According to reports, Sony has lowered its unit forecasts for the rest of its fiscal year as it cuts back production due to component shortages. It has lowered its production forecast for the popular console by a million units, down to 15 million consoles, between April 2021 and March 2022.
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Even though it was expecting to produce 16 million units in the period, it had forecast to sell about 14.8 million units in the same period. This means getting your hands on one of the latest generation consoles may be difficult well into 2022, as all units should sell out almost immediately for some time still. Sony has forecast 22.6 million PS5 sales for the financial year beginning in April 2022, but its manufacturing partners reportedly think it will be difficult to meet that target.
According to the report, the component shipments aren’t always arriving on time, and varying levels of vaccine rollout have complicated operations at production bases. Sony is really struggling with all aspects of its logistics, fuelled by the global supply chain being backlogged more than ever in the modern history of global trade.
Earlier this month Nintendo cut its Switch sales forecast by 1.5 million for the financial year due to the component shortage. Valve’s Steam Deck handheld PC has just been delayed by two months for similar reasons and now won’t ship until February.
March is still a long way off, so Sony might still be able to pull off the sales record goal, which it would have achieved easily without these various issues. The PlayStation 5 is outselling the Xbox Series X/S significantly and will retain its crown as the king of consoles this generation. However, it will be concerned that it can’t keep up with demand, with no end in sight to the supply chain issues and chip shortages.
