stocks are decreasing, PS4 production is back on track

It’s been more than a year since the PS5, the latest generation console from Sony, made a sensational entry into the market. Introducing, with Microsoft’s consoles, the ninth generation, it has above all witnessed the shortage of electronic components, affecting the entire IT industry since the start of the health crisis. Today Sony is so short of options that the manufacturer is relaunching PS4 production.

The old-gen console was originally scheduled to stop production at the end of 2021, according to rumors. However, Sony is still faced with the same observation: stocks are lacking, and sometimes even decreasing depending on the time of year. So there is not enough for everyone. Bloomberg, which has just published a new report, therefore declares that the production of PS4 should be maintained for yet another year, which should provide us with around a million consoles.

Why can Sony produce PS4s and not PS5s?

This is the question that a large part of players, still waiting for their latest generation console, could ask themselves. The PS4 is simply made up of less rare components, and therefore much easier to find. It must be said that since 2013, when the console was released, performance standards have evolved and the components of the PS4 have become much less popular than those of the PS5 today.

It is therefore easier and cheaper to produce these consoles for Sony., than to fight with the suppliers, the carriers and all the beautiful people necessary to the manufacture of a console, to have some additional PS5, even when the market is completely blocked. Sony is therefore hoping that gamers will turn to a PS4 rather than a competing brand console, such as the Nintendo Switch or Xbox Series X / S. The latter are also prone to the shortage of components, although the Xbox Series S is now much easier to find.

A reported discontinuity

Sony also confessed that while the production pace of the PS4s has dropped significantly, it shouldn’t be discontinued for a while. While the production plan is relaunched each year, it can be noted that older generation consoles often take several years after the release of the new generation before their production is completely stopped: 7 years for the PS2 and 4 years for the PS3. Knowing that the PS4 is one of the brand’s bestsellers, we may see it around for a while.