Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Sony PlayStation (Games)

Sony Warns Tight PlayStation 5 Supply To Extend Into Next Year (bloomberg.com) 60

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Sony Group warned a group of analysts the PlayStation 5 will remain in short supply through 2022, suggesting the company will be constrained in its ability to boost sales targets for its latest games console. From a report: While reporting financial results in late April, the Japanese conglomerate said it had sold 7.8 million units of the console through March 31, and it is aiming to sell at least 14.8 million units in the current fiscal year. That would keep it on pace to match the trajectory of the popular PlayStation 4, which has sold in excess of 115.9 million units to date. In a briefing after those results, Sony told analysts it is challenging to keep up with strong demand. The PS5 has been difficult to find in stock since its release in November, in part because of shortages in components such as semiconductors, and the company hasn't given an official estimate for when it expects supply to normalize. "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," Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said at the briefing, according to several people who attended and asked not to be named as it wasn't public.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Sony Warns Tight PlayStation 5 Supply To Extend Into Next Year More

Sony Warns Tight PlayStation 5 Supply To Extend Into Next Year

Comments Filter:

  • Scarcity (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Monday May 10, 2021 @10:09AM (#61369012)

    I know that some of this is pandemic driven but also I wonder how much is just a lesson learned from Nintendo years ago: if you dole out supply slowly you create a mindset that when you see the item in stock you need to buy NOW otherwise the opportunity may pass.

    I gotta admit they got me with it. I bought a Playstation 5 several months ago because I felt like I should buy one when I had the opportunity. The only thing I've played on it are PS4 games that I could have just as easily played on my old system. I did finally get RE: Village Friday but haven't played it yet.

    • This is exactly why I don't bother with consoles. Why support console makers at all? Take away the game titles, and you are getting a DRM-ed box that is completely under their control, and anything purchased there can be taken away at any time, including access to the console itself. They even control scarcity so if you want a unit to play a cool game in a reasonable about of time, you pay scalper's prices. This lesson was driven home last year when I was wanting to see about a Switch for passing quaran

      • Well there is the exclusive titles although thankfully that is becoming less of an issue every generation with Sony and Nintendo being the main players in that. Microsoft is actually the most open company in regards to that with just about all Xbox titles being also available via PC.

        Cost and convenience are other big issues, many people simply don't want to think about resolution settings, drivers, checking specs to maximize performance. With a console you put in disc/download a game and pretty much go (o

    • There's a well known chip shortage and it appears to be industry-wide. Affecting not just consoles and computers (it's been almost impossible to buy GPUs for months) but at least also the car industry.
      I very much doubt the scarcity is a deliberate strategy by Sony.

    • if you dole out supply slowly you create a mindset that when you see the item in stock you need to buy NOW otherwise the opportunity may pass.

      Sometimes limited production is exactly that - there are only so many to go around.

      Since Sony benefits not at all from having people desire to buy a console but not getting one, having said limits on buying apply for two years plus are not the product of marketing manipulation but catastrophically bad planning.

      If the supply had been short for a month or so then MAYBE

    • It think it's also too expensive for Sony to make. Hence the reason why Sony recently talked about a redesigned PlayStation 5, possibly a physically smaller model like what the PlayStation 3 Slim was to the original PlayStation 3. Expect that new PlayStation 5 model to arrive probably around March 2022.

    • if you dole out supply slowly you create a mindset that when you see the item in stock you need to buy NOW otherwise the opportunity may pass.

      What good is that for sales? The demand is outstripping supply and they've sold less of this generation than the last generation in that timeframe because they can't make enough. Why would they want to artificially limit the amount of money they can make?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        What good is that for sales? The demand is outstripping supply and they've sold less of this generation than the last generation in that timeframe because they can't make enough. Why would they want to artificially limit the amount of money they can make?

        The problem is that most of the PS5s are gone to scalpers. You would think that Sony or someone would have come up with a way of doling out consoles so that they end up in the hands of gamers and not scalpers.

