Sony says it’s ramping up PS5 production for the holidays

polygon.com:

Sony Interactive Entertainment is hoping it’ll be less of a challenge to get a PlayStation 5 this holiday season, thanks to what it called a “significant improvement” in the supply chain. The company plans to increase its production of PS5 consoles ahead of the holidays, Sony said in its most recent financial earnings report published Friday.

Overall, Sony’s gaming business is down, as game sales were slow while PS5 consoles have been limited in production due to supply chain issues and recurring COVID-19 lockdowns in China. Sony still intends to sell 18 million PS5 consoles in the 2022 fiscal year, and said it’s working to increase supply ahead of the holidays.

“While we stand pat on our projection of selling 18 million units of PS5 this fiscal year, conditions surrounding PlayStation 5 are improving,” chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki said during an investor call, as reported by Bloomberg. “We plan to front-load shipments for the year-end shopping season.”

It’s part of the company’s plan to increase users; more PlayStation 5 consoles means more first-party game installs and increased PlayStation Plus users, according to the financial report.

It’s been hard to get a PlayStation 5 since the console launched in November 2020, and subcultures have built up around finding and securing the high-demand consoles. Restocks have been few and far between, selling out immediately upon notification. Despite short supply, Sony said last year that the PS5 is the company’s fastest-selling console all of time, having sold 10 million consoles in 249 days. The previous record was held by the PlayStation 4, which sold 10 million consoles in 271 days.