A new report from the Nikkei Asian Review reveals that Sony is increasing its shipment estimate for the Playstation 5 by a considerable amount.This is welcome news since a previous report from April said PS5’s launch would be more limited than the PS4.
The company has boosted its production orders from 6 million units to 9 million units, although the timeline for production is unclear. The consoles will be assembled at Sony’s new Japanese factory, which has more robots than humans. In addition, Bloomberg has reported that Sony is hoping to manufacture 10 million PS5 consoles by the end of the year, though when they’ll hit shelves is still uncertain.
Bloomberg says that Sony has already informed its partners and suppliers of the order increase. Nikkei’s sources add that order numbers could vary based on market demand. Neither report included the breakdown of production orders for the PS5 by SKU. Aside from the standard PS5, Sony is also manufacturing a disc-free PS5, known as the PS5 Digital Edition.
Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad tweeted that manufacturing 10 million units by the end of the year would be a considerable feat, adding that the goal indicates that the company expects strong demand of the consoles. In 2013, Sony shipped 4.5 million PS4 units, though it wasn’t until the following June that 10 million consoles had been shipped to stores.
Karn Chauhan, a senior analyst with Counterpoint, told Nikkei Asian Review that the production increase made sense given the gaming surge that resulted from the coronavirus pandemic when a record number of online players were added as consumers sought to entertain themselves at home.
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