        A simple solution would be to do in-store sales

        • What good is that for sales? The demand is outstripping supply and they've sold less of this generation than the last generation in that timeframe because they can't make enough. Why would they want to artificially limit the amount of money they can make?

          The problem is that most of the PS5s are gone to scalpers.

          Yeah but that doesn't help Sony, that just pisses off their customers and if they could alleviate the demand issue with more supply then that problem would go away. So it doesn't appear they are artificially limiting supply.

    • The only thing I've played on it are PS4 games that I could have just as easily played on my old system.

      It does apply the Pro boosts to PS4 games and there are some PS4 games with PS5 upgrades. For example, I'm of the opinion that if you're going to play No Man's Sky, do it on the PS5, not the PS4. Genshin Impact as well. It is also a LOT quieter than my launch day PS4. It has totally replaced my PS4, I just copied my PS4 games to an external drive and plugged that into the PS5.

      Have fun with Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters.

  • Short supply will add a lucrative aspect to our business. Our customers will fight over short supply and love it. GPUs, Gaming consoles, laptops, somehow not desktop PCs, etc.
    • How is 'not being able to sell as many consoles as we could, if only we had more to sell, and also losing money on game and accessory sales' somehow a lucrative evil plan of Sony's?
      • See "law of supply and demand". Less supply and more demand drives up prices. That's just one aspect of this whole scarcity crap that's going on right now. It goes much further than that, in this gaming-related business. https://www.investopedia.com/t... [investopedia.com]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bws111 ( 1216812 )

          Has Sony raised the price? No. Some retailers or resellers setting high prices has zero benefit to Sony.

          • MSRP means nothing. PS5 prices have been higher than expected for a while, and as demand rises, they keep going higher. Since PS5 in "an ecosystem" that hosts other products (games), those games' prices rise too. Games' prices, mainly AAA level, keep rising. Most importantly, Sony will use the current short supply situation to its advantage in the future when everything is just fine - prices of everything won't suddenly go down (don't make them laugh, prices only go up), accessories will become much more ex
            • So you honestly think that Sony is sitting on a pile of PS5s they're refusing to sell?
              • What makes you think I think that? One last time: There is an actual short supply situations, hence 2021 is the year in which companies wisely use it to their advantage by following the law of supply and demand.
                • ...so, why hasn't Sony jacked the price?
                  • They will, for the next, higher spec PS5 version, and people will accept it because the market got used to the higher prices of the product in the actual market, which are higher than MSRP. So while Sony may be losing right now from the scarcity situation, in the long term they'll be gaining from it. AAA games' prices are already being jacked up too, and people accept it, because hey, now that I have this exclusive game machine, I'm not gonna pay $10 more? So it's not just Sony that will be gaining from it.

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by bws111 ( 1216812 )

                      That is some idiotic theory you have there. First, you claim that the law of supply and demand means prices will go up because of shortages. Then, you claim that prices never fall when the shortages end. So the law of supply and demand only applies when it supports your theory?

                      Then you apparently back off the supply and demand claim, and say the higher prices will come on future products, because people 'have gotten used to' the higher prices. The only people who may 'have gotten used to' the higher pri

                    • Well, the original Playstation launched at $299, which adjusted for inflation is something like $506.

                      The PS2 also launched at $299, which adjusted for inflation would be something like $448.

                      The PS3 launched at $499, which adjusted for inflation would be something like $639.

                      The PS4 launched at $399, which adjusted for inflation would be something like $441.

                      Meanwhile, the PS5 is going for $399 for the digital version, and $499 for the disc version.

                      In other words, the PS5, literally the culmination of Sony's 2

                    • Your first paragraph is incredibly idiotic. Your second paragraph is ignorant. And you're a rude lowlife, so no more replies from me, go fuck yourself, bye bye.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by bws111 ( 1216812 )

              The question which you seem to be avoiding is how does Sony having a shortage benefit Sony? If Sony wants to raise the price they can do that without creating some artificial shortage (as you like to claim).

