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Sony Is Dealing With PlayStation 5 Shortage by Making More PS4s (only producing about 1 million for the entire year)

Sony Group Corp. will continue producing PlayStation 4 consoles throughout 2022 as it navigates disruptions to the global supply chain that have limited output of its pricier PlayStation 5.

The Japanese conglomerate, whose flagship PS5 console has been in scarce supply since its debut in November 2020, told assembly partners late last year that it would continue making its earlier-generation machine through this year, according to people familiar with the matter. While Sony never officially announced when it would stop making the PS4, it had previously planned to discontinue assembly at the end of 2021, they said, asking not to be named as the plans are not public.

The strategy would add about a million PS4 units this year to help offset some of the pressure on the company’s PS5 production, a figure that will be adjusted in response to demand, the people said. The older console uses less advanced chips, is simpler to make and provides a budget-friendly alternative to the PS5.

Increasing production orders by adding the cheaper-to-make PS4 would also give Sony more leeway when negotiating with manufacturing partners for a better deal, two of the people said.

A Sony spokesperson confirmed PS4 production would continue this year and said the company had not planned to stop making the console. “It is one of the best-selling consoles ever and there is always crossover between generations,” the company said.

Sony’s ambition with the PlayStation 5 was to make a quick transition to the latest hardware, PlayStation chief Jim Ryan has said. But the coronavirus pandemic slowed software development across the games industry while also triggering a surge in hardware demand that’s made even the most basic of components scarce. The result has been a console that’s hard to find and lacks a strong portfolio of must-have exclusive games.


The predecessor PS4, released in 2013, has sold more than 116 million units to date and remains a popular option among players. It still provides a substantial portion of Sony’s gaming division income from subscriptions and software sales.


The PlayStation unit is grappling with a series of unanticipated challenges, including a slower-than-expected PS5 production pace and online scalpers choking off retail supply of the newer console. Extending PS4 availability is seen within the company as a means to fill the supply vacuum and keep gamers within the PlayStation ecosystem, according to a Sony official who is not authorized to speak publicly.



EDIT: it's Bloomberg article, but somehow I can't post the link

here....finally

Sony is planning to produce more PS4 to compensate for PS5 shortages
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
lost-go-back.gif
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
I'm still surprised they killed the ps4 so quickly. However, these would have to be cheaper. Can they make a ps4 super slim at $200? $150?

Cross gen is going to be really long. Interesting idea having all consoles play the same games, but the new consoles are basically super pro editions. Doesn't make sense to artificially lock players out of games if the older hardware can still run it.
 
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If this extends the cross-gen period, this generation is gonna be rubbish. 3 - 4 freaking years before you get games built around the new hardware? That's freaking scandalous.

The only silver lining with this news is that there is practically no chance Sony or MS launch mid-gen refreshes this time.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
I really hope this doesn’t mean they’ll stretch crossgen out even further.
Hopefully it’s just to meet a possible increase in demand because of Horizon FW, GT7 and God of War Ragnarök.

Still, doesn’t sound like a good thing to me.
You'd think anyone interested in playing those games on PS4 would own one already.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Good point, production of previous consoles rarely cease immidiately at the launch of the next console.

Weren’t the last PS2s produced in like 2012?

Indeed.


Bloomberg seems desperate to generate news.
 
It is just over one year into this gen. Why is this a surprise? You think PS3 stopped production after PS4 launched?


Before the shortages hit, Sony went all in with PS5. They stopped PS4 production and switched their manufacturing to 99% PS5. You CANNOT find any PS4 at retail stores. You see in sales number, PS4 sold less than 200K in the past 12 months....
 
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I'm still surprised they killed the ps4 so quickly. However, these would have to be cheaper. Can they make a ps4 super slim at $200? $150?

Cross gen is going to be really long. Interesting idea having all consoles play the same games, but the new consoles are basically super pro editions. Doesn't make sense to artificially lock players out of games if the older hardware can still run it.

