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Unconfirmed reports seem to imply that Sony's having some issues with its custom chip manufacturing process, leading the company to reduce their PlayStation 5 console production by up to 4 million units for the coming fiscal year.
That's according to a report from Bloomberg (as picked up by VG24/7) that cites manufacturing sources as telling them that production yields for the upcoming console's primary SoC (System on Chip) are as low as 50% resulting in Sony having to lower their forecast to 11 million units, down from 15 million units by the end of March 2021.
Multiple factors are said to be behind the reported issues, not least the global COVID-19 pandemic, and though things are apparently improving, it's said that they're not quite at the level Sony would like to produce the number of consoles it originally forecast. Analyst Daniel Ahmad claims via Twitter that Sony will use air freight to ensure that the PlayStation 5 can meet the demand and supply enough units.
It's important to point out that chip shortages are nothing new, and this news doesn't necessarily mean it'll be very hard to get a PlayStation 5 at launch though. It was only back in July when Sony alledgedly upped their original production targets from 6 million consoles up to 10 million consoles by the end of the year.
As for the PlayStation 5 itself, we're still waiting to hear an official launch date and price, but a PlayStation 5 Showcase has been announced for tomorrow evening at 9pm UK time, so we expect to find that information out then.
As I noted earlier today, Sony will use Air Freight to meet demand this holiday and ship as many units as possible in the launch period.
Production of PS5 started in July this year.
The full thread has additional details and answers to questions. https://t.co/ZJaBqhB1hN
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) September 15, 2020
