Microsoft has stopped production of its products designed for the previous generation of consoles, and Sony has increased production from security to try to alleviate some of the complete problems caused by the lack of parts …

In a statement to The Verge, Cindy Walker, senior director of the Xbox product line, wrote: “To focus on the production of Xbox Series X / S, we stopped production for all Xbox One consoles by the end of 2020.” This thought contrasts to that of Sony: Bloomberg reports that Sony is trying to reduce the PlayStation 5 shortage by selling the PlayStation 4…

“While Sony never officially announced when it would stop making the PlayStation 4, 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. [It is to] help offset some of the pressure on the company’s PlayStation 5 production,” the site wrote. A Sony spokesperson claimed, “It is one of the best-selling consoles ever, and there is always crossover between generations.” In this respect, Sony is ahead of Microsoft, as they did not plan for a generational transition.

The problem, however, is once again reported on The Verge: the site pointed out that they have not found many new PlayStation 4 consoles. A stop-gap solution might be to order the PlayStation 4 Slim from PlayStation Direct, but its price ($300) has remained unchanged since 2017, so yes, Sony hasn’t lowered the price despite the generation change. And PlayStation Direct isn’t even available everywhere.

So on paper, the situation should in principle be in Sony’s favour, but in practice, the opposite seems to be accurate. However, it would be a good time for them to start stocking up on PlayStation 4, as they can’t just leave the consoles gathering dust in a warehouse. Their strategy mainly focuses on the PlayStation 5, but there are cross-gen exclusives (Gran Turismo 7, God of War: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West…).

Source: WCCFTech, The Verge