Sony Plans Limited PlayStation 5 Output in First Year

Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. plans to produce far fewer units of its upcoming PlayStation 5 in its first year than it had for the previous-generation console’s launch, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Tokyo-based tech giant is limiting its initial production run in part because it expects the PS5’s ambitious specs to weigh on demand by leading to a high price at launch, the people said, asking not to be identified because the subject is private. The global Covid-19 pandemic has affected Sony’s promotional plans for the new device but not its production capacity, they added.

The company has told assembly partners it would make 5 to 6 million units of the PS5 in the fiscal year ending March 2021, according to other people involved in the machine’s supply chain. When Sony released the PlayStation 4 in November 2013, it sold 7.5 million units in its first two quarters.

The PS5’s loftier price tag may also deter initial take-up. Game developers who’ve been creating titles for the next PlayStation anticipate its price to be in the region of $499 to $549, and Bloomberg Intelligence’s Matthew Kanterman points to increased component costs pushing up the price required for Sony to break even. Sony has struggled with its price-setting decision for the PS5 because of scarce components, Bloomberg News has reported.

A Sony spokesman declined to comment. Its shares were largely unchanged in afternoon trade.

Read more: Sony Is Struggling With PlayStation 5 Price Due to Costly Parts

Sony’s strategy, according to several people familiar with its plans, will be to rely on incumbent PlayStation 4 models as a bridge to get new users onto the PlayStation platform’s network services while the PS5 remains in limited supply, the people said.

Currently, Sony sells the PS4 for $300 and the higher-end PS4 Pro for $400. The company may cut these prices around the time of the PS5 launch to stimulate new subscribers for the PlayStation Plus membership program and PlayStation Now game-streaming service, the people said. Sony’s Chief Executive Officer Kenichiro Yoshida has said the company will aim to increase recurring revenue rather than one-time hardware purchases.

The PS5 production volume could still change depending on the Covid-19 situation, the people said. Sony has asked employees to work from home to mitigate the spread of the virus, and its board has been unable to meet to approve business plans for the current fiscal year, including those for the PlayStation unit. That meeting was originally supposed to take place in March.

Sony said last month that it plans to release results for the year ended March on April 30 but may be forced to push the date back due to the pandemic.

The virus has already upended Sony’s promotional plans. The company may forgo hosting a public press conference for its PS5 release date and price unveiling due to infection fears. Recently, it was forced to reveal its DualSense PS5 controller in a hurried fashion, according to people informed on the matter.

While only a small circle within Sony are privy to the appearance of the PS5 console, the controller has been shared with outside developers and the company feared it couldn’t control leaks, they said.

Still, Sony remains unlikely to delay the launch of the PS5 from the critical year-end shopping season. So long as archrival Microsoft Corp. doesn’t push back the release of its next-generation Xbox, also expected at the end of the year, Sony won’t delay either, the people said. Some analysts believe the close contest for attention between the PlayStation and Xbox, especially in the U.S., may force both companies to sell their new consoles at a loss.

“I think both the PS5 and Xbox Series X may end up at US$450 even though they would lose money at that price,” said Damian Thong, an analyst at Macquarie Capital.

Suppliers have started delivering components to PS5 assemblers, who are scheduled to begin mass-producing the product by June. Sony’s PlayStation chief Jim Ryan has stressed that the machine’s launch should be simultaneous around the globe, according to people in the company’s supply chain.

Read more: Gaming Boom Hides Struggle to Create New Hits in Isolation

Covid-19 travel restrictions have prevented Sony engineers from flying to China to direct final adjustments before assembly plants go into mass production. Sony’s assembly partner had voiced concern last month about meeting the production deadline, however those worries have since abated and it should now be able to meet Sony’s requested schedule, people familiar with the discussions said.

On the software front, Sony has publicly warned that the Covid-19 pandemic may affect the game production pipeline for titles destined for its next console, which is a problem the entire industry is grappling with.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/sony-plans-limited-playstation-5-042000649.html

Imagine the system being much harder to produce and cost more just because of a ****** SSD. What a dumb design.

@hardwenzen: I'll take completely seamless worlds anyday. And devs have all said the design is revolutionary.

The first cow damage control is in LOL.

Both machines are capable of “seamless worlds” pal. or Do you not understand how SSD’s work?

@BlackShirt20 said:

@r-gamer said:

@hardwenzen: I'll take completely seamless worlds anyday. And devs have all said the design is revolutionary.

Both machines are capable of “seamless worlds” pal. or Do you not understand how SSD’s work?

