Insiders claim Sony will accelerate PS5 production in 2021 to meet demand

[Cal Jeffrey]

In context: Even though the holiday shopping season is officially over, consumers are still finding it nearly impossible to get their hands on a PlayStation 5 without taking out a second mortgage. Scalpers buying up online stock are driving regular customers to the few brick-and-mortar stores that haven't halted in-store sales. So even trips to local outlets have become fruitless for those who can't get there before the doors open.

If you have been frustrated about not being able to land a PlayStation 5 and refuse to support the scalping community, relief may be on the way. Digitimes reports that Sony is prepared to ship between 16.8 million and 18 million PS5 consoles in 2021. According to "industry sources," TSMC, AMD, and others in Sony's supply chain are ramping up production to meet the high demand.

These numbers equate to an average of about 1.4-1.5 million PS5s shipping per month in 2021. However, according to September estimates from Sony, approximately 2.4-3.7 per month should land on store shelves between launch and the end of March. So far, that seems to be right on track despite not having reached its goal of shipping 10 million units by year's end.

Although they did not provide the numbers, the sources said Sony would reserve more PS5s for the Asian market beginning January 2021. This move is understandable, considering Japan has been grossly understocked since launch. In the four weeks following its release, Sony only moved 118,000 units in Japan compared a record-setting to 3.4 million in the West.

Of course, take a report from anonymous sources for what it is. Sony has not released production projections for 2021, and even its estimates of shipping 10 million units by the end of 2020 doesn't appear to have panned out. That said, it would be nice to see Sony put the PS5 scalpers out of business with an abundance of stock.

Image credit: Charles Sims

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88121-insiders-claim-sony-accelerate-ps5-production-2021-meet.html

 

[sac39507]

People will spend their next covid stimulus checks on this

 

[QuantumPhysics]

People will spend their next covid stimulus checks on this

If only I got one.

I’d have invested all of it in AMD and Logitech at $39

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Christmas is over.

Demand should slowly cool down.

Ain’t no games worth playing on it anyway.

 

[Axiarus]

Christmas is over.

Demand should slowly cool down.

Ain’t no games worth playing on it anyway.

Huh? Demon's Souls, Sackboy, Miles Morales, Ratchet and Clank.

 

[umbala]

So there's demand for a product and the manufacturer will make more of it to meet that demand?! Wow, that is shocking! Glad we have TechSpot to let us know these groundbreaking developments.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Huh? Demon's Souls, Sackboy, Miles Morales, Ratchet and Clank.

Like I said...

Nothing worth playing yet.

 

[Axiarus]

Like I said...

Nothing worth playing yet.

I mean, to you. Those are all really good games.

 

[sac39507]

So there's demand for a product and the manufacturer will make more of it to meet that demand?! Wow, that is shocking! Glad we have TechSpot to let us know these groundbreaking developments.

It's not that obvious. Tell Nvidia that logic

 

[Endymio]

there's demand for a product and the manufacturer will make more of it to meet that demand?!

It's not that obvious. Tell Nvidia that logic.

You realize that NVidia doesn't make gpus or graphics cards, right? They rely on others for that role ... and TSMC is currently pushing wafers as fast as possible.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

"Insiders" discover secret: companies want to sell things for money. Everyone shocked.

 

[Irata]

You realize that NVidia doesn't make gpus or graphics cards, right? They rely on others for that role ... and TSMC is currently pushing wafers as fast as possible.

Nvidia is using Samsung 8nm for consumer Ampere, 7nm TSMC for HPC Ampere and 12nm TSMC for last gen, assuming they still produce some of them. Tegra X1 is afaik made on TSMC 16nm.

There shouldn‘t really be a problem with supply tbh.

Oh, and they do have cards made for them - the FE. Not that any have been available for a long while, but still.

 

[captaincranky]

You can almost see the light bulb glowing atop the Sony CEO's head from here in the US.

 

[Endymio]

Nvidia is using Samsung 8nm for consumer Ampere, 7nm TSMC for HPC Ampere and 12nm TSMC for last gen...There shouldn‘t really be a problem with supply tbh.

