Sony is restricting the amount of PlayStation 5’s they produce in the initial release year. People familiar with the PS5’s supply chain have informed Bloomberg that there will only be around 5 to 6 million units produced through March 2021. That is significantly less than previous PlayStation titles. That begs the question, did Sony mess up the design philosophy of the PlayStation 5 production?
Too expensive
It is no secret that both Sony and Microsoft are aiming to make very powerful consoles. In our comparison of the two you can see that both companies are indeed producing a gaming PC worthy console. But the PlayStation 5 might be a little too powerful for it’s own good. According to the source, many parts needed for the PS5 are quite expensive and in low supply. Therefore Sony is allegedly limiting production to 6 million units within the first year due to the high cost of many of the components.
Smaller supply compared to PS4
But just how limited is the production of a maximum of 6 million units? While we don’t have exact numbers, we do know that Sony sold 7.5 million PlayStation 4 consoles in the first 6 months after its release. That’s at least 1.5 million consoles more than Sony plans to produce in an entire year!
Coronavirus Impact
With the limited production of PS5’s being due to the price of the parts required for the console. The current Coronavirus pandemic isn’t even a factor based on the reports. Sony is already cutting back production but are they able to reach their targets at all? According to the source, production of the console is supposed to start in June.
While we’re being a little bit pessimistic here, how big are the odds that the global Coronavirus outbreak could slow down production and assembly even further? After all, the supply chain that leads up to a finished PlayStation 5 is huge; it’s quite likely that some manufacturers may not be able to reach the targets if they’re still in lock down come June.
Encumbered by Coronavirus or not, it will be interesting to see how gamers are impacted by the limited production of PS5’s. Because of the expected higher price, some gamers might refrain from purchasing a PlayStation 5 right away in which case a more limited supply isn’t that big of a deal. On the other hand, this is still going to be a huge launch; but will there be enough consoles on release?