Please, explain to me how ssd's work. I was thinking of buying another one to SLI in my pc. Let me know how many frames i'll be getting, bud.

Stuff is loaded from your SSD (or HDD) into your graphics memory. In order to play a game.

The faster an SSD is, the less time you'll spend looking at a loading screen.

Remember playing gears of war? Or early UE3.0 games?

You'd have loaded the game and you'd still see these muddy textures on everything, until proper high resolution ones were loaded. That's a visualisation of what is happening.

Does this mean no heavy hitting exclusive at launch and more cross gen?

Good thing they're not doing cross-gen exclusives, that way all 7 people who buy a PS5 can play those revolutionary next gen titles.

I’m expecting $499 and I’d gladly pay for it.

Ambitious specs? 😂😂

How about $599?

I'm aware of the loading screens being faster, but you don't need the kind of ssd's Sony has in their ps5. You're not getting higher frames, higher resolution, better physics, better ai or anything that is important. They blew a lot of their ps5 budget on a damn ssd instead of higher speced gpu or cpu, the things that actually matter most.

And yes, i do remember textures taking half a year to load on the ps360 (something that is still happening with UE4 on current gen. FF7R as the latest example), but again, you don't need the speed of the ps5 ssd for those textures to load quickly. Off the shelf Samsung ssd will be just fine, and cheap. If their budget went into better cpu/gpu instead of that ssd, the ps5 would've been as powerful or more powerful than the xsx.

People seriously can't be this dumb. The Switch is currently having shortages, global manufacturing output is at its lowest in decades, due to Covid-19. Both the PS5 and Series X will be in limited in supplies. It isn't rocket science.

If anything, it tells me both Microsoft and Sony simply don't want to wait until 2021 to launch for some reason and want to get both consoles out even if the numbers aren't there.

Wouldn't be surprised if both consoles go for 1k on ebay this holiday season.

Poo cows, they just can't seem to catch a break these dazz. :P

"The global Covid-19 pandemic has affected Sony’s promotional plans for the new device but not its production capacity, they added."

"Covid-19 travel restrictions have prevented Sony engineers from flying to China to direct final adjustments before assembly plants go into mass production, they added."

They can't even begin to mass produce the product, hence why output is low. Production hasn't even begun. Reading comprehension.

Still much cheaper than the alternative of magnitudes of times more expensive memory. The SSD is their to offset that cost.

Ah well, we all know that consoles are slowly dying so it's not surprising.

Feels like anything could happen this crazy year. If Sony goes for a more soft transition, with lots of crossgen titles, that kind of negates all benefits of the new SSD except the reduction of loadtimes.

@SecretPolice said:

Poo cows, they just can't seem to catch a break these dazz. :P

Amazingly it looks like the cows were just fine ;)!

"The global Covid-19 pandemic has affected Sony’s promotional plans for the new device but not its production capacity, they added."

"Covid-19 travel restrictions have prevented Sony engineers from flying to China to direct final adjustments before assembly plants go into mass production, they added."

@Pedro: $599 sure. I'd rather pay $999 for a premium console. Like two SKUs.

a $499 PS5 for broke people and then a PS5 Pro simultaneous launch for $800-1000.

Only difference between the two being the resolution/frame rates.

Keep the base PS5 at 3K/30 or 2K/60

PS5 Pro runs same graphics at 4K/30 or 3K/60 or 2K/120 even.

@virusvaccine21: " ...but not its production capacity, they added."

"...Covid-19 travel restrictions have prevented Sony engineers..."

If you want to commit suicide as a company, then release a console for 999 and see what happens.

I get what you are saying, there is a cheaper option for those who want it, but still.

Consoles are sold at a loss (or as close to it). With profits being made on the games, licenses, accesoires, online services, etc...

@virusvaccine21: Production capacity remains untouched. Sorry that your initial claim was wrong. :(

@Sushiglutton said:

Feels like anything could happen this crazy year. If Sony goes for a more soft transition, with lots of crossgen titles, that kind of negates all benefits of the new SSD except the reduction of loadtimes.

@SecretPolice said:

Poo cows, they just can't seem to catch a break these dazz. :P

Amazingly it looks like the cows were just fine ;)!

They do seem to almost enjoy being rekt on a "Daily" basis. lol Gluttons for punishment, they are..

lol :P

Except that they can't even commence production and have been unable, due to Covid-19. My claim pretty much holds true. :)

Production isn't the issues, the shipping and retail logistics are.

