According to insiders acquainted with its operations, Sony has lowered its production forecast for the PS5 for the current financial year due to shortage of logistics and component restrictions.
Ahead of time, the Tokyo-based entertainment behemoth had hoped to have more than 16 million units assembled in the fiscal year ending March, positioning it to meet its sales targets for the period and have a good start on the next year’s manufacturing.
However, the business has now reduced that figure to approximately 15 million, making its goal of 14.8 million PS5 sales by March tough to achieve, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified because the information is not publicly available. Fans will obviously be disappointed with the shortage.
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On a conference call with investors late last month, Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki stated that the company’s logistics problems and parts shortages have become increasingly serious.
As a result, sales of the PlayStation 5 were slightly lower than expected in the third quarter ended September, he stated on October 28. He had previously warned that a revival in the spread of COVID-19 might negatively influence the company’s component supply.
In July, the PlayStation 5 became the Sony system with the fastest sales to reach 10 million copies, but it has since dropped behind its predecessor, the PlayStation 4, in terms of unit sales.
The PS5, which was released a year ago, has been in shortage for the entirety of its time on the market, owing primarily to Sony’s inability to get enough consoles dispersed across the globe.
In addition, the uneven distribution of vaccines across poor countries, where Sony suppliers maintain their manufacturing facilities, has rendered the supply of chips and components unreliable.
According to the people who spoke with us, assembly partners communicate with component manufacturers daily to ensure that shipments arrive on time, which is not always the case.
Sony did not return a request for comment from the media
Power management chips, for example, are among the less-notable but critical components in short supply. The fabrication situation will not stabilize even by the end of 2022; say chip makers like Toshiba, which is making such power chips.
Sony is not alone in its quest to find a clear path through a tangle of supply chain issues. Initial sales estimates for the Switch console family were slashed by 1.5 million units by rival Nintendo in early November, while Bellevue, Washington-based Valve, postponed the launch of its Steam Deck portable platform from December to February citing worldwide supply chain concerns.
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Fans and game developers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Sony’s limited inventory, causing many to abandon their projects. According to a big Japanese game publisher, customers who purchased PlayStation versions of its games are now steadily moving their purchases to the PC edition, according to an executive who requested to remain anonymous.
According to data from market tracker Famitsu, PlayStation 5 titles have so far failed to make a dent in Japan’s sales charts, which are dominated by Nintendo’s Switch platform.
Sony’s manufacturing partners anticipate that the PlayStation 5 will continue to be in short supply until 2022. They have stated that creating enough devices to meet the company’s aim of 22.6 million sales in the next fiscal year will be difficult.