Tomorrow, we’ll get PS5 showcase in which many are hoping against hope that we’ll finally get a launch date and price for Sony’s next generation console. Who knows if we will or not at this point, but it seems as if some things behind the scenes may not be super rosy for Sony, for no fault of their own.
In a recent report from Bloomberg, it has been reported that Sony has cut back the initial production units for the PS5 by four million units, going from ordering 15 million units by the end of March 2021 to 11 million. It’s not due to lack of demand or Sony restructuring expectations. The culprit is on the production side. As alleged in the article production yield of the console’s system-on-chip has fallen behind up to 50%, cutting into the amount they had hoped to produce. It was reported last month that the company had doubled their production orders, and it seems that ended up being a bit too much. The article states that yield has actually been steadily improving, but it’s still not stable enough for the original order.
As always, you have to take these reports as rumor, but Bloomberg tends to have a good record. We heard yesterday that Sony is using air freights to make sure they meet demands for the PS5 in the US as much as possible. Even if the article is accurate, 11 million units produced by March 2021 is still quite ambitious. Fingers crossed that it will equate to enough stock to go around either way.