Finding A PS5 Might Get Easier This Year

If you've been looking for a PlayStation 5 but haven't been able to get one, 2022 could be your year. Sony has projected it will sell many millions more PlayStation 5 units in the current fiscal year, and this could be a sign that the company believes the chip shortages and other supply issues might improve, leading to more units being available to buy. Nothing is guaranteed, though.

As part of Sony's latest investor briefing, the company said it projects to sell 18 million PS5 consoles during the fiscal year that began April 1 and runs through March 31, 2023. This number is based on the company's "current visibility into parts procurement", Sony said.

For comparison, Sony sold 11.5 million PS5 consoles during its fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2022, and 7.8 million PS5 consoles for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2021. That is a sizable jump: Sony is essentially predicting it will sell upwards of 60% more systems during the current fiscal year than it did last year. So far in 2022, Sony has sold 2 million PS5 consoles, which compares to 3.3 million during the same three-month period last year.

18 million+ for the current fiscal year works out to an average of 4.5 million per quarter for the current fiscal year. This would be on par with the PS5's best quarter ever in Q3 of FY20 (October through December of 2020), during which Sony sold 4.5 million consoles at the system's launch. Again, this all seems to suggest that Sony has reason to believe that, despite any ongoing supply issues, it will be able to get more PS5s onto store shelves, which potentially means it will be easier for you to actually buy one.

While Sony seems somewhat optimistic about supply looking better, the wider consensus on general supply issues is less positive, as some in the wider technology world believe shortages could stretch into 2024. Looking to the video game space specifically, Nintendo said during its own earnings briefing this week that there is "no end in sight" for the ongoing chip shortage, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nintendo is projecting to sell 21 million Switch consoles during its current fiscal year, down from 23 million in the year that ended on March 31, 2022.

Sony CFO Hikori Totoki said during an earnings briefing translated by VGC that Sony feels "very comfortable" about hitting this mark, suggesting the projection might actually be conservative. At the same time, he said demand may still outstrip supply.

"18 million units is what we feel very comfortable we can get the parts and components for [during FY22]", Totoki said. "We feel that there is a little bit higher demand than that, so if the question is if we can meet the demand, I think we're still short somewhat."

Totoki said PS5 stock remains "very low," adding that Sony originally planned to have sold 22.6 million PS5 units by this stage in the console's lifecycle. The company reduced that target due to "constraints" in the market regarding components.

Sony has sold more than 19 million PS5 units so far since the console launched in November 2020.

The Xbox and Switch platforms routinely outsell the PS5 in the US for units sold and dollars driven, and that's no doubt related to the supply constraints. By comparison, it is much easier to find an Xbox or a Switch, for whatever reason. While Sony might be forecasting stronger PS5 sales for the current fiscal year, that doesn't guarantee you'll be able to walk into a store anytime soon and pick up a console, unfortunately. Check out GameSpot's PS5 restock page to learn more.

Source: Gamespot