My apologies for the brain fart. However, output is just as constrained from Samsung as TSMC -- Samsumg can push more N8 wafers, but their yield is lower. Many industry sources have confirmed the problem, e.g. :

Digitimes: New Nvidia GPU in short supply due to unsatisfactory yield at Samsung

 

[neeyik]

Many industry sources have confirmed the problem, e.g. :

Digitimes: New Nvidia GPU in short supply due to unsatisfactory yield at Samsung

Not really a confirmation, as such, and DigiTimes does have somewhat of a reputation of using the tag 'according to industry sources' to put across their own thoughts.

This isn't to say that Samsung isn't experienced yield issues - the GA102 is an enormous chip and there doesn't seem to have been anything like that scale of processor being made by Samsung on their '10nm' nodes (of which 8N is an enhanced variant).

Even the GA104 isn't especially small (although it is much smaller than the TU104), so if the wafer yields were great, Samsung still isn't going to be able to churn out decent dies at a high rate.

For the RTX 3080/3090, the matter is compounded by only having the one supplier of GDDR6X, though if this was the only issue, then there wouldn't be a shortage of RTX 3070 boards, for example.

Samsung's biggest demand on their '10nm' fabs is from the smartphone industry, especially Qualcomm, so it's perhaps a case that they're finding it difficult to meet all production requirements on those fabs, and not just Nvidia's.

It's also interesting to note that TSMC is struggling to churn out enough Zen 2, Zen 3, small and big Navi chips to meet demand, and the yields of N7 and its variants are generally thought to be pretty good.

 

[Endymio]

It's also interesting to note that TSMC is struggling to churn out enough Zen 2, Zen 3, small and big Navi chips to meet demand

That was essentially my point. Supply problems are at the foundry level, not because NVidia, AMD, Sony, et. al. are intentionally choosing to limit production.

 

[Irata]

It's also interesting to note that TSMC is struggling to churn out enough Zen 2, Zen 3, small and big Navi chips to meet demand, and the yields of N7 and its variants are generally thought to be pretty good.

There are also many products made on TSMC 7nm, Afaik, the iphone SE‘s chip is made on that process, all AMD products and we have the consoles.

The 3.5 Million PS5 SOC mentioned in the article took up quite some volume, then there‘s XBox series S and X....

 

[Hardware Geek]

People will spend their next covid stimulus checks on this

If they can afford it and don't need the money for living expenses, then more power to them. I don't understand the people who are months behind on mortgage or rent payments buying frivolous crap
and expecting the government to bail them out. I know a lot of people who ask me what I'm spending mine on, and they can't understand why I'm not planning to spend it on something other than bills and savings the rest. With the last one I paid off one of the cars.

 

[Lionvibez]

If they can afford it and don't need the money for living expenses, then more power to them. I don't understand the people who are months behind on mortgage or rent payments buying frivolous crap
and expecting the government to bail them out. I know a lot of people who ask me what I'm spending mine on, and they can't understand why I'm not planning to spend it on something other than bills and savings the rest. With the last one I paid off one of the cars.

Sounds like you are a responsible adult the ones you are speaking to not so much.

 

[Hardware Geek]

Sounds like you are a responsible adult the ones you are speaking to not so much.

I've had life kick my *** enough times that I learned the hard way to be more responsible. I'd love to get a ps5 but that's something that can wait, even though I could easily afford it. I still buy frivolous crap from time to time, but only when other expenses are covered and I have extra money available. The priority right now is simply paying down as much debt as possible and hopefully buying a house in a year or two when the market tanks.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Nvidia sells most of the chips directly to miners.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

That was essentially my point. Supply problems are at the foundry level, not because NVidia, AMD, Sony, et. al. are intentionally choosing to limit production.

Its not just foundry level. Shipping much of anything these days is very expensive and prone to delays. The rate for air freight has more then quadrupled in the last year, making air shipments of many things flat out impossible, and there is still a wait list. Ocean transport is backed up and running full capacity.

Then you have the sustained black friday level demand for months on end. The warehouses are emptying out and the demand never ceases. Increasing production right now is out of the question.

