Amid the ongoing global supply chain crisis, Sony has been heavily impacted by the chip shortage and is reportedly lowering its PlayStation 5 production forecast for the current financial year.
A new Bloomberg report suggests that while the company was expecting to produce 16 million PS5 units between April 2021 and March 2022, Sony had to lower that figure down to around 15 million.
The company had publicly predicted it would sell 14.8 million consoles this financial year, so while this isn’t too much of a setback for Sony, it shows that the PlayStation 5 will remain in high demand and hard to get for the foreseeable future.
The initial 16 million forecast would have provided Sony with the bandwidth to secure additional stock for the next year. Bloomberg reports that Sony is experiencing difficulty with logistics as well as the supply of components. The report states that component shipments are arriving late, and varying levels of the vaccine rollout in different locations have complicated operations on the ground.
Bloomberg reports:
Logistics issues and parts shortages have grown more severe for Sony, Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki told investors on a conference call late last month. PS5 sales in the quarter ended September were slightly weaker than expectations, he said on Oct. 28, having previously warned that any resurgence in the spread of Covid-19 may impact the company’s components supply. The PlayStation 5 became the fastest Sony console to reach 10 million units sold this July, but it has fallen behind the sales pace of its predecessor PlayStation 4 since then.
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Components in short supply include unremarkable but essential gear like power management chips. Chipmakers from Toshiba Corp., which provides such power chips, to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have warned that the fabrication situation is unlikely to normalize even during 2022.
Sony is far from alone in its struggle to navigate a clear path through shortages. Rival Nintendo Co. cut its full-year sales forecast for the Switch console family by 1.5 million units in early November, while Bellevue, Washington-based Valve Corp. pushed back the debut of its Steam Deck portable console from December to February, citing global supply chain issues.
Beginning April 2022, Sony predicts that it will sell 22.6 million PlayStation 5 units in the financial year, but the report states that the company’s manufacturing partners remain skeptical that Sony will be able to meet that target.
Like many other high-end gaming manufacturers, Sony remains bullish on its production thanks to the present and ever-growing demand for its products. It’s only a matter of time before the chip shortage comes to an end and logistical issues are dealt with. Until then, prospective owners will have to wait in line to get a PlayStation 5 or pay scalper prices.