              Most importantly, Sony will use the current short supply situation to its advantage in the future when everything is just fine - prices of everything won't suddenly go down

              OK, you really confused me with this one. Since Sony has not RAISED the price during the shortage, why on earth would they LOWER it when everything is fine?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bws111 ( 1216812 )

        It makes a nice conspiracy theory.

        • It's called supply and demand, not Conspiracy Theory(TM).

  • JIT production + outsourcing everything = (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Monday May 10, 2021 @10:13AM (#61369030) Homepage

    ...poo hitting fan when any kind of interruption occurs to international trade.

    But hey, the CEOs responsible for outsourcing electronics manufacture to China in the last few decades are probably nicely retired living out a happy life on the golf course and keeping their money company in the evenings so thats ok.

    • I've worked at places like that. One little outside blip and the whole JIT system collapses. Then all the hourly employees get sent home with no pay until they recover from the blip.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by cb88 ( 1410145 )
      The alternative is being stuck with millions of GPUs and CPUs they can't sell... this is basically what happned with I think it was Polaris, or maybe a few gens before that, there they had a glut of GPUs they could not sell at the price they needed to.

      • Those were produced using the same strategy though. AMD used to have their own internal fab, but they didn't really use it for GPUs even then.

        I guess the question about today's market more revolves around whether less premium fabs like former AMD GlobalFoundries could have met the requirements of today's GPU and CPU market, and whether the less competitive build process would have a large enough impact to make the complete product competitive.

        Intel's own experiment (Rocket Lake) at selling a modern product

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by cb88 ( 1410145 )
          Your thought process is completely broken... when you have lead times of 100 days which is not atypical if not more you have to predict how much you are going to need and then produce that much. YOU HAVE NO CHOICE.

          • Yes, but that doesn't change whether its your fab or outsourced. Even if the market could have predicted a sharp increase in demand there wouldn't have been enough outsource fab space to meet demand for q2 2020 though.

            What do you think, could AMD have put their ps5 chips on the same 12nm globalfoundries fab that they previously produced hilariously bad 300w $400 polaris chips (which were 15% faster than the $200 polaris chips)?

            Before the current supply/demand mismatch I think everyone would have laughed at

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

      The greenies will be happy at least:

      https://www.usatoday.com/story... [usatoday.com]

  • Or "amazing artificial scarcity opportunity", and the legalized thieves call it.

    • You're not in the electronics industry. Go look at some lead times for parts on Digikey.

    • Describe "artificial". You are aware of the recent pandemic, the shift to JIT over decades, current trade wars, and real scarcity of chip fabrication at the leading edge? These factors all hit at the same time to produce the current situation.

  • I can't stand Sony on (well deserved) principle

    * Their driver support when they were in the laptop game (same drivers cost you more money based off the version of windows you ran)
    * Removal of Yellow Dog Linux on the PS3 (bait and switch)
    * Remember the root kit fiasco anyone

  • The lack of PS5 consoles will get those game developers wondering if they should bother putting in the effort and especially
    the funding required to create games for the PS5 platform.

    Were I in their position, I probably wouldn't spend the crazy $$$ for the development of a PS5 game when you have such a limited
    audience who have access to the hardware needed to play it. That or I would seriously call into question any exclusivity contracts
    when Sony can't supply enough hardware to meet demand.

    On a positive not

    • The lack of PS5 consoles will get those game developers wondering if they should bother putting in the effort and especially
      the funding required to create games for the PS5 platform.

      Sony has sold nearly 8 million [ubergizmo.com] PS5 units to date.

      Sure you could Deve;lop a game to be also for the PS4, and have a wider base to sell into - but also a lot more competition.

      PS5 exclusives now have 8+ million customers hungry for content that really takes advantage of the PS5, without a lot of competition.

      If it were me I'd develo

Slashdot Top Deals

There are new messages.

Close