If they can afford it and don't need the money for living expenses, then more power to them. I don't understand the people who are months behind on mortgage or rent payments buying frivolous crap
and expecting the government to bail them out. I know a lot of people who ask me what I'm spending mine on, and they can't understand why I'm not planning to spend it on something other than bills and savings the rest. With the last one I paid off one of the cars.

Not to get too political, but they believe the government will bail them out because the government usually does, especially if they are poor already. This is the second stimulus check sent out in 9 months, there's renewd pressure to further the stay on evictions, ece. Just ask a landlord how hard it can be to evict people who dont pay their rent, especially now, and how notoriously hard it is to get back payment.

Granted not many people could have planned for a forced economic shutdown spreading months, but OTOH many people have managed to get through this unaffected or only slightly affected, and those people now have much more leisure time. There's a reason gaming is still exploding in size. Those working in IT, working in grocery stores, management, logistics, skilled trades, ece have had no shortage of work.

 

[sac39507]

If they can afford it and don't need the money for living expenses, then more power to them. I don't understand the people who are months behind on mortgage or rent payments buying frivolous crap
and expecting the government to bail them out. I know a lot of people who ask me what I'm spending mine on, and they can't understand why I'm not planning to spend it on something other than bills and savings the rest. With the last one I paid off one of the cars.

Spending unwisely is probably therapeutic for some. I imagine it helps them cope in these days of Covid. Also, some people are just more responsible adults than others. No logical explanation exists.

 

[Hardware Geek]

Its not just foundry level. Shipping much of anything these days is very expensive and prone to delays. The rate for air freight has more then quadrupled in the last year, making air shipments of many things flat out impossible, and there is still a wait list. Ocean transport is backed up and running full capacity.

Then you have the sustained black friday level demand for months on end. The warehouses are emptying out and the demand never ceases. Increasing production right now is out of the question.

Not to get too political, but they believe the government will bail them out because the government usually does, especially if they are poor already. This is the second stimulus check sent out in 9 months, there's renewd pressure to further the stay on evictions, ece. Just ask a landlord how hard it can be to evict people who dont pay their rent, especially now, and how notoriously hard it is to get back payment.

Granted not many people could have planned for a forced economic shutdown spreading months, but OTOH many people have managed to get through this unaffected or only slightly affected, and those people now have much more leisure time. There's a reason gaming is still exploding in size. Those working in IT, working in grocery stores, management, logistics, skilled trades, ece have had no shortage of work.

I don't want to get political either and do think this is an unprecedented emergency in our lifetimes, but I also agree that there are a lot of people that have been far too reliant on the government expecting them to continue bailing them out. I was briefly laid off at the start of the pandemic, but being in IT I was recalled pretty quickly and was laid off knowing that would be the case. I could have chosen to stay unemployed when I was recalled and technically made a bit more with the federal 600 bonus added to unemployment for a couple more months but knew that wouldn't last and hated being on unemployment in the first place. The people who refused to come back expected to keep getting that money indefinitely and when it stopped were begging to come back. Nope. They were told they weren't needed anymore, and rightly so. As someone who is higher risk than most, I could easily have made a case to stay off, and had the savings to do it even without the extra 600 for a good 6 month, probably longer if I needed to. I do think people need help, but that shouldn't be a disincentive to work if they can. I wasn't late on bills, paid my rent, etc. The eviction moratorium is eventually going to end and we're going to see a massive spike in homeless and foreclosure because there is no way most of the people who are months behind are going to be able to catch up, and even if the stimulus checks get passed again, the people who aren't paying won't spend it on back rent or mortgage payments.

If anything this hopefully teaches people to save more and raises minimum wages to a livable wage because a lot of people who legitimately lost their jobs in food service, retail, etc, were barely getting by as it is and do legitimately need some help but 600/week on top of that is insane. Why they didn't offer incentives to go back to work is beyond me because I think that would have been a far better way to encourage people not to stay on unemployment. So what if you can't get some fancy job right now? If you can work, there are jobs. Too many people feel entitled and think they should be allowed not to work if they can't find a job with the same income they were making before, and are simply refusing to take what they can find. A much smaller enhanced unemployment with rewards for taking a job would be a far better solution in my opinion.