Sony will need a monster holiday season - and then some - to meet PS5 sales goals

Shawn Knight

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The big picture: Sony sold 3.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles during the most recent quarter. That's the same number of systems sold in the year-ago period, suggesting ongoing supply chain challenges and resulting inventory shortages are still impacting Sony's ability to get the PlayStation 5 into the hands of gamers that want it.

It's not uncommon for a new console to be difficult to acquire at launch or during its first holiday season. That's par for the course when it comes to the season's most desirable gifts. What's disheartening about this whole situation is the fact that inventory woes almost always clear up after the holidays and certainly by the following year.

The PlayStation 5 is heading into its third holiday season after launching in November 2020 and things aren't looking much better for prospective buyers that have been patiently playing the waiting game.

A quick check of major retailers including GameStop, Best Buy, Target and Walmart reveal no inventory. Other sites like Newegg have limited stock, but you have to purchase the system as part of a combo that includes extras like gaming monitors or racing wheels to qualify. Amazon's listing shows the system as available by invitation only.

Plenty of systems are available on eBay so long as you are willing to pay a significant premium to bring one home. Most recently sold systems on the auction site command a minimum $200 premium over MSRP. Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist might also be worth checking out, but be weary of scams.

Sony insists that manufacturing conditions are improving. In its quarterly report, the company said it produced more than 6.5 million units during the most recent three-month period. At the midway point of the fiscal year, Sony has sold just 5.7 million PlayStation 5 consoles but said it is still aiming to exceed their FY22 forecast of 18 million units sold. They're going to need a monster holiday season and a solid follow-up quarter to hit that goal.

Image credit: Charles Sims, Tamara Bitter

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"At the midway point of the fiscal year, Sony has sold just 5.7 million PlayStation 5 consoles but said it is still aiming to exceed their FY22 forecast of 18 million units sold"

That would be simple IF Sony would put those units in stock to the end of this month...
 
As presented in the article the scalper situation feels annoying, but it's hard to tell the scale. Is there anyway to know what % of all units sold passed through a scalper first? Is it 0.01%, 0.1%, 1%, 10%, etc?

The fact there's no inventory anywhere other than E-bay could mean it's all passing through E-bay, or that E-bay is the only place stuck with units that won't sell because they're overpriced.
 
After almost 2+ years since the release of the PS5, it is still not readily available unfortunately. I have moved on and got an Xbox Series X which was surprinsgly available I probably won't consider getting another console anytime soon until the next gen comes out (I.e. PS6).
 
Numbers dont add up, there's no stock of these things anywhere and the scalper prices are still present in store. Somethings tells me these are production numbers, not shipped, and that sony is playing games again.
 
Numbers dont add up, there's no stock of these things anywhere and the scalper prices are still present in store. Somethings tells me these are production numbers, not shipped, and that sony is playing games again.

Yeah but that doesn't make sense - see Newsparrow now in XBox camp . If I was starting out - I would definitely go Xbox with game pass - PS exclusives will come to PC now .
Probably the subsidized portion is much less - as old GPUs etc now .
End of day that's a lot of game sales missed out on - Plus PS is as annoying - if you buy disc you either get only get PS4 or PS5 - so that's stupidity there - least digital sales they can give both .

You must look after your base - Sony is failing somewhat - yes most people won't change if heavily invested .
But for newbies Xbox is a no brainer with game pass
 
Sony is just atrocious. They live off their exclusives. Nothing else sells the console. Literally nothing else. They're doing their best to alienate their customers.

They allow you to upgrade the internal storage, which they REDUCED to begin with, from PS4 Pro's 1TB to 800GB, which is great... except for the fact that it only accepts PCI-E 4 SSDs. Really? I can understand that the most demanding PS5 titles will require the v4 speeds, but can't I at least put my PS4 games on a v3 NVMe SSD? No, it won't even boot if you install that. You know what 800GB is enough for? Like 3 AAA games, maybe.

How about BT headphones? Nope. Buy the Sony licensed ones for 2x the price! No A2DP for ya.

How about... cloud saves? Oh, you can buy PS Plus for that! But... Xbox has that for free? Oh, how about USB backups? Well, it was an option on the PS4, but with the PS5, not anymore, too bad!

Add to that all those stupid regional blocks and separate blocks for DLC...

And btw the DualSense isn't compatible with the PS4. Why? Because F U that's why.

How about those "free monthly games" that sometimes you can't even add to your library, only "download and keep it forever"? Yeah except if my 800 GB SSD is full, huh?

Or the minuscule store bandwidth? I have a 1 Gbps line yet it never goes above like 200 Mbps. Those 100G games take FOREVER. Or the pathetic battery life on the DS joys? The fact that they had the nerve to not reduce, but actually increase the price on their TWO YEARS OLD system? Or that random sign of death CE-108255-1 error which they still can't figure out? Or their eternal hatred for crossplay? Or their utter lack of interest in keyboard/mice support?

God I hate them. If it wasn't for TLOU I would've never bought a PS3. Or 4. Or 5. Yes, I really like that game lol.
 
Well if they just made more it wouldn’t be a problem. Can’t even get one at a local store so until then they won’t meet their goal
 
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