Update: Sony has officially made a statement denying this report. You can find the most recent update here.
Predicting units and production during COVID-19 can be difficult for any company. This has been particularly challenging for Asian tech companies, as production was thrown into a loop due to COVID-19 earlier this year. As production has been back on track for a while certain problems can still arise to change these forecasts. This appears to be happening to Sony, who is looking to bring fans to the next generation with the PlayStation 5. According to a new report Sony has had to dial back its forecast of being able to produce 15 million consoles by March 2021. The new forecast predicts that the company will be able to produce 11 million units in that same time frame.
PlayStation 5 Lowered Forecast
In a new report from Bloomberg Japan, Sony had to dial back these ambitious numbers due to trouble with supply lines. The custom-designed integrated circuit simple called “System On Chip” has not been stable. This does not mean there are technical issues with the chip, however. What it actually means is that they are having trouble producing the chip in the volumes they need. Several anonymous parties provided this information under the guise of being anonymous. No doubt due to the heavy NDA’s that are standard in production and manufacturing of components and parts. Reportedly these SOC’s are only currently producing at 50% capacity, and Sony is looking into ways of being able to increase production. As the company believes there will be a high demand for consumer consoles due to many staying at home due to COVID-19.
After these new reports broke Sony’s stock dropped by 3.1%, while there is certainly no need to panic. What this does mean for the console gaming enthusiast is one simple thing. There will be significantly lower amounts of PlayStation 5 consoles out in the wild this holiday. With the upcoming PlayStation 5 event no doubt opening pre-orders up to the public. Securing a pre-order will likely be the only way to get a PlayStation 5 anytime soon after launch.
