, CFO Hikori Totoki suggested that the company was being conservative with its projected hardware sales numbers, because this is what it felt it could “safely” produce within current conditions.

“18 million units is what we feel very comfortable we can get the parts and components for [during FY22],” Totoki said during the webcast (transcribed by VGC).

“We feel that there is a little bit higher demand than that, so if the question is if we can meet the demand, I think we’re still short somewhat.”

He added: “Regarding our stock and inventory, it still remains very low, so in order to provide our PlayStation units to customers in a timely basis, we’re still behind or short.

“We were originally talking about 22.6 million [by this point]… This was reduced because of the constraints of components. When it comes to the procurement of components we have not given up on this, we would like to continue to work on this.

“At this point in time, what we can say safely is that we can achieve the necessary components for 18 million units.”

Further reading

Sony has shipped 19.3m PS5s, missing its initial second-year target by over 3m

The company had warned that supply chain issues would make reaching its target difficult

The PlayStation 5 remains an extremely sought-after item, with the rare restocks of the console selling out quickly. While the reselling market for the item has calmed down, especially in comparison to 2021, many people are still paying over retail value for the system.

Sony had targeted shipping more PS5s during the console’s second FY than the 14.8m PS4 managed during the same period. However, it had warned last year that supply chain issues would make this difficult.

Sony also expects sales for its game and network business to increase significantly (34%) during its current fiscal year, FY22, thanks to an increase in hardware sales and third-party games.