PS5 shortages may be coming to an end soon

By Cristina Alexander May 10, 2022

Tired of hitting dead ends trying to acquire the coveted PS5 and working against the bots scalping them in the last 18 months? Here’s some news that may give you a sigh of relief: Sony projects that it will sell 18 million consoles worldwide during this fiscal year, which runs through March 31, 2023 — a sign that the shortage of the PS5 may be coming to an end.

During its latest financial briefing on Tuesday, the company said that the PS5 sales forecast is up about 60% from the 11.5 million consoles it sold during the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2022. That projection is also based on the company’s “current visibility into parts procurement,” or its ability to acquire the components needed to build the PS5, which has been hindered by chip shortages and other supply chain issues wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Sony is confident that the shortages of chips and other parts are improving, CFO Hikori Totoki suggested that the projected PS5 sales number is a conservative one. He commented in a briefing call with investors (translated by VGC) that the PS5 stock is still in very short supply, saying that the company originally planned on producing 22.6 million consoles by this point of the system’s life cycle but reduced the target to 18 million due to component constraints. Even then, he believes that may not be enough to meet high consumer demand.

“18 million units is what we feel very comfortable we can get the parts and components for [during FY22],” Totoki said. “We feel that there is little bit higher demand than that, so if the question is if we can meet the demand, I think we’re still short somewhat.”

Sony sold about 2 million PS5 consoles in the first quarter of 2022, and 19 million overall since its release in November 2020. While 18 million consoles is still low in Totoki’s eyes, that’s enough to save PS5 fans the stress of seeing it getting sold out every time retailers announce stock drops, especially as the company prepares for the launch of the revamped PS Plus, which starts rolling out at the end of May.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Cristina Alexander

Gaming/Mobile Writer

Cristina Alexander has been writing since 2014, from opining about pop culture on her personal blog in college to reporting…

Gaming

Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games

Astro's Playroom booting up on the PlayStation Portal.

Sony has unveiled the price for its upcoming cloud gaming handheld, as well as an official name for the device: PlayStation Portal. However, one significant caveat to its functionality might sour people's interest in the handheld: It only supports PS4 and PS5 native games that the owner purchased.
PlayStation VR2 games can't be streamed to PlayStation Portal, which does make sense. More bafflingly, though, is the fact that the PlayStation Blog post states that "games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming are not supported." That means you shouldn't pick up PlayStation Portal expecting to stream some PS3 and PS4 games available through PlayStation Plus Premium to the device. That's certainly an odd omission when it's currently PlayStation's most notable cloud gaming effort.
Although Microsoft is more closely associated with cloud gaming, Sony beat it to releasing a dedicated cloud gaming device. PlayStation Portal was first teased as Project Q during May's PlayStation showcase, but now, a PlayStation Blog post more clearly explains what we can actually expect from the handheld. Most importantly, we learned that PlayStation Portal will cost $200, which puts it underneath the cost of a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S, and other cloud gaming devices like the Logitech G Cloud Handheld.
As for what you're getting for that price tag, it's essentially a decent screen attached to two halves of a DualSense controller. The controllers on each side share all the functionality of the DualSense, including things like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. In-between is an 8-inch LCD screen that streams games over Wi-Fi at up to a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. All in all, that's fairly solid for a cloud gaming handheld that is this cheap.
Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will have a 3.5mm audio jack, but also used the same blog post to unveil two new wireless audio options. There's the Pulse Elite wireless headset that features a retractable boom mic and a charging hanger and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds that offer similar audio quality in earbud form.
None of these products are available for preorder or have a specific release date just yet, but they are all expected to launch before the end of the year.

Gaming

PlayStation 5 Slim: All rumors and speculation

A PS5 stands on a table.

It's at around this point in a console's life cycle that companies like to release a new, slim model to reinvigorate sales, cut costs, and experiment with a new design. Sony has been trimming down its home consoles since the PS2, with each home console getting a slimmer, sometimes cheaper replacement a few years after launch. We're closing in on the PlayStation 5's third birthday and rumors abound about both a PS5 Pro and a PS5 Slim model, and yet Sony's remained tight-lipped about any iterations on the base unit. Still, some of these rumors and potential leaks may hold some weight and are fun to follow regardless to see how accurate they end up being.
Will there be a PS5 Slim? Here's what we know
Before getting into the rumors and leaks, know that until Sony itself confirms the existence of a PS5 Slim, everything that follows is speculative and should be taken as such.

The first rumors of a new PS5 model centered around a diskless version that could be paired with a detachable disk drive you could buy separately in another step away from physical media. This was speculated to be coming out sometime in fall 2023, but has been rolled into the idea of the PS5 Slim. This potentially imminent release date also lines up with statements Microsoft made about a new PS5 Slim releasing this year for $400 during the Federal Trace Commission (FTC) hearing.

Gaming

Netflix games may be coming to TVs soon, as revealed by new iOS app

Selecting a game in Netflix Games.

It looks like Netflix might be expanding its gaming offerings to TVs soon, as a Netflix Game Controller is now on the iOS App Store. Netflix has yet to announce or comment on the purpose of the app, but a message shown when the app boots up confirms that it's coming.
Netflix has slowly made its way into the gaming industry over the past couple of years, acquiring studios and adding a dedicated game section to its mobile app that lets players download premium mobile games. The library includes some great games like Poinpy and Before Your Eyes, but has yet to break into the mainstream, likely due to its somewhat obscure availability. This new app, which was preemptively listed on Apple's storefront by Netflix and lines up with leaks from earlier this year, indicates that Netflix Games are coming to the TV.
The description for the app states that "this Game Controller app pairs with your TV and allows you to play games on Netflix using your phone or mobile device." After downloading and booting up the app, Digital Trends discovered two more messages asking players to "choose a game on your TV and follow the directions to connect" and that "Netflix Games on TV are in beta. Some devices may not be supported at this time."
All of this points to an impending beta rollout for games on Netflix's TV apps, which has not been announced yet. As such, we don't have any idea about which televisions or games the iOS app or Netflix Games on TV will support just yet. Regardless, this looks like a massive evolution for Netflix's gaming efforts, especially as it gears up to release a cloud gaming service.
Netflix declined to comment on the program when asked by Digital Trends, but it did refer us to previous statements it made about its intentions to break into cloud and TV game streaming.