Yup, they did kill PS4 quickly, that's my biggest beef with Jimbo.....PS4 is my favourite console. it had so much potential left, it would've gone to sell 135-140M had it not been killed early
 

skit_data

Member
Before the shortages hit, Sony went all in with PS5. They stopped PS4 production and switched their manufacturing to 99% PS5. You CANNOT find any PS4 at retail stores. You see in sales number, PS4 sold less than 200K in the past 12 months....
I’ve seen the price of second hand PS4s surge in my country, so there is a demand to be met.

It’s not ideal and probably not at all what they wanted but at least there is some logic to making a few more PS4s. It’s only one million consoles after all.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Before the shortages hit, Sony went all in with PS5. They stopped PS4 production 99%. You COULD NOT find any PS4 at retail stores. You see in sales number, PS4 sold less than 200K in the past 12 months....

You couldn't find any console in retail stores during the pandemic. Sony stopped production of everything but the base PS4 model, just like Microsoft did with the Xbox One. Again, why is the continued production of PS4 a surprise? There has been no announcement that PS4 production was ceasing and I have no idea where your "99%" number comes from, but I'll be happy to acknowledge it once you've provided reference.
 
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You couldn't find any console in retail stores during the pandemic. Sony stopped production of everything but the base PS4 model, just like Microsoft did with the Xbox One. Again, why is the continued production of PS4 a surprise? There has been no announcement that PS4 production was ceasing and I have no idea where your "99%" number comes from, but I'll be happy to acknowledge it once you've provided reference.

here I found the data,....as of Oct-30-2021

also I made a mistake, it actually sold 700K, not 200K

see the drastic drop from 13.4M to 5.7M........normal drop would've been 13.4M --> 10M --> 7M (with price drop) --> 5M

wNAQykp.png
 
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Dream-Knife

Banned
here I found the data,

also I made a mistake, it actually sold 700K, not 200K

see the drastic drop from 13.4M to 5.7M........normal drop would've been 13.4M --> 10M --> 7M (with price drop) --> 5M

wNAQykp.png
The DS seems to have the same drop. Was it discontinued quickly?
 

Topher

Gold Member
here I found the data,

also I made a mistake, it actually sold 700K, not 200K

see the drastic drop from 13.4M to 5.7M........normal drop would've been 13.4M --> 10M --> 7M (with price drop) --> 5M

wNAQykp.png

What point do you think you are making here? That PS4 sales dropped after the PS5 launch? No shit. PS3 sales dropped after PS4 launched as well.

 
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Topher

Gold Member
the point here is that that PS4 sale drop, not because of demand but because Sony reduced PS4 production drastically

Of course they did. Just like Microsoft did. Just like Nintendo did. No one anticipated the pandemic.

None of this is new.

what clickbait?!? how is 'Dealing With PlayStation 5 Shortage by Making More PS4s' not equal to compensating????


Why are you pretending Bloomberg is reporting facts and not rumors from anonymous sources? You know.....the same exact writer whose sources said the Nintendo Switch Pro was to arrive last September?

Nintendo Plans Upgraded Switch Replacement as Soon as September
Nintendo to Use Faster Nvidia Chips in New 2021 Switch Model
 
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Vognerful

Member
You couldn't find any console in retail stores during the pandemic. Sony stopped production of everything but the base PS4 model, just like Microsoft did with the Xbox One. Again, why is the continued production of PS4 a surprise? There has been no announcement that PS4 production was ceasing and I have no idea where your "99%" number comes from, but I'll be happy to acknowledge it once you've provided reference.
The article explains why this is considered "news":
Their sources indicated that production would stop by end of 2021 but plans have changed.

That Sony was planning for faster transitioning to PS5 this generation.

So, the article implies that even though the case of PS4 is no different than PS3 and 2, it was not planned to be that way.

Also, did we have Sony making games for PS3 and 2 after a year of it's next console's release? I can only think of GT.
 
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