With PS5 shortages set to continue well into 2021, it’d be easy to point the finger at Sony and holler at them to get their damn act together.
However, blame, it seems, doesn’t lie at the door of the Japanese gaming giant. In its most recent earnings report the company bemoaned the shortage of the components required to scale up PS5 production.
Sony CFO Hiroki Took says the company is doing ‘everything in our power’ to meet the demand of gamers, who’re finding themselves continually outmanned by scalpers and online bots snapping up the limited supplies there are.
“It is difficult for us to increase production of the PS5 amid the shortage of semiconductors and other components,” Hiroki Totoki said following the briefing (via Ari Technica).
“We have not been able to fully meet the high level of demand from customers [but] we continue to do everything in our power to ship as many units as possible to customers who are waiting for a PS5.”
Sony revealed it has shipped 4.5 million PS5 consoles during the quarter ending December 31, but it’s difficult to know how many of those found the doorsteps of genuine gamers, rather than those seeking to profit from the resale market.
One entity that isn’t profiting directly from PS5 sales is Sony itself. The company revealed its gaming profits were undercut by “strategic” pricing for the new console, meaning it costs more to make than Sony is selling it for. Sony said it experienced a “loss resulting from strategic price points for PS5 hardware that were set lower than the manufacturing costs.”
It isn’t rare that consoles sell at a loss initially, as the initial batches of consoles come off the production line before specialised components become cheaper. Sony will also make that up via sales of the best PS5 games. Interestingly, Sony said it still sold 1.4 million PS4 consoles over the holiday season. We wonder how many of those were in place of the hard-to-get PS5?
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
