Sony to produce more PS4 consoles throughout 2022 – report
Sony will reportedly produce more PlayStation 4 consoles this year in a bid to fill the scarce supply of its flagship PlayStation 5 console.
As reported by Bloomberg, the Japanese gaming company, according to sources, told assembly partners in 2021 that it would continue producing PlayStation 4 consoles throughout 2022.
Bloomberg said that although there's no official announcement that the company would discontinue the PlayStation 4, sources said that "it had previously planned to discontinue assembly at the end of 2021"
The report claimed that the company’s strategy “would add about a million PS4 units this year to help offset some of the pressure on the company’s PS5 production, a figure that will be adjusted in response to demand.”
People familiar with the matter also claimed that adding the more “cheaper-to-make” PlayStation 4 “would also give Sony more leeway when negotiating with manufacturing partners for a better deal.”
According to Bloomberg, a spokesperson from Sony confirmed that the PlayStation 4 production would continue this year, adding that there’s no plan to discontinue its production.
“It is one of the best-selling consoles ever and there is always crossover between generations,” the spokesperson said.
In January 2021, Japanese gaming news outlet GameWatch reported that Sony Interactive Entertainment discontinued the production of the PS4 Slim (CUH-2000 series) and the top-spec PS4 Pro (CUH-7000 series) while the original PS4 (CUH-1000 series) model is already out of production.
“In addition, the white (Glacial White) model, which is popular in both the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro series, and the large-capacity 1TB model will disappear as long as they are in stock,” it said.
The only PS4 that will reportedly remain in production is the Jet Black 500GB model.
The report said the termination of the PS4 roster is aimed to boost the production of the PlayStation 5, which continues to be in short supply since its launch in Nov. 2020.
The media outfit earlier reported that an official from the company said that the stock situation of PlayStation 5 may not stabilize at least until 2022 as the demand for the console continues to surge worldwide.
“I don’t think demand is calming down this year and even if we secure a lot more devices and produce many more units of the PlayStation 5 next year, our supply wouldn’t be able to catch up with demand,” chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki reportedly said at a briefing.
The PlayStation 5 has been in short supply ever since it was launched almost two years ago. The stock situation has been attributed to the global shortage of semiconductors, which hampered the production of several game consoles.