Sony reportedly told analysts PS5 shortages will continue until next year
Corporation previously said it did not expect supplies to improve in the short term
Sony has reportedly told analysts that it expects PlayStation 5 consoles to be in short supply until next year.
“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,” CFO Hiroki Totoki said at an analyst briefing last week, according to Bloomberg.
Previously, the CFO had said during an investor call following its latest results (transcribed by VGC) that it was “unlikely” it would completely resolve supply issues in the immediate term.
Totoki said Sony was currently considering various solutions to help it cope with the global shortage of hardware components, including potentially altering hardware designs or sourcing secondary suppliers.
“As I said earlier, we’re aiming for more sales volume than the PS4 [during year 2]. But can we drastically increase the supply? No, that’s not likely,” he said.
“The shortage of semiconductors is one factor, but there are other factors that will impact on the production volume. So, at present, we’d like to aim at [beating] second year sales of 14.8 million, which was the second year of PS4.”
In its latest financial results published on May 5, Sony reported that PS5’s shipped numbers are slightly ahead of where PS4 was during the same period (7.8m vs. 7.6m). It said its current target for PS5’s second FY was to exceed the 14.8m PS4 consoles managed.
According to Taiwanese business website DigiTimes, one way the corporation could cope with demand is via a redesign of the PS5 hardware.
The site claimed this month that suppliers are planning to start producing the redesigned PS5, will come with a “new semi-customized” 6nm CPU from AMD, between the second and third quarters of next year.
Sony’s comments follow Microsoft’s warnings during its own financial results this month, in which it said it expects Xbox Series X/S supply issues to continue over the coming months.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa also said this month that the global shortage of semiconductors is hampering its Switch production efforts.
During a press conference following the publication of its latest earnings results, Furukawa admitted the company is unable to make as many consoles as it would like – and that there’s “an increasing sense of uncertainty” about its production capabilities.
