Sony to continue PS4 production to ease PS5 stock shortage

pocket-lint.com:

(Pocket-lint) — The struggle to get your hands on a PlayStation 5 has been one that countless people around the world have experienced in just over a year since the console launched — its scarcity has eased only slightly, despite Sony's best efforts.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Sony's got a new plan to try to help with the lack of supply, which will see it continuing to produce PlayStation 4 consoles at a lower cost throughout 2022, instead of winding down the older console's production as it had initially planned.

The global chip shortage and pandemic delays are the two main interwoven causes for shortages of the PS5, each contributing to bottlenecks and production limitations, but the components for the PlayStation 4 are easier to get hold of.

Sony is hoping that by continuing to put out new PS4 units, at prices that are obviously plenty cheaper than the PS5, it can continue to keep gamers in the PlayStation ecosystem, and also use bulk orders of parts for both consoles to secure more materials.

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Bloomberg's source says that Sony had been planning to phase out PS4 production at the end of 2021 before the pandemic struck and rearranged all of its thinking. One likely knock-on effect of all this is that you can expect more cross-generation games in the next couple of years, as developers continue to account for the much larger player-base on PS4 compared to the latest hardware.