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Sony has issued a rare denial in response to a recent Bloomberg report suggesting that the company has reduced production of the upcoming PlayStation 5 due to component shortages.
“While we do not release details related to manufacturing, the information provided by Bloomberg is false,” the company said in a statement provided to GamesIndustry.biz. “We have not changed the production number of PlayStation 5 since the start of mass production.”
The Bloomberg report cited “people familiar with the matter” to suggest that the company was reducing its expected worldwide production of consoles from 15 million to 11 million for the fiscal year ending March 2021. That’s due to “returns from production as low as 50% for its SOC, “according to the report.
Sony’s statement that PS5 production targets have not changed also cuts out previous Bloomberg reports of Sony’s supposedly unstable PS5 manufacturing plans. In July, Bloomberg reported that Sony had decided to roughly double its planned manufacturing capacity from 5-6 million units to 10 million units “this year.”
Before that, in April, Bloomberg reported that Sony had decided to “produce far fewer units” of the PS5 than it had for the PS4 launch in 2013, in part because it “expects the ambitious specifications of the PS5 to influence the performance. demand by carrying a high price at launch. ”
For context, Sony produced 7.5 million PS4 units as of March 2014, at least 6 million of which were sold to consumers in that time. Bloomberg’s reported “reduced” production target of 10 million units would still be a significant relative increase in the launch window period.
Reading the tea leaves
The pent-up demand among early console buyers generally means that the first shipments of major new consoles sell out almost immediately, meaning you can’t read too much in the early days of a new console sales. However, as the holiday sales quarter turns into a new year, console makers must carefully adjust their production capacity to avoid frustratingly prolonged shortages or costly oversupply.
Console makers also have to grapple with the potential impact of COVID-related economic shocks on demand for new console hardware. Nintendo’s Switch saw widespread sales earlier this year as gamers flocked to the system to entertain themselves during lockouts related to the pandemic. But Microsoft said in March that it was carefully monitoring the “demand side” of things, as some countries continue to face rising unemployment rates.
Launch window console sales figures are usually a drop in the bucket compared to lifetime sales figures, but they can provide a good signal of momentum which platform console gamers will likely favor on. the next years. Microsoft has suggested that the old “console warfare” mentality of increased market share is less important than “we’re winning new customers, they’re buying games, they’re committed to service.”
Sony / Aurich Lawson listing image
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