PS5 Launch Availability Worries Quashed as Sony Ramps up Production
With COVID-19 affecting manufacturing centres worldwide, there has been understandable concern about the availability of next-gen consoles at launch. While Sony has repeatedly assured fans that COVID-19 hasn’t impacted the PS5 release date, there was concern over whether high demand would make it impossible to actually get one at launch. These worries have now seemingly been put to rest, however, as Sony has chosen to dramatically ramp up their console production.
Sony Plans to Meet Higher-Than-Expected Demand for PS5
According to recent reports on manufacturing, Sony has made the decision to increase production of the PS5 by almost double. Back in March, due to the impact of COVID-19, Sony chose to limit their PS5 launch window to around 6 million units. (Indeed, this is where many of the concerns about launch availability began.) However, according to anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg Japan and Nikkei Asian Review, production has now been scaled up to between 9-10 million units by the end of 2020.
Roughly 5 million of these units are due to be ready by September, well ahead of launch. The remaining 4-5 million will be coming sometime between then and the end of the year. This should put to rest many concerns about the availability of the PS5; concerns that, for instance, it might be impossible to get a PS5 at launch without pre-ordering.
Indeed, part of the reason for this uptick in production is reportedly because Sony is anticipating greater-than-average demand if a second surge of COVID-19 takes place later this year. (A second quarantine period would likely cause video game demand to increase as it did earlier this year.) If such a surge doesn’t occur, or if it dies down before November, demand could end up being largely unaffected. In that case, Sony may actually find themselves with a sizable surplus.
While it’s still theoretically possible that Sony could sell 10 million PS5 units in 2020, it’s rather unlikely. 9-10 million should be more than enough to cope with demand. For context, between its November 2013 launch and the end of that year, the PS4 only sold 4.2 million units. In its first two quarters, the console sales only reached around 7.5 million units. In fact, it took nine whole months for the PS4 to hit the 10 million mark for units sold. Of course, it’s certainly possible (even likely) that the PS5 could outsell its predecessor. However, it would now have to outsell it by around 230% for there to be real problems with availability.