Hmm. I don't know. I would think Sony didn't learn their lesson from the PS3 launch. I wouldn't take it off the table, but I'd have to be pretty excited.

I believe i read on Bloomberg it costs 450 to make one PS5. PS3 was 800 and they sold it for 600 which was a big loss 200 $. Now with that tariffs stuff in place idk PS 5 might be 500$ but i hope they are aiming for 400 it’s a day one for me depending on what games they release the have some good exclusive XSX still not sure all they talk is about power

@i_p_daily:

SI my point? You didn't even make an argument just a stupid post,and this is basically what your posting here is all about.

wow you have no idea what sony did with there ssd. they didn't just throw and ssd in there system. its not just for loading. its designed not like a pc is until next year when it comes to the market. it was designed to take the load off of the gpu and cpu. imagine the ssd so fast that it loads in the screen your on and once you turn your character or car or what ever the ssd streams while your playing. meaning you don't need the whole world loading in at once just the screen your looking at on then you turn it loads that screen. lol its hard to explain in words. but you can add more detail in that one screen at a time. 9.9 gigs every .8 of a second. while series x only 2.2 or something of compressed data per second.

$500 price is expected. 

Limited production capacity due to pandemic is expected. 

That said, I'm taking this news with a grain of salt until Sony confirms. 

I've been saving since the start of the year. I'm not worried about the cost. I want to see when the system is expected to launch and what games will be at launch. If it doesn't have next gen exclusive games, then there's no point in buying the next gen system at launch.

Anyone who think sony will have problems yet MS will not is simple day dreaming,is like saying Sony is facing problems with price because nand,flash and dram prices has increase,as if the damn series X didn't use those components.

Another cow reporting for DC duty lol.

Good luck getting one, should be going on Ebay for a $1000 upon launch LOL.

@i_p_daily:

There is no DC,nothing you say here will change the fate of the Xbox.

@tormentos: That high speed PCIE 4.0 SSD you keep praising is also more expensive. Seems Sony is using Samsung's rumored 980 Evo. Impressive if true, but expensive.

I think that might be contributing to the price and production difficulties also. MS went with a cheaper, more readily available (but slower) drive. Also, going for such a high clock speed means they will need higher binned silicon, which is also more expensive.

Not to say that it will hurt PS5 overall sales, but just because they both used similar parts doesnt mean Xbox (or any AMD client or memory partner) would be affected.

Sony's needs are unique

@navyguy21:

Yes but MS had a wider bus faster dram and a much bigger GPU.

The so call cause for the price increase was Nand FLASH AND Dram prices increase that will affect the Xbox period there is no way around it.

It was kinda tough to find a PS4 at launch. I preordered and went to the midnight launch and there were still over 50 people in line for the leftovers. And that was at a GameStop. Will GameStop still be around when the PS5 launches? I hope y’all are ready for eBay scalpers. This plays right into their hands.

Cows getting emotional over their gaming machine again

Bless

HAH

@bluestars:

Kinglemmings all the thread was missing🤣

@tormentos: 2 different arguments. Price vs production.

They could both be $500 and one have a more limited production because of chosen parts.

This has been the same for literally decades, and why higher binned GPUs and CPUs are more expensive.

With Turing, Nvidia kept all of the higher binned parts for the reference units and partners get leftovers. Early on, there was a shortage of reference cards but board partners were unaffected.

Different arguments.

Sony will be fine but it is what it is dude.

No need to damage control, Sony will still sell more units

@navyguy21:

I am not damage controlling is impossible to claim Sony has problems with prices when Nand flash and Dram are also on the Xbox,and this 2 companies basically buy from the same people and even manufacture using the same factories much of the times.

That without getting into an argument that is easier to get a 36CU working GPU than a 52CU GPU do to yields.

Again wider bus faster chips all that cost more.

@tormentos:

Real emotions towards technology,Priceless HAH

@bluestars:

Well us not me making multiple account to defend a piece of plastic kinglemming.

@tormentos: Seems like you're ignoring my points on purpose?

Why argue what they have in common when my point is the things that the dont?

No one is claiming nand shortages and they wouldn't be as Chinas production is coming back online. The only point being made is the particular nand and speed Sony needs, not nand in general.

If nand was in short supply overall, you'd have a point....but it's not.

There are currently no NVME drives on the market that meets Sony specs, the only ones coming are from Samsung....who ARE having production problems .

Again, you are assuming a lot rather than relying on known information. Sony and MS have very different needs while using similar parts