We don’t necessarily mean that there is not much time to sell the console in the first year – even compared to that, Sony will be manufacturing fewer units of the PlayStation 5, Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg is citing „people familiar with the matter” when they state that the PlayStation 5 will get far fewer units produced than the PlayStation 4. Sony is starting slow partially because of the expectation that its high specifications will weigh on demand by leading to a high launch price. The coronavirus outbreak has also impacted Sony’s marketing plans, but not the production capacity. (The former’s example would be the DualSense controller’s reveal, which was done in a „hurried fashion.”)

Sony is planning to manufacture 5-6 million PlayStation 5 units by the end of March 2021, according to „other people involved in the machine’s supply chain.” As a comparison, the PlayStation 4’s first two quarters (October-December 2013, and January-March 2014) had the console sell 7.5 million units. The game developers who are working on titles for the PlayStation 5 anticipate that the console will cost 499-549 dollars.

Bloomberg also cites „several people familiar with [Sony’s] plans” that the company is planning to rely on the PlayStation 4 units either already sold or waiting to be sold to get its users to move towards the PlayStation Network’s services while the PlayStation 5’s availability (due to its limited supply) will be toned down. In other words, they want the users to subscribe to PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Video, and PlayStation Music, but let’s also not forget the PlayStation Store. Sony wants to do so by cutting the price of the PlayStation 4. (Wow, about time they’re doing this…) The PlayStation 4’s Slim’s 299, and the PlayStation 4 Pro’s 399-dollar price tag, respectively, could be cut near the launch of the PlayStation 5 to get more PlayStation Plus subscribers (who’d get two games per month on top of them being allowed to do online multiplayer).

The PlayStation 5’s production volume plans could change yet. Sony’s board of directors have not been able to meet and approve the business plans for the current fiscal year, and the PlayStation business is also affected – the employees are now working from home, and the meeting should have happened in March, but the virus turned things upside down. Sony also seems unlikely to delay the PlayStation 5’s Holiday season launch unless Microsoft does the same with the Xbox Series X, which is also planned to arrive near the end of 2020.

According to „people in [Sony’s] supply chain,” the PlayStation 5’s mass production is expected to begin by June. Jim Ryan, the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, has been pushing for a directive to have a simultaneous global launch of the console. (The PlayStation 4 had two weeks of exclusivity in North America before Europe, and Japan got the console three months later.)

Regarding that last thought (aside from all this being unconfirmed info): if Sony will make fewer units than the successful PlayStation 4 for the launch, and then they want to distribute the PlayStation 5 worldwide from day one, then the important regions will get even fewer units. So they should think about this, or at least increase the production volume, or they might be in a bit of trouble in late 2020…

Source: Gematsu

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