In a bid to deal with the ongoing shortage that has left players the world over unable to get their hands on the PlayStation 5, Sony has allegedly decided to produce more PlayStation 4’s than the company had initially planned to. This decision was made with the intention to “fill the supply vacuum and keep gamers within the PlayStation ecosystem.”
As reported by Bloomberg, sources have stated that Sony has spoken with assembly partners, telling them that they planned to produce more PlayStation 4’s through 2022 than were initially planned for. This plan was made despite Sony’s initial intention to “discontinue assembly at the end of 2021.” This plan will add around one million PS4’s to their manufacturing to offset the companies current inability to meet consumer demand for Ps5’s due to an ongoing chip shortage affecting tech the world over.
This strategy could be adjusted moving forward based on the demand for the prior generation of consoles. The decision to do this was reached due to the fact that “the older console uses less advanced chips, is simpler to make and provides a budget-friendly alternative to the PS5.” This move also appears to give Sony “more leeway when negotiating with manufacturing partners for a better deal.”
Sony has confirmed to Bloomberg that it indeed plans to continue production of the PS4 through 2021, denying that it had previously planned to discontinue the system. They did not state if a large number of systems were added to the plans to manufacture.
Currently, the big titles for PlayStation are planned for release across both generations, including, Sifu, Horizon: Forbidden West, Gran Tourism 7, and God of War: Ragnarok to name a few. This seems to be a stable plan through to the end of 2022, though this is most likely the year we will also see a lot of developers leaving the PlayStation 4 behind.
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Includes several titles.
Which was showcased at E3 2003.