Sony will continue to produce its PlayStation 4, released at the end of 2013, this year again. If the Japanese giant had not formalized the end of production of its previous generation home console, some sources at its suppliers told Bloomberg that the original plan was to stop manufacturing at the end of 2021.
Nevertheless, faced with the difficulties to produce enough PlayStation 5, since the release of the new console in November 2020, Sony has changed its mind and granted an additional year to its PS4.
Better still, his plans would be to produce a million more PlayStation 4s this year to make up for the lack of a PS5 on the market. This forecast will be revised upwards or downwards depending on demand.
For Sony, this is a way to offer a cheaper console – but admittedly more at the end of its life – which is also less expensive and easier to produce. A good way to be present on the market and in store fronts, but also to continue to occupy the production chains and therefore to have more weight when negotiating with its partners.
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The original plan, as explained by Jim Ryan, the boss of the PlayStation division, was to quickly move players from the PS4 to the PS5. It is therefore postponed for the moment. The pandemic is the main culprit. It has slowed down both production of the components needed to assemble the PS5s – especially components for audio, power management, and wireless communications – and game development that take advantage of them.
The recent announcement ofa virtual reality headset exclusive to PlayStation 5 is therefore more to be taken as preparation for a recovery yet to come. Perhaps by the end of 2022, if the pandemic subsides …
Source : Bloomberg