Sony has explained exactly why the PS5 is so difficult to get hold of at the moment and it’s because of a problem that’s not easy to solve.
Recently Microsoft warned that stock shortages for the Xbox Series X and S would last until at least June, while chip maker AMD has suggested it will be the autumn until any of the next gen consoles are even relatively easy to get in shops.
Until now Sony hasn’t really said anything about the situation but in their quarterly earnings report they state that while their plan is to sell at least 14.8 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the next 12 months that’s going to be difficult because of a worldwide semiconductor shortage.
There’s nothing Sony (or Microsoft) can really do about that, other than hope the coronavirus situation eases and factories can increase their production, which means that the PlayStation 5 is going to remain hard to get hold of for the foreseeable future.
‘It is difficult for us to increase production of the PlayStation 5 amid the shortage of semiconductors and other components,’ said Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki, according to Ars Technica.
‘We have not been able to fully meet the high level of demand from customers [but] we continue to do everything in our power to ship as many units as possible to customers who are waiting for a PS5.’
In every other regard the financial results are good new for the company, with the PlayStation 5 reaching its goal of outpacing launch sales of the PlayStation 4 – resulting in the gaming division’s most successful year ever.
According to Sony a total of 4.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles have been shipped up until the end of December, although sales figures at this point are kind of irrelevant given they’re all snapped up the minute they go on sale.
In the same report Sony also confirmed that the PlayStation 5 is being sold at a loss, although they didn’t say how much they were losing with each sale.
It’s commonplace for new consoles to be sold at a loss, since software and services like PlayStation Plus are where the real profits lie, but generally consoles are also sold at a profit once new hardware revisions take advantage of smaller chips and improved manufacturing techniques.
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