PS5 stock will improve in time for the holidays, says Sony
PS5 stock will improve in time for the holidays, says Sony
Sony has said it will increase the supply of PS5 hardware ahead of the upcoming holiday season
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny
📈 Sony has vowed to increase PS5 supply in the second half of the fiscal year
🤞 The company made the promise during its latest financial earnings report
🥅 Sony is still hoping to reach its sales forecast of 18 million PS5 consoles
😤 Supply issues continue to hamper PS5 sales, and it’s fallen behind the PS4
👀 Check out our PS5 restock page for all the latest updates
Sony has promised to increase PS5 supply in the second half of the fiscal year as the company continues to struggle to get consoles into the hands of consumers.
The upcoming holiday season is bound to see demand for PS5 rise even more than usual, and with games like God of War Ragnarok and The Last of Us Part 1 releasing this year, Sony will want to avoid any more bottlenecks.
During its latest financial results, Sony said:
"We intend to take action to increase user engagement in the second half of the fiscal year, during which major titles including first-party software are scheduled to be released, primarily by increasing the supply of PS5 hardware and promoting the new PlayStation Plus service."
Sony has sold 21.7 million PS5 consoles life to date but has battled against stock constraints since the console launched in November 2020. It’s still difficult to find PS5s on store shelves, and subsequently, the PlayStation 5 is trailing the PS4 in terms of life-to-date sales after falling behind in February.
The company still aims to ship 18 million PS5 consoles this financial year, but it’ll need to average more than five million PS5s per quarter. To put that into perspective, Sony sold 2.4 million PS5s in Q1, so it will need to significantly improve supply.
But could we see a PS5 price increase? Increased shipping and manufacturing costs have led to Meta raising the price of Meta Quest 2 by $100, and Sony refused to rule it out when asked.
🤔 Will stock actually improve?
This isn’t the first time Sony has vowed to address PS5 supply issues. In June, the head of global sales and business operations at Sony Interactive Entertainment, Veronica Rogers, told GamesIndustry.biz that the company was “planning on a significant ramp-up in PS5 production this year and we are working endlessly to make sure that PlayStation 5 is available for everyone who wants one.”
What makes the stock issues all the more frustrating for Sony is that Microsoft has managed to mostly address its supply problems. According to Microsoft, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S outsold the PS5 in North America for three straight quarters, and the Xbox Series X|S continue to break records. Unless PS5 stock improves, this trend could continue over the holiday season.