Sony Interactive Entertainment has more or less painted a warning sign for the public that PlayStation 5 consoles will continue to be impacted by supply constraints for the coming 2021 holiday season.
According to a report by Bloomberg earlier today, chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki stated during an analyst briefing last week (via VGC) that Sony will be unable to match the high demand of PS5 in global markets for the remainder of 2021. He added that even if Sony increases production, the overall number of available console units will still be lesser than the demand.
“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,” said Totoki.
That being said, Totoki confirmed that Sony has been considering different solutions to ramp up production but with a goal of outselling PS4 for the second launch year. The increased demand hence makes it “unlikely” that an increased production will help resolve supply constraints and make available a PS5 console for every potential customer in the world.
“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.”
Take note that Sony has shipped slightly more PS5 units (7.8 million) than PS4 (7.6 million) during the same launch period. PS4 managed 14.8 million shipped units for its second financial year. Sony believes that it will be able to surpass 15 million for the same period.
Like PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X (and Series S) consoles are facing supply shortages as well. Microsoft stated a few weeks back that it expects the supply constraints to ease up during the second half of 2021. However, it was only an estimation. The busy 2021 holiday season appears to be a repeat of last year for both Xbox Series and PS5 consoles.
