In context: Even though the holiday shopping season is officially over, consumers are still finding it nearly impossible to get their hands on a PlayStation 5 without taking out a second mortgage. Scalpers buying up online stock are driving regular customers to the few brick-and-mortar stores that haven't halted in-store sales. So even trips to local outlets have become fruitless for those who can't get there before the doors open.
If you have been frustrated about not being able to land a PlayStation 5 and refuse to support the scalping community, relief may be on the way. Digitimes reports that Sony is prepared to ship between 16.8 million and 18 million PS5 consoles in 2021. According to "industry sources," TSMC, AMD, and others in Sony's supply chain are ramping up production to meet the high demand.
These numbers equate to an average of about 1.4-1.5 million PS5s shipping per month in 2021. However, according to September estimates from Sony, approximately 2.4-3.7 per month should land on store shelves between launch and the end of March. So far, that seems to be right on track despite not having reached its goal of shipping 10 million units by year's end.
Although they did not provide the numbers, the sources said Sony would reserve more PS5s for the Asian market beginning January 2021. This move is understandable, considering Japan has been grossly understocked since launch. In the four weeks following its release, Sony only moved 118,000 units in Japan compared a record-setting to 3.4 million in the West.
Of course, take a report from anonymous sources for what it is. Sony has not released production projections for 2021, and even its estimates of shipping 10 million units by the end of 2020 doesn't appear to have panned out. That said, it would be nice to see Sony put the PS5 scalpers out of business with an abundance of stock.
Image credit: Charles Sims