Sony denies production issues with PS5 release

By Jon Silman September 15, 2020

Sony has denied that it’s dealing with issues tied to the manufacturing of its upcoming PlayStation 5 console, refuting a recent story by Bloomberg.

“While we do not release details related to manufacturing, the information provided by Bloomberg is false,” a Sony spokesperson told Digital Trends. “We have not changed the production number for PlayStation 5 since the start of mass production.”

Bloomberg reported that Sony cut PS5 production numbers to 11 million, down from 15 million. The news outlet said that the company was dealing with production issues tied to its system-on-chip for the console, which is custom-made.

There was also reportedly an issue with production yields, a metric that is used to figure out how many of the produced units are good to ship versus defective ones. Those yields were reportedly at 50%, which is below average. That number was improving, however, and Bloomberg said that the low-yield numbers were “only an estimate and could be revised again before the end of the fiscal year in March 2021.”

The supposed production snag wasn’t expected to impact the sales of the system during its initial months of release but would instead become more pronounced in 2021 based on demand and how Sony handled its production yields.

Sony’s shares dipped 2.4% on the news, Bloomberg said, to the lowest level since July.

While Sony has yet to reveal a price or actual release date for its upcoming console, it’s hosting a showcase for the system on September 16, where the company is expected to announce those details. Pre-orders for the new console started last month.

The stakes are high for Sony because rival Microsoft is releasing a new console of its own, the Xbox Series X and Series S. Those will release on November 10. The Series X will cost $500, and the Series S will cost $300.

The new consoles will usher in the next generation of console gaming, with the PS5 offering 8K gaming and 4K gaming at 120Hz through an eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU, 825GB of SSD storage, and a custom AMD RDNA 2-based GPU. Altogether, the system is capable of producing 10.28 teraflops of power, which almost doubles the power of the PS4 Pro, at 4.2 teraflops.

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