With the next generation of Playstation right around the corner, it looks like Sony has run into some manufacturing issues, and has cut down the manufacturing forecast for this fiscal year (from now to March 31) to 11 million units, 4 million less than before.
A Bloomberg report states, that AMD’s system-on-a-chip core processing component is the prime culprit for this downsizing. Yields were as low as 50%, meaning that out of all the cards that were being shipped out for installment at one point, only half actually ended up in Playstations. This has caused the company to humble its manufacturing forecast down by 4 million units, even though the yields are reportedly getting better.
What’s ironic is that this number is eerily close to what Sony had planned to manufacture earlier this year. That’s right, up until April, when the Japanese conglomerate planned to manufacture just 5 to 6 million PS5s by the end of March 31st 2021. However, when COVID 19 hit, the gaming industry skyrocketed, which led to Sony reevaluating its forecast, deciding to work its numbers up.
The company is planning to hold an online PS5 event on Wednesday, where it will hopefully fit the final piece of the puzzle, and tell us how much the next generation of Playstations will actually cost. Moreover, we might also get a release date, especially since Microsoft has already announced one for the new Xbox devices. There’s also a chance that we might get to see some new games, as filling up an entire event with just two announcements might not fill up the timeslot.
So far, experts suggest that the ‘full’ version of the PS5 can be priced at $499, putting it in the same category as the Xbox Series X, while the digital only version may only dip below $400.