One of Sony’s top priorities in the future is to increase the production of the PlayStation 5 to meet the unprecedented demand for the console. In an investor briefing (PDF), the company said it expects to close the gap on PS4 and PS5 sales this year after the new console fell behind with its big brother in 2021. Sony blamed the lack PS5 Sales to Its Inability to Build sufficient units due to supply chain shortages in its quarterly earnings report. There is no shortage of demand: according to data provided by Sony, it only takes 82 minutes to sell 80,000 units of PS5, while it takes nine days to sell the same number of PS4.
The company now hopes to be able to produce more units as supply chain shortages have eased somewhat, but the impact of the pandemic on parts availability remains a concern. In addition, Sony is concerned that the Russian invasion of Ukraine may also affect its logistics and possible parts inventories. To mitigate the impact of these problems, Sony plans to supply several vendors “for greater agility in unstable market conditions.” Negotiations are also underway to maintain optimal delivery routes for the console.
With these solutions in place, the company believes that PS5 sales could again exceed PS4 sales starting next year. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said during the briefing that after the initial increase, the company “is planning significant increases in console production, having [it] at production levels that [it has] never achieved before “.
Aside from talking about its PS5 production goals, Sony has also revealed that it is expanding PlayStation Studios by acquiring more gaming studios as well as increasing its investment in live services, PCs and mobile offerings. It is committed to launching 12 live services in the coming years that do not include Destiny, which will be the company’s as part of its acquisition of Bungie. And it intends to have half of its first annual versions on PC and mobile in 2025. “By expanding to PC and mobile, and needless to say … also to live services, we have l “It’s time to move on from being in a very small segment of the global gaming software market, to being present almost everywhere,” Ryan said.