Sony is Struggling with PS5 Supply

Sony shipped 3.9 million PlayStation 5 consoles in its all-important holiday quarter, a slight bump over the previous quarter’s figure of 3.3 million. It shows how the company is still struggling to meet demand during the ongoing global supply chain crunch.

Nearly 17.3 million units in total have been shipped as of December 31st, almost three million fewer than the PlayStation 4 had managed at the equivalent point after its release. The PS4, however, was easily found on store shelves during its first year on sale, whereas we don’t yet have a good measure of true demand for the PS5.

The gaming division’s revenue was down 8 percent year on year at $7.09 billion, but operating profit rose 12.1% to $810 million). That’s what you’d expect a year removed from a major console launch. Sony still can’t make enough loss-making PS5 hardware, but that positively affects the bottom line this early into the product’s life cycle.

PlayStation is now Sony most important individual division, accounting for more than a quarter of its overall revenue and almost a quarter of its operating profit. Sony has revised its full-year 2021 gaming revenue forecast down by 6 percent to 2.73 trillion yen because of lower than expected PS5 sales, indicating its supply challenges will continue for the short term at least. The operating profit forecast has been increased 6 percent to 345 billion yen accordingly. Full-year PS5 shipments are now expected to reach 11.5 million units, down from 14.8 million.